Once upon a time, when an album was dominated by electronics, it meant the music was clean, orderly, and sterile. For good or ill, those days are gone for good, and
Nice Face demonstrates just how raw and skuzzy a bunch of synthesizers can sound on its second full-length album,
Horizon Fires.
Nice Face (which is the group alias for musician and songwriter Ian Magee) doesn't do away with guitars entirely on this album -- a six-string steps to the forefront on cuts like "Equipped" and "Rollover" -- but they're just another ingredient in this mass of primordial ooze alongside banks of cheap keyboards and outdated drum machines, and in the tradition of spiritual forefathers such as the Screamers and
Wall of Voodoo, this isn't some variation on synth pop, but rock & roll that's dark, ominous, and bruising in its impact, regardless of its electronic source. If there's a familiar point of reference to electronic music's history on
Horizon Fires, it's the cheap but effectively creepy scores that accompanied low-budget straight-to-VHS horror movies in the 1970s and '80s, but Magee doesn't seem to be aiming for camp or nostalgia. Instead, he summons forth a wall of Casios from the lower depths, and paired with his aggressive, fuzzy guitar work and some full-force vocal bellow, this is the stuff of a rock & roll nightmare, and all the more powerful for its distinctive, evocative approach. There's not much of a sense of liberating fun on
Horizon Fires, but if you're looking for the perfect soundtrack for those days when you wish you could make things explode with the power of your mind,
Nice Face has made just the album for you. ~ Mark Deming