Adult's mini-LP
Nausea, released on their own Ersatz Audio imprint, finds Adam Equation, aka Adam Lee Miller, and Nicola Kuperus exploring new territory within their already tight-knit aesthetic vision. In previous works, they have ventured into (and reconstructed) the unfriendly world of modern design, examining the broken link between human and machine involvement, and the illusion of safety prevalent in all machine use. But
Nausea takes a somewhat different direction, delving into, as the title may suggest, a series of phobias that bear the potential to plague us infinitely. Kuperus' own austerely posed photograph of a gloved, misophobic (a term gleaned from the record's liner notes) female hand, compliments the record sleeve and helps to uphold the label's harsh minimal aesthetic. Musically,
Nausea reveals Miller and Kuperus' new found dedication to melody that, while not entirely absent from earlier tracks, brings them a bit further away from their more esoteric electro beginnings. The concentration on melodious synths, rather than the artificial beat of drum boxes, also indicates a bit of a thematic shift for the duo, but they remain cold and detached, illustrated wonderfully by Kuperus' heavily manipulated vocals. An incredible addition to the highly-stylized and highly-realized
Adult catalog.