Search - Pain Station :: Disjointed

A little bit of everything makes it onto this disc, the sophomore release of Pain Station, a.k.a. Scott Sturgis. In places, he seems to share the very American approach to industrial music favored by bands like Index and Heavy Water Factory: dense, dark compositions laced with keyboard squelches, samples, and distorted vocals alternately whined, whispered, and shrieked. In other places, he strips down the mix, evoking a sound closer in spirit to the cold minimalism of European electro bands like Dive or Suicide Commando. In still other places, we get hints of Skinny Puppy or perhaps a more adventurous Nine Inch Nails. What we don't get is a record meant for the clubs--the beats per minute are kept to a relative crawl, and the emphasis is really on the more cinematic aspects of the mix than the rhythm programming. That's refreshing, and Sturgis pulls it off quite well on Disjointed, using a cleaner, less muddled production that emulsifies the disparate elements in the songs. Standout tracks include the gloomy sultriness of "Martyr," the deceptively simple programming of "Flatline," and the sweeping faux strings of "Solitude." --Steve Landau