park zero - Proxy

LOVERS TORTURED IN THE ROBOTIC UPRISING

park zero's Proxy is demanding. It invades the senses, abuses them in a way that's both aggressive and stimulating. Similarities are drawn to Fuck Buttons, in the sense that power secretes pattern. Noise is used not as a tool to petrify, but rather as a stun gun aimed at electrifying. It's dance music, thinly disguised as torture sequences set to chainsaws, battering rams, and cries from maddened prisoners. park zero straddles this line confidently, never falling into tropes that often arise from Power Noise, never resting on laurels that come from high-intensity EBM. Unnatural rhythms break up the monotony of Drum N' Bass ('Fuzz Funk'), while samples shredded beyond comprehension incise the brain fold into inducing memories once revered, now repulsed ('Longest Night'). Proxy's a mental workout, tantalizing the pleasure principles while heightening the senses for what lurks around the bend.

Nowhere is that executed better than in the stunning nine-minute opener 'Could You Love Me Now?' An exodus of dystopian futurism, rife with stifled panic, micro-compressed heartbeats, and lost romance. The vocals and namely their topic of love, consumed by the void, works as a perfect palatial match for something so grotesque, brutal, and frankly abusive. There is no escape in park zero's crafted world, as tectonic bass thumps endlessly behind blender blades and graphic malfunctions. Yet its success arises in the hope; the strength of movement, of persistence, of desire. In spite of these gargantuan confines, the singer fights onwards, bringing with her a feverish appetite that never fails to relent. This comes in the form of 120 BPMs.

That being said, by album's end, the tonal draft changes dramatically. Presumably lost in abyssal fragments, the final two convention songs ('Death From Above,' 'East Of Eden') feature zero vocals, or presence of humanity. On the former, a somber beat marks this absence. But on the latter, a celebration of automation perseverates. It spits in the face of 'Could You Love Me Now?,' matching the energy and bullheadedness, without the pestering little human finding their way in. In theory, 'East Of Eden' boasts as Proxy's closer, for if we're to take this concept further, the ten-minute 'Funeral Song' concludes this affray devoid of consternation, movement, and antagonism. It is merely decay, a rotting corpse of a human fell by machine. Without the frantic Death Industrial elements, the dread and misery draws a comparison to Uboa. Lying on her deathbed, tethered to machinery. With no tempo to entice towards ascension. 'Funeral Song' stands in contrast to Proxy, and for good reason. It's a cleansing edifice, an extreme contending against an album of extremes.