Style: industrial
Label: Synthellec Music
Year: 2010
Home: New York City
Members: Shikhee ~ guitar/vocals
Christopher Jon ~ synth
Bret Calder ~ bass
James Light, Steve Kefalas ~ guitar
Additional: Nathaniel Johnstone ~ violin
Jerome Dillon, Anthony Baldino ~ remix
From electronic beats to sound effects found in NYC subway stations to Marilyn Manson-esque rhythms torn down to their barest & most sparse form with a mourning voice that sounds like its trying to sing in between moments of agony ... that's the first description of Android Lust that comes to mind with the opening track "Intimate Stranger". Further, I can honestly say that I loved what I heard when I first discovered Android Lust months ago & requested a promo to review to still loving it months later. This industrial rock outing, primarily a one-woman force, might not be a household name but should be in the ipod of every goth & industrial fan. With a fourth studio release Android Lust have fashioned an understated industrial mix that aims for the more ballady seductive side of the genre as hypnotic as when Trent Reznor whispers on Nine Inch Nails'
Pretty Hate Machine only to then jump like a cat. Also, like Reznor, singer/songwriter Shikhee has fashioned a journey through her psyche. Though it has moments of distorted electric guitars running through each song (for example, "Intimate Stranger", "Saint Over", "God In The Hole", "Into The Sun") Shikhee keeps it reserved & doesn't fall into creating a guitar onslaught, going for slow melodic movements & intense hypnotic arrangements of synths & beats over speed, fury or energy or guitar-driven rock. It's a great defying of expectations. Albeit, the big difference between NIN & Android Lust is that NIN clearly sounds like a man in a fit of angst. While Shikhee's music & lyrics reminds me of the female android in the wonderful 1927 film
Metropolis - playful & alluring but yet slightly wicked or least considering the potential of such while emotionally a bit reserved. A cold steel android is a lot scarier than hot human anger. One is unpredictable while one cools down. It also helps that the android is one of the sexiest to ever grace a movie screen & the music of Android Lust is ... well, for the right folks this is good foreplay music. Yet, there's an organic feel to the album as it never goes completely electronic or industrial. I'm reminded of the later releases by David Bowie such as
Heathen for comparison. Cold & clinical but yet human. Keeping a warmth to the music is often lost in this genre, realizing that the real emotion of the music is the stark human warmth crawling underneath the electronic beats. & the Nine Inch Nails comparison isn't off, though that was my feeling before looking at the album, as the final track is a ghostly remix of "God In The Hole" by former NIN member Jerome Dillon. Shikhee knows what she sounds like, but while Reznor went off into audio onslaughts she still knows that the magic is in being subtle.
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