Producer and composer
Guillermo Scott Herren
has often taken his
Prefuse 73
moniker on diversions away from the glitchy electronic hip-hop that he pioneered on his earliest albums. His two-volume album series
New Strategies for Modern Crime
is one of the best of these diversions, using a mix of shadowy live instrumentation and electronic elements to create songs, vignettes, and incidental music modeled after soundtracks for underground films and library music made in the '70s at the height of the movement. Where
New Strategies for Modern Crime, Vol. 1
took more of a film noir angle with organic instruments and sauntering jazz undertones,
Vol. 2
is decidedly more futuristic. "Wagon Talk" is based entirely around brittle vintage-synth sounds and minimal rhythmic loops, creating a tense atmosphere akin to
Tangerine Dream
's soundtrack work in the '80s. There's still some of the funky fuzz that was so prevalent on
Vol. 1
, but the live drums of "Python Print" are overstimulated and on the edge of falling apart, interacting with equally nervous instrumentation for a sound that's overpowering and a little bit menacing. Even at their most direct, the tracks here are less about their grooves and more about their heavy atmospheres. Standout track "Vast Wildlife Poison" is sizzling fun, sounding like
Boards of Canada
remixing
Serge Gainsbourg
in a way where no idea was left behind. Both volumes of
New Strategies
have parallels to the lucid, cinematic feel of
Squarepusher
's frantic fusion circa
Music Is Rotted One Note
or
Budakhan Mindphone
, but
makes his imaginary soundtracks more dire and more frazzled, designing them to contain all the dark energy and dissonant conceptual clashes he can dream up. ~ Fred Thomas