The Future Bites

インターネット社会の中で進化を遂げ続ける人間の頭脳がテーマ!3年半ぶりとなる6作目!
今年初頭に発表された1stシングル"PERSONAL SHOPPER"、現在配信中でRSDでもシングル・リリースした2ndシングル"EMINENT SLEAZE"を含む全9トラック。
ロンドンにてレコーディング、Bat For Lashes, Everything Everythingを手掛けて注目されるデヴィッド・コステンとの共同プロデュース。

Steven Wilson fans have been primed for The Future Bites since he released To the Bone in 2017. That record, and the subsequent 41/2 EP, were deliberately pop responses to his three-album dalliance with prog -- Raven That Refused to Sing, Hand. Cannot. Erase, and Grace for Drowning. In contrast to the above, The Future Bites is a slick exercise in Wilsons oft-articulated love of synth pop and electronic music. Its a loose concept set about the treachery that rampant consumerism foists upon the world, and the danger a technological society imposes on personal identity. Given the musical m.o. here, it should come as no surprise that the production on these nine songs is slick, even icy. It contrasts sharply with most of Wilsons songwriting that remains saturated in welcoming, effusive melodies and hooks. On most tracks, guitars and drums are subservient to keyboards and electronic rhythms and soundscapes. As usual, the studio cast is stellar. It includes keyboardists Adam Holzman and Richard Barbieri, bassist Nick Beggs, drummer Michael Spearman, sonic architect and beat maestro Faultline (David Kosten), and backing vocalists Wendy Harriott, Bobbie Gordon, and Crystal Williams. Set highlights include King Ghost, which eschews conventional instrumentation in favor of dark, brooding, quasi-futurist electronics. They simultaneously reflect, Memorabilia-era Soft Cell, middle period Talk Talk, and Oil & Gold-era Shriekback. That said, the songs subtle, airy melody is infectious, nearly hummable above the layered electronics. 12 Things I Forgot is the most formally constructed pop song here. Its framed by conventional guitars, organic drums, basses, and Rhodes piano, and glorious backing vocals from the Mystery Jets. The hooky melody walks a strange and circuitous path between vintage Todd Rundgren, early Aztec Camera, and Difford & Tilbrook. Weirdly, it contains a tagline hook straight out of Peter Framptons I Want You (To Show Me the Way). Eminent Sleaze delivers a sinister muscular beat driven by a bass-and-drum vamp that eerily recalls Dr. Johns I Walk on Gilded Splinters atop a spooky string chart and exponentially layered synthetic handclaps. Wilson adds a wonky Adrian Belew-esque guitar break, propelled by Beggs nasty Chapman Stick and Holzmans restrained keys. The electro-disco of Personal Shopper channels Human League, Kraftwerk, and Giorgio Moroder. Its lyric is drenched in irony as Elton John reads from a shopping list of shit you never knew you liked, including deluxe box sets (a piss take, both men are guilty of releasing them). Man of the People is a lovely, alienated, bittersweet ballad adorned by Barbieris heavenly soundscape as guitars, pillowy beats, and atmospherics frame Wilsons lovely faux-soul vocal. In sum, those who had trouble with To the Bone, Wilsons well-executed homage to the progressive pop of Kate Bush, Tears for Fears, and Peter Gabriel, may have even more with this. Most fans, however, especially more recent ones, shouldnt find The Future Bites an inconsistent entry in Wilsons catalog, but an arguably minor one that steps sideways instead of forward. ~ Thom Jurek