Closer Colder

David Kosten's Faultline runs through the non-reconciled territories of head-scouring electronic noise and richly cinematic orchestration. CLOSER COLDER occupies an intermediate zone where instrumentation reminiscent of Talk Talk's SPIRIT OF EDEN and LAUGHING STOCK is at unstable equilibrium with odd digital effects, manipulated samples, and programmed rhythms. CLOSER COLDER's tectonic parameters constantly shift between melodramatic musicality and dance-inflected electronica, creating a uniquely attractive tension. Nowhere is this more apparent than in "Mute", the exceptional pre-CLOSER COLDER single (included here) that pits Kosten's slow-burning digitalia against taut dual-guitar interplay and trumpeter Ian Carr's sensuous KIND OF BLUE epiphanies.
CLOSER COLDER is a rewarding, albeit uneasy, listen. Kosten likes to unsettle the listener, and he does so well. Wistful piano-and-violin figures are rattled by volatile breakbeats ("Awake", "Papercut") or entwined with sighs and a particularly disturbing "Blue Velvet" sample ("Closer Colder"). Or witness the bizarre vocal extractions of "Tiny Consumer", the way scratchy rhythms and a frisky, Steve Reich-like violin-bassoon-and-xylophone cipher barely cover up the threatening answering-machine message at the heart of "Control", and the hidden track's echoing empty-room ambience. "Partyline Honey" achieves the album's one instance of consonance, balancing obscene chat-line banter with an equally salacious, psychedelicised guitar-and-harmonica downtempo groove.|