Becoming Undone

Few acts were capable of skewering the decay of society in the 2020s with as much potent disgust as Adult. Since the late 90s, Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Millers music has been the audio equivalent of a withering glare at humankinds worst qualities, and while theyve always had plenty of inspiration, the disinformation and unchecked selfishness ushered in by the COVID-19 global pandemic (and more personally, the death of Kuperus father) adds a visceral rawness to Becoming Undone that was missing from their last album, 2020s trippy Perception Is/As/Of Deception. This time, Miller and Kuperus wanted to capture what its like when things fall apart, and once again, they execute their concept thoroughly. If possible, their expressions of humanitys malfunctions sound more like machines going haywire than before. "Our compulsion is our destruction" Kuperus intones over the paranoid metallic clang of "Undoing/Undone"; on the fraying rant "We Are Fools," theres no moral high ground to claim. To illustrate Becoming Undones descent into entropy, Adult. acquired new percussion pads and a vocal loop pedal, the latter of which adds several new shades of darkness to their sound. "I, Obedient" gives its hypnotic loops a dash of kink, while repeating fragments of Kuperus vocals unfurl like black tendrils on "Shes Nice Looking," an unsettling song even by the duos standards. However, the albums uneasiest moments are the most abstract: "Normative Sludge" puts Becoming Undones mood into an endlessly swirling vortex with results that recall the experiments of Detroit House Guests. "Teeth Out, Pt. II" is even more purgatorial, proving that Miller and Kuperus dont need beats to sound formidable. It all makes Becoming Undone one of Adult.s most harrowing albums -- and all the more impressive because of it. ~ Heather Phares