Kansas City musician Matt Hill, who returns to Not Not Fun for the release of this fourth album under his Umberto alias, is still searching for a suitably blood-soaked visual counterpart to his glossy electronic work. Hill's music takes the form of imaginary soundtracks to films that only exist in his mind, primarily inspired by lurid 1970s horror features of wildly varying quality. Last time we heard from him was on the 2012 Rock Action release Night Has a Thousand Screams, an album inspired by a slice n' dice flick from 1982 titled Pieces. Screams felt like an endgame for Hill's obsession with the macabre work of Italian composers such as Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Frizzi, ultimately putting him in a position where, three albums into his career, he needed to take those influences and find a musical place of his own to dwell. Confrontations doesn't exactly leave his giallocore tendencies behind, but it does subtly amp up the Italo disco influence that has crept into the Umberto frame, giving it a brilliant sheen that resembles a shift from fleapit to arthouse.
Of course, his prior work as Umberto was all about recreating the feel of slumping down in one of those fleapits, watching a million dismembered limbs fly across the screen through scratchily projected celluloid. Here, the production values are heightened, making it feel like Hill's cinematic diet has expanded. The palpitating groove of "Night Fantasy" bears similarities to Giorgio Moroder's "Chase", from Midnight Express: Both tracks are riddled with a dual sense of urgency and abandon, although Umberto's is ultimately more enamored with the kind of 3am cool practiced by Chromatics and most of the Italians Do it Better stable. Clearly, there are still traceable lines to be drawn between this music and the work sourced by Hill, but he's bringing in a wider spectrum of influence this time. The light electronics and flattened drum samples of "Final Revelation" even edge into the kind of soundtrack territory Harold Faltermeyer was working in during the 80s, albeit with some ghostly vocal chants to anchor it in Umberto's world.
Similar ties proliferate throughout, making Confrontations a baby step forward rather than a thorough overhaul of Hill's sound. When "Initial Revelation" enters into a strident synth passage, it becomes his most confident statement yet, playing out like a main title theme begging to be played over scrolling credits. But Hill is wise to keep such moments to a minimum; soundtrack albums often tell their own story, spread out over shifts in mood and space. Confrontations works that way, too. "Dead Silent Morning" allows oscillating electronics to coil around one another, imposing a strong sense of trepidation as the intensity is slowly heightened. It's a formula that Hill sticks with throughout the album, starting tracks slow, building up layers, then delivering a payoff that typically involves screaming analog synths. When it works, it can be gloomily affecting. In particular, "The Invasion" shows Hill's mastery of restraint, creating a faintly agonizing feeling of anticipation and alarm.
Such tracks are certainly a progression on what came before, but there's still a sense that Hill is a little too enthralled by the work that inspires him. It's possible that he's happy down here-- the forthcoming Umberto tour schedule includes a show at a John Carpenter tribute concert in Geneva, suggesting Hill is at peace with his tendency toward replication. But Confrontations triggers a nagging feeling that he's capable of so much more, particularly when he's mashing up styles on standout tracks like "Night Fantasy" and "Initial Revelation". Broadcast's Berberian Sound Studio showed that there are plenty of fresh ways of looking at the source material from which this record borrows, but after four albums as Umberto it's starting to feel less likely that Hill can find a similar strain of inspiration. Often he feels like a genre director hired for his reliability rather than excelling in his field. Still, there are advances here, a sense that Hill's VHS collection may have expanded beyond the horror section, a step up from pan-and-scan into something approaching widescreen.
