Jason Amm (aka Solvent) certainly isn't the first or last composer of happy "robot music"; as one example, Jimmy Tamborello was similarly bubbly in his synth-pop alter-ego James Figurine before he was hammering out the electro-emo-pop of the Postal Service. But Amm's Solvent work is notable for its special melodicism and, more importantly, for its longevity. As this compilation's title suggests, Solvent has been around for over ten years now.
Amm originally compiled this retrospective as a tour-only primer for his tour supporting VNV Nation. The two-disc set certainly shows off the remarkable consistency of Solvent's run, so Ghostly's decision to release it isn't too much of a surprise. Older tracks like "My Blue Car", always in limited release and often out-of-print, are treats for fans, and later cuts like "My Radio" nicely chronicle Solvent's timely entry into the techno-pop revival of the early part of this decade. His work exhibits influences of the new wave as well as older, progressive electronic artists like Kraftwerk and YMO.
Solvent has at times been lumped with electroclash or IDM, but these comparisons never quite made sense. Artists such as Adult. (who turned in one of the four remixes on Demonstration Tape) or the IDM acolytes advocated sonic aggression as either an intensifier or an alternative, respectively, to the club. Though he uses heavier beats and more obtuse synthesizers than many of his contemporaries, Amm seems caught up in the idea of a boutique style of electronic music. He concocts pretty confections with buzzy drum machines, major-key synth lines, and sparse, faraway vocals that long for the pristine infinities of the future. It's almost difficult to sit through what appears to be the same message over and over: We're moving towards an age devoid of conflict, and our greatest challenge is to revel in the patterns constantly emerging from the complexities of time.
Of course, the threat of conflict isn't necessary for a bunch of pretty songs or even an artistic statement. But instead of fully exploiting his palette, or hinting at the seemingly inevitable crises ahead, he's telling us over and over again to appreciate beauty. His approach, applied over ten years and distilled into two discs, washes together in a sea of ebbing, ever-evaporating, synthesized waves. It's certainly tempting to imagine such an elegant future. But even for all his major-key optimism, Solvent's is an outlook with only a disheartening modicum of stability: a homogeny that, quite simply, gets by.
