It's been six years since Solvent's Jason Amm last released a studio album, 2004's Apples and Synthesizers, and the expanse of those years is felt on the appropriately titled Subject to Shift. The spacious production Amm has been working with lately has only been glimpsed on compilations and 2008's double CD retrospective Demonstration Tape. With his latest, the backward-glancing, bare-bones vocoder-and-synth sound tracks like 2004's "Remote Control" are largely gone. In their place are more structured and ornate synth-pop tracks, as well as some dips into house.
There are traces of Amm's nostalgic analog sound in the album's intro, outro, and shorter tracks like "Life-Size Image". And while the sweet, chattering analog patterns he's known for remain, he pulls in new textures-- claps, pops, hisses, purrs-- to give the material more complexity. There are also frightening surprises like "Take Me Home", which begins with a bit-crushed beat and blips of tinselly percussion that phase in and out, creating the atmosphere of a creepy underground tunnel. Amm then emerges from the shadows in a Darth Vader voice to "sing" a couple of verses of a come-on ("Take me home today/ I'm in disarray/ Promise that you'll try/ Take me home tonight").
Amm excels when his breezy synth patterns find that sweet spot between suggestion and declaration, and what turns a soundscape into a song is Amm's skill at building drama and momentum without overdoing it. On "Loss for Words" he does it with vocoder-free vocals and a blanket of strings underscored by a bass line. On the excellent "A Product of the Process", he does it by starting with battlefield-inspired effects-- a marching beat and gunshot-like percussion-- then adding an ascending bass pattern and turning up the volume. As adorable as Solvent's instrumentation can be, the project seems to have lost some its timidity on this album.
Some of his experiments go too far. "Formulate" and "No One Should Be Living Here" feel out of place, featuring harsh, bleeping synths and dizzying, aquatic beats fit for Rex the Dog's catalog. The vocoder makes an appearance on both, and in truth, most of the vocals on the album feel unnecessary. But Solvent's synths, as usual, speak volumes.
