Overnight success is rarely that, but in the case of experimental synth group S U R V I V E, you’d be forgiven for assuming that they arrived fully-formed this past summer. Two of their members collaborated on the Stranger Things OST,* Vol. One* and Two, the soundtrack to Netflix’s zeitgeist-consuming sci-fi TV series. Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein’s uncanny ear for ’80s synthesizers—not to mention their proclivity for building their own from scratch—was absolutely perfect for scoring a supernatural thriller set in the Reagan Era. But as one-half of S U R V I V E’s four-person outfit (they’re joined by Adam Jones and Mark Donica, on even more synths), they now find themselves at a crossroads. With the band’s newfound success, their fans will surely be looking for the points of reference that hooked them in the first place: the film compositions of John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, and even Vangelis’ less grandiose moments.
And while those influences are abundant on their new album RR7349, the challenge here, as with any band who becomes suddenly popular, is to avoid that albatross and temper those expectations with enough individuality to stay true to their core sound and identity. It's not an easy balance, but the album gets there, and once it settles into its slick groove, is unrelenting in its deconstruction of their soundtrack work.
Despite, or perhaps because of the restrictions of their instrumentation, S U R V I V E’s music has gone through a range of tones and atmospheres since their inception only seven years ago. 2012’s HD009 (all of the band's releases are simply titled after their catalog number) consists of two tracks, both exactly 22:06 minutes long, interacting like mirrored reflections of the same ambient piece of music. That year they also released Mnq026, a record that more closely resembles the structure and tone of the Stranger Things OST, while maintaining the eerie sparsity that permeated their music up to that point.
However, the slight of hand that S U R V I V E recreate across all of their records has nothing to do with ambiance, or underrated cinematic touchstones, or even their vast knowledge of their cherished instruments, which, credit where credit’s due, rightfully make up for much of the band's appeal. The most difficult part of making instrumental, non-dance electronic music for an audience beyond your typical avant-garde connoisseur is injecting it with a sense of narrative, a story, an energy that replaces vocals and conventional musical structures to give the tracks an augmented dimension. S U R V I V E are very good at this. They may be one of the best bands currently employing those skills, and RR7349 is their most succinct example yet.
As engrossing and brilliant as the Stranger Things OST is, its success relies, much like the TV series, largely on its capacity to mimic the feel of an era. There’s not a moment on it that is as stomach-lurching as “Dirt,” an early highlight of RR7349; like most of the tracks on the album, it's sensory almost to the point of overwhelmingness. The pulsating “Sorcerer” is built around a harsh, driving percussive synth line that bulldozes almost everything underneath it, and when a drum machine actually does pierce through the layers and layers of foggy keyboards, like on “Copter,” it’s so arresting it almost jolts you out of your seat.
The album closes with “Cutthroat,” its best track, a composition so deliciously creepy you almost wish it were accompanying a particularly splattery scene of mayhem. Its arpeggiated squelches swirl in an unsettling void until, little by little, deep bass and tinkering chimes begin to seep in, and suddenly, the next thing you know, you're caught under the weight of the track's increasing paranoia. Based on “Cutthroat” alone, it’s clear that S U R V I V E’s capacity for imagination and evocation goes well beyond homages to film scores of the 1980s, and much like the machines they meticulously build to create their dense soundscapes, they’ll continue to tweak and augment their sound until the unholy day their monstrous creation is completed.
