Adult - Becoming Undone

After a quarter century of nearly nonstop activity, dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution ADULT. have perfected a strain of stylistic cohesion in the album format, Òbut for this we wanted something thatÕs falling apart.Ó Becoming Undone, the 9th official full-length by co-founders Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller, explicitly succeeds in this aim, simultaneously rejecting and reflecting the planetary discord that inspired it. Begun in the latter half of 2020 against a backdrop of unprecedented flux and seismic isolation, the duo kickstarted their muse by sourcing fresh additions to the rig: a vocal loop pedal for Kuperus and Roland percussion pads for Miller. Reconnecting with legacy influences like the politicized industrial percussion of Test Department and the queasy miscreant synthetics of TGÕs 20 Jazz Funk Greats sparked a series of fruitfully frenetic sessions, centered on themes of impermanence and dissonance. MillerÕs rationale is blunt: ÒWe werenÕt interested in melody or harmony since we didnÕt see the world having that.ÓFrom the tense technoid blitz of ÒUndoing / UndoneÓ to the twitchy EBM of ÒFools (We AreÉ)Ó and ÒI Am Nothing,Ó the sides bristle with strident acidic revolt and black leather sequential circuits, unhinged and unforgiving. Elsewhere, slower tempos of purgatorial unraveling (ÒNormative Sludge,Ó ÒSheÕs Nice LookingÓ) showcase a breadth of vocal FX, Kuperus sounding alternately indignant and possessed, decrying the crimes, fears, and failings of a deluded world. Throughout, the bandÕs chemistry crackles with revulsion and strobe-lit dissent, equal parts exorcism and denunciation. ÒHumans have always been pretty terrible,Ó Kuperus explains. ÒBut every year the compromises of culture just accelerate.ÓBecoming Undone is also freighted with a more personal pain, as KuperusÕ father passed away during the height of the pandemic, just before the album took root. As his hospice caretakers, she and Miller faced the banality of finality, surrounded by objects drained of meaning, Òthe joy of having a body, but also the drudgery of having one.Ó The recordÕs bewitching closing track, ÒTeeth Out Pt. IIÓ Ð which happens to be the first ADULT. song in the groupÕs history without drums Ð speaks to this sense of doomed corporeal mass and the looming, lightless unknown that binds us all. A seasick haze swells and subsides in slow, low waves, flickering with ring modulation, above which Kuperus sings in a dazed, brooding, transcendent state, as if having finally glimpsed beyond the pale: ÒSome day / some day I will be silent and free / of this relentless gravity.Ó