Balancing between brittle noise and gauzy ambience, this album has a spacious atmosphere that stays even in its most clamorous moments. This lightness makes the album listenable throughout, but it saps the intensity of the music. The electronic arrangements are often engaging, but they dissipate into formlessness too soon to reach catharsis.
Dour ambience aside, WZT Hearts have a jokey fixation with nerd culture, evident from the candy colored artwork and adolescent titles like "Jeep Uzi" and "Lava Nile." The thin line between laptop musicians and geeks in general has been regurgitated enough not to merit much discussion here, but that influence is felt in the music. "Hearth Carver" uses the neon twitterings of a Commodore 64 as a sound source, and a careful listener will find the call sign for Public Radio International buried in the digital sediment of "Lava Nile."
For such a chaotic album, there is quite a bit of restraint. In more vehement hands, the sputtering sheets of static would roar right in front of the mix, but thick layers of reverb and lower volumes dull the music's sharper edges. Yet the band is most effective when they turn up the intensity. "Spells" lives up to its arcane title, unleashing gusts of warbling electronics and ghostly moans. They crash over each other like the wake of a ghost ship, each wave building on the previous, until the song vanishes abruptly.
More often, the songs fizzle out before than can reach a crescendo. "Hassler" begins with some nimble drum flailing, but it peters out mid song, leaving the attendant clatter to drift without a rhythmic backbone. The closer, "Viszla," is more engaging. A lone shaker hashes out a lazy beat while languid guitar strums and crackling electronics bloom in the foreground.
It is tough to pass judgment on this record. It certainly snaps and pops in the way that a good abstract electronic music should, but there is a lack of muscle behind the layers of noise. In each case, turning up the volume, repeating a phrase, or adding a beat would conduct the energy needed. With a bit more forcefulness, WZT Hearts could make something very compelling.
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