By Jase Walker
Over the years of going to ArcTanGent festival in the far reaches of south-east England, I’ve come across many bands of all walks ranging from the intensely technical to the downright bizarre but few have left an impression on me in quite the way SCALER have.
Amongst a sea of various math rock, post rock, prog metal, SCALER very much caught me off-guard as I was digging through the lineup and put on ‘Monolithium’ as part of my investigation and was immediately drawn in by it’s intense grinding and chaotic sound. So much so that I made absolutely sure that I wasn’t going to miss this set, absolutely the right decision and this was cemented by the follow-up year that saw them headlining the Wednesday segment.
So when the opportunity to see them outside the ÜK arises and also getting my ears around their album a bit early, I wasn’t going to hesitate to grab that!
What strikes me about ‘Endlessly’ compared to some of their previous efforts is that this album draws in some even more eclectic elements of trip-hop acts such as Massive Attack and The Crystal Method in addition to their existing style that toes the line between techno and metal. Tracks like ‘Salt’ and ‘Mirage’ give the feeling of heavy inspiration taken from Massive Attack’s biggest hits of ‘Inertia Creeps’ or ‘Teardrop’ with their downtempo speed and throbbing bass that I could picture battering my chest in a packed room and forcing me to breathe along to the rhythm whether I like it or not.
‘(yearn)’ stands out as a homage to ‘Let Forever Be’ by The Chemical Bros. with its busy drumming and fuzzy bass dancing alongside it also.
This is absolutely not to say that I feel like SCALER are simply cutting and pasting their favourite playlist and remixing it a bit, quite the opposite in fact as the album on the whole feels like a brilliantly fresh take on electronic music that doesn’t allow itself to be boxed in. Listening to this album gives me a similar feeling to the first time I got hold of albums in my formative years that saw the earlier efforts of those who are in the here and now, considered some of the greats of electronic music.
‘Cold Storage’ for example wouldn’t seem out of place on Leftfield’s Leftism album, the relentless thumping of the bass drum that only has its low frequencies outmatched by the dull hum of fat synthy bass that makes me question whether I need to mess with my EQ settings because I want more of it shaking my head.
In the latter half of the album through ‘Sinking In’ and ‘Salvation’, SCALER show off a bit more of their metal side with the guitar side taking on a bit more of a traditional sound although still extremely processed and fuzzy. As I keep trying to get across though, SCALER are far from a one-trick pony with what I would consider a specifically consistent sound. This band loves to experiment and see where they can go with something and taking an idea and seeing how far they can turn it on its head while still feeling like a tight tune.
Overall, SCALER have outdone themselves again and created an album that feels much more like the band have found a sound and style that fits them which pays homage to the giants of the scene that came before them yet carving out their own niche. Going off my previous experience with seeing them live, I feel like the album is very much serving as an appetizer that’ll be no doubt blown out of the water once you get to see what they do with this material live.
If you have any passing interest in the likes of novel approaches in electronic music then you’d do yourself a disservice not getting yourself stuck into this album. SCALER are onto something really interesting here and I can’t help but feel that these are going to explode out of the ArcTanGent adjacent scene before long and you’re going to wish you had the chance to see them blow the roof off a venue that barely fits 300 people in it.
- ‘Endlessly‘ is out now.
