The mechanical revelation: Diamond Version’s debut album, “CI”

by Aedyn Roze

Diamond Version’s debut album, CI, released by Mute Records is a 10-track compilation of provocative songs that interpret society versus machine. The German duo and co-founders of Raster-Noton, Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) and Olaf Bender (Byetone), have come together and collaborated with other musical talents (Niel Tennant from Pet Shop Boys, Kyoka, Leslie Winer, and Atsuhiro Ito) to produce this captivating album.

CI (Corporate Identity) presents and comments on a digital world where mankind takes on the robotic lifestyle. The songs are blissfully saturated with distorted/grinding sound effects, grooving bass lines and vocal samples – all infused with electronic/industrial beats. The titles mirror the lyrical content within each song, shining light on mass-marketing and the need for self-infatuation. For example, “This Blank Action” immediately starts off the album with lyrics of an egocentric playfulness, identifying vanity without merit.

“Make.Believe” is quite a beautiful and bittersweet end to the album. From the beginning there are harsh sound effects cutting in and out (along the lines of an ongoing radio feedback and alarm), but almost two-thirds into the song comes an ambient melody, contradicting the tension from not only this track, but all of the songs in the album. It is the only and final song that reveals a more human side of reflecting life and the idea of change for the better. The title, consistently again, pulls the concept of the song together.

You’ll find yourself gyrating along to the crunching beats of Diamond Version’s debut album in its representation of human nature’s perverse, psychological complacency to revere in superficial identities.

Release date: June 3, 2014