Taken from the debut EP, Echoes of the Mechatronic Age, the standout post-industrial electronica score, The Subdued Mechanist, from the Winnipeg-hailing solo artist, The Primary Phase Principle, paradoxically pacifies the senses while heightening emotions to such a visceral extent, it is almost primal.
The concept EP implants listeners in a fictional civilisation which depends on a universal mechanism they can no longer fully understand to deliver the ultimate parable of the AI-dominated future we are sleepwalking into.
The atmospherically filmic ambience of The Subdued Mechanist cerebrally alludes to Orson Welles’ belief that there is no confidence equal to sheer ignorance; it’s a liberating, quasi-Stoic score that holds a mirror to humanity and its willingness to evolve beyond its own comprehension.
By pouring influence of NIN, How to Destroy Angels and Tangerine Dream through a science fiction lens, The Primary Phase Principle unlocked the narrative power of post-industrial. He has a superlative gift in his ability to chronicle immersive fables simply through juxtapositions of harsh mechanical synthetics and crystalline flashes of enlightenment. His EP is so much more than just another addition to the airwaves, it’s a beacon of higher consciousness.
Stream The Subdued Mechanist on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
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