I'm constantly dismayed about musicians' lack of enthusiasm for mentioning the environment in their songs. I mean you're not going to get many streams or groupies on a dead planet. You'd have thought it might be a concern every now and then, or perhaps they've all been hired by a doomsday bunker entertainment agency to provide entertainment for the billionaires and preppers when the shit hits the fan? You heard it here first.
Memory Scale is a French producer from Bordeaux creating, "a cinematographic universe based on sound textures and synthetic melodies", and you can't argue with that, especially when it sounds as good as "Moment of Inertia", which despite its lack of lyrics says a lot with just the track title and its musical depth.
The track title, "Moment of Inertia" in my mind perfectly reflects humanity's contentment with our current levels of affluence and comfort. Yes, I'm well aware of the horrors going on around the world, but I'm talking about historic relativity here. We've never had it so good and as a consequence, and despite our growing Anthropocene angst and general unease, we don't want to rock the boat, preferring to carry on shopping; caught like rabbits in the extinction headlights.
Although I'm focussing on humanity and the planet, the Ocoeur instigated compilation for n5MD this track come from, focuses on the animal kingdom and our often overlooked, often eaten neighbours, who don't have a choice but to live with the consequences of our unsustainability.
Oh yeah the music! It's an assured, deceptively simple slice of cinematic electronica. Tonal minimalism provides the emotional heft as ambiguous, insistent electronic sounds ape capitalism's never ending search for profits and people's relentless consumerism as they desperately try to fill the emptiness inside, regardless of the environmental cost. If that wasn't enough low key distortion flits in an out like our rapidly changing weather systems, lest we forget the environment's current distress.
Somehow the cultured arrangement ties all these realities and hard truths together into one very listenable track, whilst somehow still offering a glimmer of hope, if only we can compromise our comfort.
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