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Modern Stars — Termination
(Bandcamp no#, 2024, CD / LP / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2024-09-27

Termination Cover art

Fans of heavy drones, psych, and Krautrock can rejoice with the release of Italian band Modern Stars’ new album Termination. Modern Stars are Andrea Merolle (electronics, guitars, and vocals), Barbara Margani (soprano), Andrea Sperduti (drums), and Mario Bruni (bass). Termination is a concept album about the halting problem in computer theory. The halting problem refers to the challenge of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running, or continue to run forever. It was first introduced by Alan Turing in 1936. It is undecidable in Turing machines, essentially meaning there is no universal automated method for solving the problem. Modern Stars’ assertion is the same problem holds true for human life, as life has its ups and downs no one can create an algorithm and write code simply because you cannot predict the future, even with AI. Now to the music. The seven tracks take you on the Modern Stars journey through instrumentals and barely discernible lyrics starting with “If / Then” about a man without faith in the computer age who inevitably feels lost “Nowhere.” The man seeks for faith in religion (“Confession”) which does not fulfill him, so he stops caring (“Bartleby”). Then he looks to corporate society (“Organization”) for help that he doesn’t find, leaving him with only true love and salvation (“Be Pure”). Finally, as his end arrives, he feels like it is an absolution (“Coming Down”) — a somewhat twisted view of salvation and absolution. I had to rely on the promo material for this narrative, as I certainly did not gain this impression from the 35 minutes of drones, amorphous textures, dark visions, timeless loops, chanting, tribal rhythms, and occasional melodic dark psych and Krautrock music with subliminal vocals. The music is wornderful. And there were moments thar reminded me of Joy Division, especially on “Organization.” Termination is an interesting album and worth investigating.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Modern Stars

More info
http://modernstars.bandcamp.com/album/termination

 

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