CD, Fire In The Hole, 2004
www.fireinthehole-records.com/infrastructure/
After a couple of demos and the “Wasteland” CD-R EP, Boston-based female-fronted electro-industrial project Infrastructure release their debut album on the label Fire In The Hole. For a debut album, “Salt the Earth” is a very interesting and solid piece of work from a musical project that shows great promise for the future.
In days in which innovation seems to be getting more scarce and difficult to pull off (maybe because there are more people getting their material out there…?) it is always good to find someone that manages to create something that sounds, if not innovative, at least creatively fresh. This is the defining characteristic of Infrastructure’s sound, it may not be particularly new (in fact it may even be said to be somewhat reminiscent of 90’s Wax Trax! sound) but it has a marked youthful energy and enthusiasm to it.
The most remarkable characteristic of Infrastructure is the voice. Stacia Tucker’s singing is out of the ordinary: her voice is markedly feminine but has a defiant tomboy feeling to it, which definitely adds to the attitude and sultriness of the songs. The lyrical content is also good, to the point in which it can be said that there is indeed content in addition to the style.
As would be expected from the debut album of such a young project, Infrastructure’s sound is still a bit raw and could use a few refining touches here and there. Musically, Infrastructure is based on EBM roots. Inevitably, the music grows from rhythmical danceable structures but it manages to escape the classical pounding 4-by-4 by mixing in some simple rhythmic work and a few breakbeats all layered on top of simple but well-used melodic work (also rhythmical at times). Despite the simplicity, the melodic work is instantly recognizable even having a certain catchiness to it. Overall, the music is well articulated with the vocal work (even though it might need a bit more refining) and can even stand out on its own, as can be hard from the track “Moments of Isolation”, but only reaches full potential when combined with Stacia’s vocals.
Tracks like “Dream Dealer”, “Fair and Balanced”, “Righteous” and especially “Drama Queen” easily confirm what has been written above and the potential of this young project that should definitely be checked out.
From the two remix tracks, only “Unfair and Unbalanced”, remixed by Clint Sand of Cut.Rate.Box caught my attention. Maybe a bit too much on the pounding 4-by-4 side of things, but a good remix nevertheless and sure to find its way into a few dancefloors.
[8/10]
— Miguel de Sousa