Screen Vinyl Image | Interceptors

FRESH BAKED
Screen Vinyl Image
Interceptors
2009 | Safranin Sound; Custom Made Music
A

Screen Vinyl Image’s “Interceptor’s” is like slipping into a dark noir world that reflects on past memories of faded angst and creates sterile images of nostalgic machinery set loose. Yet there is more to discover beyond the dark exterior, as their sound completely leads the listener into another world dominated by car chasing cruisers, planetary spheres, and psychedelic interference.

This 11-track debut album from DC band Screen Vinyl Image showcases them at their fullest extent of sonic punishment. Their previous, 2 EP’s (Midnight Sun and Chaser) were released onto virgin ears unsuspecting of such deliberate ear canal damage and defacto electonic destruction. But now the duo of Jake and Kim Reid that are Screen Vinyl Image, have produced a more complete vision built upon their previous efforts of audio annihilation.

The album’s lead track “Synthetic Apparition” is the perfect droning backdrop to begin the journey. Its ghostly ambience creeps in like a fog with the lead melody spelling out to the listener the forthcoming density that awaits in the succeeding tracks. “Cathode Ray and “Fever” command attention from side A (“Fever” is the first video from the album). On “Fever,” Jake’s reverb enwrapped vocal evokes the feeling of a lost soul crying out for repentance, as samples and fuzz guitar entwine their way to the song’s feedback-drenched ending. Also notable is “Asteroid Exile,” which weaves in the band’s cinematic layers into a fully realized song complete with song structure and vocals.

Side B begins with “Lost in Repeat,” which with its almost dub-like trance bass line flexes the versatile muscle of the band. The bass continues through against an ever-growing gale force of sweeping distortion, filling in to the ear’s higher register, as the bass loops with Screen’s own take on astral dub.

The Gothic bass line intro of “Until the End of Time” crawls against the sequenced bells and simple lamenting vocal, which remains resolute and commanding: “I want you, I need you.” Instrumental “Death Defiance” plays into their more danceable side as upbeat tracks work alongside an electro line and yet another creepy synth – but it’s when the unsuspecting bongos hit that the track really takes off. This song could have been blasted out in an early 90’s warehouse party to thousands of dark wave ravers. As the album ends on “Conscience Collider,” a shifting bass mover, it slowly eclipses back into the record’s initial foreboding dreamlike trance. A bonus track of “Chaser” (Screen’s first single) graces the CD format.

To truly appreciate the music of Screen Vinyl Image you might find you have an affinity for antiquated soundwaves, vintage potentiometers, and old plate reverbs. If you can respect the tensions of loud basement garage rock running alongside an inspired Chicago house beat than you can learn to fall deep under their spell. Both live and on this record they create sounds that inspire visions where John Carpenter battles Jim Reid (no relation) and Blade Runner goes Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. And it’s here where Screen Vinyl Image have created their own original soundtrack to their dark twisted vision of film noir, campy horror and futurism crashing head-on into a stasis-like oblivion.

“Interceptors” was released on Valentine’s Day in the US and is available on both CD, Digital and Vinyl formats through Safranin Sound and Custom Made Music.

by Gordon Sharp