Dissociative Identity Quartet - Melodies and Voices

 Released: September 13

Melodies and Voices has something enigmatic about it compared to the previous work presented by Dissociative Identity Quartet. While the amorphous group of (presumably) four persons is known for pushing electronic boundaries and doing some odd things, this is is the first album in which they tried to constrain their more esoteric impulses and bring us what they consider to be their first real “pop” album. Now, in all honesty, the pop influence in this album is rather strong with elegant vocal performances throughout and a fair dose of accessible melodies. But this is still a DID album and all the bizarre intricacies of their musical stylings is still present. 

This unwieldy blend of influences is instant apparent from the very beginning with “We’ve fallen apart.” Here we have some interesting synth layers coalescing into something unusual with a sincere sense of pop direction in its vocals but a subversion of it in the arrangement of those layerings. Forget a bridge or chorus or any familiar structure - instead we get those gently sung vocals guiding a track that feels disjointed but still entirely comprehensible. We get plenty of other example of such a motif throughout the album, like on the surprisingly emotive and noisy “Time to give the drummer some.”

I find the whole album both puzzling and engaging. It feels like a true and good faith effort to build a sufficiently pop-styled album but the authors can’t help but inject structure ways to undermine such an effort. So while the description I give of this work may come across as pointing to a messy pile of sounds, the actual result of this is something that is carefully layered and purposefully misleading. It constantly tricks you into believing that there is no true order to it, but then shows that order as an abstracted and deconstructed pop ballad that writhes with emotion and seizes with an intentionally obtuse collection of melodies. And voices. Do not neglect the voices.