The Blackout

If you judged Nicholas Bindeman only by his previous releases, you would likely be blindsided by the sound he serves up under the Tunnels banner on The Blackout. Bindeman has worked with a number of ensembles including Eternal Tapestry and Jackie-O M**********r, and has traversed the realms of psychedelic improvisation, experimental music, and more, but here he indulges his love of the early-‘80s "coldwave" wing of European post-punk, as practiced by the likes of the Cure, KaS Product, and Cabaret Voltaire. The style's mix of cool detachment and bleak, moody atmospheres seems to hit a sweet spot for Bindeman, and on The Blackout he shows that he has assimilated the sound to the extent that his efforts in that area could easily be mistaken for the original article. From the wobbling, trebly basslines to the lo-fi-sounding drum machine beats, arch and angular guitar riffs, disembodied vocals, subtly creepy and decidedly analog-sounding synths, and minimalist arrangements, Tunnels manages to hit every sonic target dead center. Ironically, those who share even a small portion of Bindeman's obvious love for the original coldwave era may find themselves feeling oddly warmed by his expeditions into that area. In fact, it's this quality that helps to prevent The Blackout from being merely an exercise in revivalism and makes it more of an earnest attempt to capture a feeling, presumably the feeling that this kind of music initially etched into the artist's own soul, and which he now offers up to the rest of the world, with his own individual twist added. ~ J. Allen, Rovi