Jason Amm, better known as Solvent, has just left me with a rather large grin upon my face. His newest album Subject to Shift, released May 25, is his first in almost six years and a great argument for why it surely must not be his last. I did have a bit of a bias only because Ghostly International has such a great track record for top notch unique (mostly electronic) releases, but I hadn’t really heard anything from Solvent before, so I didn’t have much of a frame of reference. But what I got was a deep dive into the complexity, darkness(at times) and beauty of what can be created with analogue synthesizers, along with a great exercise in contrasts. I love musical contrasts.

On the one hand, you have the sinister “Take Me Home”, arguably the darkest track on the album, which almost sounds like Satan himself imploring you to take him home tonight, and then there’s the frenetic and anxious “Unknown Caller”. Yet directly alongside these tracks, there are a bevy of beautiful, major tunes. Like the opening “Elevator Up (Intro)” which starts out with the blips and bleeps I associate with Ghostly artists, but builds into a surprisingly beautiful, if not far too short, melody. And my personal star of the show, “A Product of the Process”, the song that literally put a smile on my face. It begins with a sort of house beat and sounds like it could be a darker tune, but then it builds into some of the most beautiful arpeggios I can remember, flowing and morphing throughout the first half of the track, becoming so jubilant and glorious that you can’t help but smile (and the key change in the second half of the song definitely doesn’t hurt the cause either) before withering away to nothing. And then there are the songs that you can’t quite put into either category like “Don’t Forget to Phone” which has the shuffle rhythm of Sam Sparro’s “Black and Gold” and an electronic riff reminiscent of Deastro’s “Light Powered”, but lands in the purgatory of this album of brightness and darkness. And if that’s not enough, the first single, “Loss for Words”, is even a contrast within itself, with its rich music being played atop sentimental lyrics of emptiness and doubt.

I think it’s these very contrasts that make this album feel so special and well-thought out to me. For some reason, this album felt very electronic, but the melodies were so clear and apparent that it seems like it might be a good step for someone who’s afraid of electronic music to show them that it’s not as scary as they think it is (although in this case, I probably wouldn’t play them “Take Me Home” first). Electronic music can be a lot more progressive than most people give it credit for (even though it is inherently progressive). I can only say that I’m looking forward to hearing many of these tracks live and in the flesh later this week. Another solid Ghostly release.

Solvent – Loss for Words

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buy the full album on or amazon