Cate Brooks, known for her exploration of the anxious psychedelia of 1970s public information films in The Advisory Circle, shifts her focus on Prismatics to the glassy golden age of corporate electronica from the early to mid-1980s. This period marked a transition from analogue to digital technology and coincided with a boom in the consumer electronics industry. As a result, a burgeoning middle class emerged, contributing to a societal shift that led to the commercialization of music and art. On Prismatics, Brooks encourages us to seize the idealistic playfulness of retrofuturism’s digital dawn.
Prismatics is aesthetically reminiscent of vaporwave while avoiding the post-ironic internet culture from which it emerged. Rather than presenting an irreverent critique of modern capitalism, the album may serve as a cultural commentary on the swift progression of technological advancements and the commodification of historical narratives. It doesn’t adopt a satirical viewpoint; instead, it functions as a faithful homage to the eternal oddness of the original music. The album convincingly recreates the atmosphere of an era when cheap TV themes and commercial soundtracks sought to explore the potential offered by nascent digital media.
Brooks masterfully navigates the realms of classic gear and modular synthesizers, transcending the typical approach of laying contemporary rhythms with vintage sounds. On her standout track ‘Chipset’, she coalesces tinny drums, archaic instrumentation, and impeccably clean synthesizers to concoct a hauntological time capsule, conjuring the essence of early 1980s Sonoton records while also tapping into the spheres of dissociative video game music and ambient City Pop.
To modern ears, Prismatics could also be a challenging, even comical listening experience. Those familiar with Limmy’s Show might draw comparisons to the theme for Falconhoof’s Adventure Call, particularly on the title track. But the Casio-tinged synthesis of melody and idiosyncrasy could only be executed by an accomplished composer and seasoned production engineer. Prismatics is testament to Brooks’ profound understanding of electronic music equipment and her ability to bridge the past with the present in innovative ways.
While these songs are somewhat upbeat, they carry an undercurrent of eeriness. The discomfort we feel when encountering such openly nostalgic sounds stems from a vision of a future that never came to pass. Heavily drenched in the pursuit of nostalgia, Prismatics is hypnagogic pop at its most loyally rendered, the pixelated synthscapes encapsulating a temporal exploration of an envisioned utopia that has since been lost.
