Optimistic Decay Volume 1 vinyl

Lo-fi and industrial techno specialist Silent Servant last appeared on L.I.E.S back in 2016, via a typically fuzzy and forthright EP that joined the dots between bleak techno and EBM. There's a similarly retro-futurist feel to Optimistic Decay, which sees him channel the floor-friendly industrial funk of Cabaret Voltaire. This is particularly evident on A-side 'Cyber Luminescence', where Cabs' vocalist Stephen Mallinder adds his half-spoken, half-sung vocals to a track that his and Richard H Kirk's band could have made circa 1981. Elsewhere, 'Raw Optics' is a surging, EBM-influenced throb-job, while 'Solitude Illuminated' is a deep and drowsy mid-tempo chugger blessed with bittersweet synth sounds and bubbly bass.