VR SEX - Rough Dimension

The latest album by Andrew Clinco's acid punk band VR SEX is named after an architectural expression, but above all it refers to the twisted, sinful underworld that the songs describe and condemn. Under the moniker Noel Skum - a scathing anagram of Elon Musk - Clinco expresses his disdain and fascination for the seedy, surreal edge of Los Angeles, condemned to dead ends of vanity, lust and technology. Although originally conceived as an outlet for "heavier sounds" beyond Clinco's duties in new wave fantasists Drab Majesty, the project has matured into a compelling exercise in world-building, weaving themes of gritty urban neo-futurist slime within driving, distorted guitars and cathode-blasted synths.

He wrote and recorded it in two weeks alone in an apartment in Marseille on his prized 1980s Gibson "Invader" and a laptop. Clinco then took the tracks to Brooklyn's Strange Weather Studios, where he recorded them with Ben Greenberg (Uniform, The Men), who was involved with 2019's debut Human Traffic Jam. The result is remarkably riveting, subtle and riveting. Alternate-tuning riffs spew and strum over mid-tempo drums punctuated by bursts of sci-fi electronica, while vocals swing and spit venom. It's a divisive blend of the melodic and the macabre, an absurd observation about fast life and desperate measures, the clocks of youth ticking towards midnight while dreams dissolve in Babylon.

VR SEX's specialty is that these cautionary tales of psychological decay and love gone wrong are exciting rather than drawn-out. There's a hint of nighttime sunglasses in Clinco's choruses and solos, a wit in his black leather judgments. The musical environment tends towards parasites and predators, but its mood veers towards refreshing acceleration and fun, cruising the strip with a cigarette, watching goths and limousines crawling in traffic jams under digital billboards. Rough Dimension may be a cesspool, but it's home.