On Interrupt - Ten Thousand Revolutions

The two-minute and sixteen-second opening track to On Interrupt’s latest album “Ten Thousand Revolutions” shows no falsehoods in the musician’s statement that his project focuses on dark synthwave with a 70s / 80s cinema influence. Like the ending crawl to some cosmic horror film, or maybe the string of opening credits, a deepened synth plays over electronic notes crawling to some end. ‘A Dimly Lit Spiral Staircase’ is also presented with the essence of punk as rapid drums fire off in an electronic structure – just forget the rawness that’s normally presented alongside the genre.

‘The Dream’ thus leads us into an interstellar space chase, or so that’s what I pictured as a rampant beat and psychedelic synths placated the atmosphere. There’s a plethora of varied synth sounds keeping this one from any staleness as it closes it’s four-minute and seven second run. ‘Bodyhammer’ plays on its toughened namesake with a grittier and tougher beat. Crunchier synth lines are sprinkled between brighter bouts of synths, and the moment around one-minute and twenty-second mark is flawless. It’s like if you gave someone with hardware synths the go ahead to do a solo they just went hard. I made an audible, “Oooooooo,” while listening to the song as it was that good. However, the joy is spoiled a bit as in the second minute of the song On Interrupt plays with guitar and a beat that just makes it sound like the song is stuck in a loop, or consistently being cut. 

‘Malefics’ is a fun punchy single with a horror vibe to it complete with synthetic experiments that keep the track fresh through its run. ‘Aberration’ turns back to a more cinematic scope and lessens the beats. Not necessarily minimalist, but embracing the synthesizer keys and drawn out notes that make so many different sci-fi soundtrack grand. I did feel as if this one was a bit long as five-minutes and fifty-seconds, but it wasn’t the worst bore I’ve experienced. 

‘Calls From The Void’ starts off with someone injecting media into a player before rolling out into a synthetic drive. I feel as if this could have and should have been the opening track, and that ‘A Dimly Lit Spiral Staircase’ could have been the intermittence track. But, no points off for that opinion whatsoever; both songs are good. ‘Flatliners’ comes in next with a slapping bassline and further synths that shoot for the stars. The song really opens up later, around the two-minute mark when it feels like On Interrupt just turns the notch to one-hundred and fifty-percent. 

‘Scrap Brain’ had an intro that was a bit too all over the place for me; sounded like the synths and the other varied instruments were just doing their own thing and not in line with one another. This does get fixed later in the song, but every time I play the track I do wince a bit at the intro. The title track comes into play at track number nine. I feel as if at this point in the album I experienced a lot of On Interrupt’s tricks and its hard to be shocked or wowed by anything else he pulls out.  And it’s true; while ‘Ten Thousand Revolutions’ sounds good, it doesn’t sound great, and I was hoping for something more I suppose than what I got. Much the same can be said for ‘New Forms’, although I did enjoy the little cosmic breakdown midway through the song. 

So, I come to an end with On Interrupt’s “Ten Thousand Revolutions”. This is not going to break the genre by any means necessary; a lot of the elements of the album are done well but it’s in line with what I’ve come to expect from an album influenced by synthwave and 70s / 80s media. But it is done well. While production could have been cleaner, some of the rougher elements add a bit of charm to the overall presentation of “Ten Thousand Revolutions”. Seven out of ten; well done. Once On Interrupt finds a way to make his instrumentals stand out from the crowd even more, he’ll be well off.