World Brain - WORLD VS BRAIN 10" EP

Two albums — and now one EP — in, Lucas Chantre’s WORLD BRAIN project remains preoccupied with the computerization of our world and the virtualization of everyday life it produces. It is animated by the admixture of romanticism and critique, both of which seem to become rarer as the digital seeps further into society’s core. On WORLD VS BRAIN that critical edge is sharper than ever. On the sardonic “Wetware,” old speech-to-text software gives voice to an artificial intelligence’s mocking disdain for obsolescent humans; with the muted “Thumbnail,” Chantre ponders the enervating pursuit of exposure and illusory connection online.

While the music here is inflected by technological detachment, there remains a beating heart of unguarded sentiment. Part love song and part cosmic fable, the ingenuously lovely “Life In Theory,” where Chantre is joined on flute and lead vocals by Japanese musician Kumisolo (Kumi Okamoto), with backing vocals by Miyo Okamoto, transposes the themes of virtuality and reality to the most fundamental plane of existence. “Anyhow” is one of the most affecting songs in the WORLD BRAIN catalog, a plaintive olive branch offered to a prickly father figure over brumous, almost sleep-walking instrumentation.

Chantre has a knack for creating curious, disarmingly original instrumental tracks, demonstrated here with the trio that anchors the EP. Opener “Test Screen” serves as a kind of wordless thesis statement, lo-rez sampled vocal notes gallivanting over ambivalent oddball orchestration. The spy-movie bassline of “Split Vision” grounds an interlude capturing the nervy hypervigilance of a crisis-shadowed present, while closing track “WB menu theme,” long a fan-favorite at live performances, is equal parts festive medieval march and retro video game score.

Taken as a whole, the result is a truly unique sound: melancholy but jaunty, nostalgic yet futuristic, its clear affection for its influences and precedents no impediment to the achievement of a fully new synthesis.

Mastered by Emilie Daelemans. Artwork by Lucas Chantre.