Perturbator – ‘Lustful Sacraments’

Nostalgia is one hell of a drug. The microcosm of microgenres that exploded onto the electronic scene in the 2010’s, idolising the sounds of decades past, washed over all aspects of online culture like… well, like a wave, and chief among them was the ever popular synthwave: old-school French house and disco fused with the influences of cinematic composers like Vangelis and John Carpenter, all set to blistering electronic drumlines.

From art to music to clothing, it was only a matter of time before a desire to evolve past the limitations of the genre became the prerogative for its practitioners. So much of the movement’s later life has been spent attempting to out-run the inevitable burnout and staleness that oversaturation can bring, and the last five years have thus proved a wild playground for the producers and musicians looking to move beyond the pink-tinged, neon soaked nostalgia of the ’80s. ‘Lustful Sacraments’, the fifth full album from James Kent – AKA Perturbator, does just that. Sensual, cinematic, and heavy as all hell, the latest release from the Parisian producer continues his exploration of a grimy, vantablack future, resulting in a record that’s both familiar and excitingly unknown sonic territory for one of retro-electronica’s High Kings.

If the 2017 EP ‘New Model’ was his prototype for this new wave of synth-driven music, Perturbator’s latest effort is the factory at full production. Kent has always leaned into the darker, heavier side in his electronic production, but you won’t really understand how much of a leap into the industrial depths has been made until you’re hit with the opening salvo of ’Reaching Xanadu’ with it’s slow, alien drum beats, and ‘Lustful Sacraments’ and its piercing guitar and hammer-on-metal percussion. The bright pinks of the ’80s are merely a memory, replaced by a moody, metallic ’90s and ’00s ambience, where bleak soundscapes of scraping metal and whirring intertwine with hazy electric guitars and sharp analogue-emulating synths. 

Every element of the production has such character to it, and each gets their moment to shine through. In particular, there are some wonderful guitar lines that permeate the record, such as in the cyberpunk chase sequence in ‘Excess’. Not entirely willing to separate himself from his house roots, the tried and tested synths still serve Kent well, such as providing a miasma of bass that coats ‘Dethroned Under a Funeral Haze’ and its more mechanised industrial elements. There are even some wonderfully gothic metal influences (Kent being no stranger to the black metal scene himself), particularly with some of the guest features: the bassy vocals of True Body on ‘Secret Devotion’ lend themselves to what feels like an electrically charged homage to Type O Negative, the warped monologue from BELIAL adds another layer of unease in the gothic nightclub ambiance of ‘Death of the Soul’, and Hangman’s Chair add some truly haunting farewells in the explosive finale of the album, ‘God Says’.

Yet the foundations of what drove Kent’s signature sound to the top are still there, nestled away like old VHS cartridges. Be it the runaway wailing synths of ‘The Other Place’ echoing Vangelis’s work on Blade Runner, or the grinding bass tucked into the breakneck pace of the mechanical ‘Messalina, Messalina’. ‘Lustful Sacraments’ is, at times, frustratingly unplaceable in its familiarity. It’s like a silver cup melted down and reforged into a necklace; everything is new, distinct and unique in its form and presentation, but you can’t help but note the similarities purely from the trace amounts of the original item you see within the materials. These old habits never detract from the gritty atmosphere Perturbator is trying to build with his work, merely providing a small anchor to better understand the grand future gothscape masterfully crafted. 

The synthwave movement has long since come and gone, and we’ve seen its artists branch out into the electronic landscape in a myriad of fascinating attempts to evolve their sound, but ‘Lustful Sacraments’ is perhaps one of the first post-genre efforts to fully realise its own potential. Unrequited nostalgia no longer, Perturbator’s industrial-infused electric nightmare stands on its own feet to deliver its message of ill portents, and continues to redefine and modernise his particular brand of noir house music to truly gorgeous effect.

FIACHRA JOHNSTON