What would happen if a computer gained sentience, had an existential crisis and decided to let it all out by writing its own music? Well, you get Analogue Heart’s new EP Digital Soul: an alt-rock concept album that walks us through this precise event. This fun new release mixes digital and analogue sounds and distinct genres, creating something completely new and leaving us asking philosophical questions at the end.
The project Analogue Heart began in December of 2020 as a way to get through the pandemic. The sense of isolation and loneliness during this difficult time served as the inspiration for Digital Soul :
This album was conceived when I was left all alone for about a week straight, no house guests, no roommates, nothing. It was a strange experience and left me with a lot of time to think about myself and my personal journey. So I decided to write an album the desire to fit in. It just happens to be under the guise of an album centered around a computer wanting to make music much like I wanted to make music when I was younger. -Analogue Heart
The EP was completely written, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by Analogue Heart in the span of six months.
The story told by Digital Soul‘s may be simple at first sight. It is told by the EP’s eight tracks, which include an intro, an intermission and an outro. A computer goes to a concert (“A Heart (Intro)”). Suddenly the music impacts it in unexpected ways, making it feel emotions for the first time (“Boot”). Our character realizes his physical existence and its own emotions (“Digital”). As the concert continues (“That Sound (Intermission)”) It feels the urge to go against its own programming and to create its own music (“CPU”). It realizes it is free to do what it really wants (“Clipping”) and reflects about all the things that it has learned (“Analogue”). Finally, the concert reaches an end (“A Soul (Outro)”).
The premise of Digital Soul allows Analogue Heart to play with sound in extremely fun ways. The of drums, bass and guitars interact with the digital sounds of autotune applied to the vocals and the retro digital sound of late 80’s synths. The collision of the old and the new make each one of the songs of the EP sound sweet of nostalgic, successfully simulating the feeling of the Windows 95 system stored away in the basement grabbing a guitar and singing to us at a party. An old friend we have not seen in a long time. We begin feel empathy with what the computer is saying to us in “Boot”, “Digital” and “CPU” and in a way feel identified with it.
While the lyrics do an excellent job telling us what the computer is thinking and feeling, the music by itself carries a narrative weight. As the computer identifies its newfound freedom, it exercise it in unexpected ways. “I FEEL SO FREE!”, growls the computer in “Clipping” as it decides its new album needs a tiny hint of Death Metal in its last two songs. Surprising indeed, but what is truly a success is that we celebrate it. “My music changed the course of my fate” sings the computer in “Analogue”. We realize that the computer is doing what it really wants to do and not what it is expected to.
Digital Soul‘s teaches us a very valuable lesson. Computers are programmed to behave and react in a very specific way. It is expected to according to what it is taught. However, Analogue Heart presents to us a computer that is able to break the code to pursue its own passion with a very original, interesting, fun and, in a certain way, autobiographical banger of an album: “You can make art no matter how late you start”. It is an experience that you will not want to miss. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from the computer.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify. You can also check out their official website. If you enjoy their music and are able to provide monetary support, you might consider downloading it on Bandcamp.
It also helps to stream and share her music; you can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind,and Debut Bands (Off The Radar).
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This coverage was created via Musosoup #Sustainablecurator