Pleasurekraft delivers a dystopian love story saga on new concept LP, ‘Love in The Age of Machines’

October 6, 2020

Continuing the expansion of the “cosmic techno” sub-genre, the pioneering underground duo under the name of Pleasurekraft releases another full album. Titled Love in the Age of Machines, the 12-track conceptual saga that takes the listener on a journey through the vision of a future where the only things left are machines.

The album opens powerfully with the track “Last Sapien,” which hints towards the struggles of finding humanity in a world increasingly more technologized and automated. Followed by an atmospheric track riddled with sound design that reminds of retro-futuristic landscapes, “Nostalgic For The Future” continues the tour through this new world, where the need for conscious choice is higher than ever.

While there is an overall sense of melancholy and nostalgia after a world long gone, tracks like “I Sing the Body Electric” and “Novacene” will remind listeners there is still light and hope in this voyage through the edges of the galaxy. That voyage is life as we know it, as the record alludes.

Overall, Love in The Age of Machines is a brilliant melange of peak hour bangers and cinematic atmospheres, not very commonly blended quite this masterfully in the techno genre. Hypnotic beats, introverted synth leads, and rumbling basslines collide seamlessly with thought-provoking vocals.

Probably one of the most persuasive tracks of the album, “Panopticon (The Patron Saint of Global Surveillance)” is drawing a very clear warning sign towards the need to reevaluate human habits, and take back control over our awareness in the constantly changing modern world. The track title borrows on English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, an architectural style wherein institutionalized inmates do not know they are all being watched by one guard. Keep this in mind when watching the powerfu lyric video below.