‘Patterns of Possession’ is the sophomore full-length studio album by _SHOE. Bursting with a dark synthwave energy and cinematic electronic storytelling, Patterns of Possession continues the enthralling and sinister story of _SHOE, an AI coming to grips with its own sentience. Weaving through a new era of possession, control, and identity, hard-hitting synth lines, glitch sequences, and emotive vocals plunge the listener into the synthetic heart of the new wave. Stefano Francescato’s haunting vocals and Matteo Martini’s ferocious guitar work combine to create a natural hybrid of rock and electronic, both machine and organic at once. _SHOE has crafted a cinematic soundtrack for a digital dystopia at the precipice of a new reality, one that finally blends the emotionality of man with the logic of the machine.
Starting with the colossal “Patterns of Possession”, the album opens with a delicate synth intro that suddenly shatters into a dissonant and dark sound that speaks to the listener with a portentous feeling both uplifting and terrifying at the same time. “Flickering” bursts into the album with a light wave synth bliss as a moment of reprieve before the action begins in earnest. The second half of the album delves further into the grimy recesses of cyber-possession. Weaving through a neon-lit forest of retro sound and synthesized vocals _SHOE distills the complex relationship between man and machine, finding a poetic tension within the fuzz and static. Songs such as “Shutdown Protocol” and “It Takes Control” explore the entanglement of machine and human in a distorted dance of push and pull with de-tuned basslines, and glitched out sonic effects. “Lace Entanglement” plays with a contorted, atonal, and erratic structure to explore the agony of an automaton trapped by its own system.
The second half of ‘Patterns of Possession’ descends further into a chilling morass of vintage industrial rock and modernist cinematic tension. Tracks such as “Server of Lost Soles” and “The Investigation” evoke the cinematic tension of classic noirs while “The Confrontation” thrums at the boiling point of anticipation. The last handful of songs feature the climactic apex of humanity pitted against the AI adversary. In a stunningly suspenseful finale, _SHOE displays a masterful level of tension and control within this sonic buffet. ‘Patterns of Possession’ is an album to dive headlong into the murky relationship between possession and identity, technology and humanity.
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