If in literature a tragedy is a work that begins high and ends low, and a comedy (think Dante’s) vice versa, then what about a narrative that starts with order and ends dissolved into nothingness?ย Stability to chaos in the span of a few hundred pages, an hour and a half at the movies, or two sides of an LP.ย What can we call it?ย It doesnโt have to be dramatic, is in fact rarely pronounced, and foregoes the three-act structure in favor of a long, obvious decline.ย Steady and inexorable is the slide into darkness, dissolution, anarchy, and must be obviously stated or otherwise seem cruel and impossible.ย Is there a word?
Well, there is a sound.ย Have a Nice Life has been active in fits and starts since 2008โs Deathconsciousness arrived on the scene, sneaking into the musical conversation until the self-distributed record became a catchall for buzz about new types of music still only truly catching on.ย With The Unnatural World, finally arriving six years later, the duo capitalizes on all of its promise and brings to us a mutated step-child, densely packed with grimy programmed drums and massive synthesizers and insistent bass, beginning with โGuggenheim Wax Museumโ and โDefenstration Song,โ its two most melodic numbers to date, and kickstarting the decline spoken above.
This is best demonstrated in Dan Barrettโs vocals.ย Catchy and pushed to the forefront on the recordโs A-side, when they return they are vague imitations of themselves, drowned under the toy-box glitches of โCropseyโ or within โUnholy Lifeโ and its propulsive take on industrial shoegaze.ย It becomes harder to understand what he says as the music falls apart around him, each mirroring the other.ย The vocals prove an ever-malleable instrument to this end, stitched into a choir on โMusic Will Unntune the Sky,โ filling the space between empty industrial clicks in the wasteland of โEmptiness Will Eat The Witch.โย Voices stack until the notes devour each other and confuse the ear.ย Each song asks: what is left?ย The whole of it suddenly ended, not even an echo, guitars simply unplugged.ย The needle skating off the groove.
โIt isnโt real but it feels realโ Barrett announces during the Bauhaus-isms of โBurial Society.โย So goes the approximately 50-minute runtime of Unnatural World, about half of Deathconsciousnessโ but lending itself to greater movement overall.ย Each song feels meticulous, parts integrated wonderfully to produce a precise outcome.ย Repetition feels earned, not the result of laziness but instead a greater ear for both melody and chaos, for how both can develop when allowed to breathe.ย The two invoke claustrophobia and awe and the slow churning of discomfort only to suddenly stop the tape, wondering where the feelings ever came from in the first place.ย So when โEmptinessโ pulls out the rug, you jump sharply from open water to steady ground, and realize it was all implanted in your head to begin with.ย There is a word for that: an accomplishment.
