Uniform (US)
Uniform formed in New York City in 2013 when old friends Ben Greenberg and Michael Berdan reconnected and realized that they had evolved to a similar place musically. Wanting as intimate an experience as possible, they decided to keep the project a two-man show, eschewing a live rhythm section for programmed drums and low-end synths, augmented with Greenberg's guitar and Berdan's vocals.
- - -
Uniform formed in New York City in late 2013 when old friends Ben
Greenberg (Hubble, The Men, Pygmy Shrews) and Michael Berdan (York
Factory Com- plaint, Drunkdriver, Believer/Law) realized they lived on
the same street. Their impulsive collaboration quickly yielded Our Blood
/ Of Sound Mind and Body single. The six tracks that comprise the
equally abrasive but more refined Perfect World have been coming
together between tours and work ever since.The music that
Greenberg and Berdan conjure up under the Uniform moniker is immediate,
aggressive, and even primal in form, but it plumbs untold depths.
Berdan’s venomous voice mines deeply personal themes of resentment,
regret, reflection and addiction over the hum of Greenberg’s almost
impossibly disciplined guitar, bass synth, and drum machine lines.
Greenberg uses the word “templatized” to describe their approach to
writing songs for Uniform.
“There’s this set bunch of gear to create sounds, and it only creates sound through a certain process, or within its own limitations,” Greenberg said. “The goal of songwriting is to see how many different kinds of sounds you can get from the same basic process and machine.”
On ‘Perfect World’ (12XU 076-1, out June 9) that machine is firing on all cylinders. The guitar is run through a cheap ’80s preamp marketed to metal kids. The drum machine is equally no-frills, an Akai XR20 that Greenberg says “most people wouldn’t want to keep around.” These humble components are combined with noisy synth and Berdan’s profound howling to form something much greater. Post-punk, synthpunk, and industrial traditions are borrowed from as needed, but the constraints placed on the process mean the result is unique to Uniform. Berdan describes his lyrics as the consequence of feeling “so full of pain, confusion, deep selfishness, and general animosity that you make some horrible mistakes and have to learn how to forgive yourself for them.” ‘Perfect World’ feels like the sum of all that pain and confusion, but it also feels like the catharsis.
“There’s this set bunch of gear to create sounds, and it only creates sound through a certain process, or within its own limitations,” Greenberg said. “The goal of songwriting is to see how many different kinds of sounds you can get from the same basic process and machine.”
On ‘Perfect World’ (12XU 076-1, out June 9) that machine is firing on all cylinders. The guitar is run through a cheap ’80s preamp marketed to metal kids. The drum machine is equally no-frills, an Akai XR20 that Greenberg says “most people wouldn’t want to keep around.” These humble components are combined with noisy synth and Berdan’s profound howling to form something much greater. Post-punk, synthpunk, and industrial traditions are borrowed from as needed, but the constraints placed on the process mean the result is unique to Uniform. Berdan describes his lyrics as the consequence of feeling “so full of pain, confusion, deep selfishness, and general animosity that you make some horrible mistakes and have to learn how to forgive yourself for them.” ‘Perfect World’ feels like the sum of all that pain and confusion, but it also feels like the catharsis.
[Video]
[Discography]
Post a Comment