Diffuser

Part noise, part dark IDM, this debut album from Adam Rojo’s Diffuser project is very different from the music Rojo made previously with Ideal Fathers or with his new band, Hollow Talk. While capturing the essence of the socio-political and economic erosion of recent decades, Rojo makes no bones about his perspective, offering titles like “Conflict Industry” and “Vulture Capital.” Both tunes use gritty white noise and drones with a sonic urgency, suggesting a dull but inexorable menace suitable for the topic at hand. “Subject 15,” meanwhile, is a moody, tranquil piece with sequenced beats punctuating its dreamlike atmosphere. “Aggregate Fear” returns to a more challenging sound, with pure, modulated noise that sounds like the aural analogue of a computer impersonally collecting data that spells out the future doom of worldwide capital. All dystopian, conceptual drone.