Album & EP Reviews

Chain Code – Synthetic Outcomes

Chain Code – Synthetic Outcomes
Self-Released 
Release Date: 01/10/24
Running Time: 51:27
Review by Dark Juan
9/10

Dark Juan is still unwell, and this means that I am confined to barracks for a while. I have done the washing up and seen to the Smellhounds, and these simple tasks have absolutely wiped me out. I have foolishly been left unsupervised as Mrs Dark Juan is off setting up and working in her new studio and I have frankly got fucking bored of watching Sharpe on the TV (this after binging the whole Hornblower series because I am a fan of the novels of C. S. Forester, which says much about Dark Juan and the fact that he is drawn to the most gallant and formidable of Royal Naval officers in the age of sail and his repeated smiting of the French) and staring at the half-finished F-104 Starfighter model in front of me – not even listening to Captain Lockheed and The Starfighters whilst doing it has helped with my lack of enthusiasm, so I have downed tools and seated myself at my computer (which is thankfully behaving itself today because if it hadn’t it would have been defenestrated) and activated the Platter of Splatter ™ to amuse myself. Today, I am playing an album from a man called MuRphry, who is too talented for his own good, as with this album (he calls this project Chain Code) he has played every instrument and written the whole goddamned thing by himself. Let’s have a shufti at the music of this Milwaukee, Wisconsin (I shall forbear with the Wayne’s World jokes. We’re not worthy!) inhabitant. 

Let us unleash the prurient Platter of Splatter ™ then….

Spoiler alert: I don’t think that MuRphry is quite human. Maybe post-human. Nobody should be able to do what he does and frankly I am afraid of him now.

The album opens with ‘Human(kind of)’, and this song starts with a sample of a person discussing how AI is being used to convert brain scans into text (this ties in with a future opinion piece Dark Juan has written about how AI is bastardising art and music) and the music is a disturbingly intense fusion of the Progressive Rock of King Crimson (Adrian Belew is a major influence on the work of MuRphry) and the left-field Metal of Voivod. It is spasmodic, jerking brilliance that challenges the listener more than you would normally expect. Unusual time signatures and switching motifs abound, and the song takes so many left turns it completes several circles. However, although deliberately disjointed and fractured in many ways, it remains a huge piece that flows from one movement to another without any of the sometimes forced transitions that can negatively influence complex songs. 

This jerky, friable sound permeates the whole album. It shares the same kind of wide-eyed, spittle-dribbling madness of Mr. Bungle with the Math Metal of Mudvayne (back when they were good) and the precision of Industrial music, and the warm, goofy sense of humour of Primus. By MuRphry’s own admission, Chain Code is influenced by everything nerdy. The project’s name itself is taken from the Star Wars universe.

However, beneath all the freakiness and squawking and gibbering and complexity, there’s fucking good music – ‘My Buddy’ amps up the Metal and the guitar work on the verse shamelessly apes the work of the Dead Kennedys’ East Bay Ray – when I first heard this song I went back to the first four and listened more carefully and picked up flourishes of Post-Punk in the music beneath the fiendish babbling and jerky insanity. Score another one for the uniqueness of Chain Code then.

There is so much to describe in the music of Chain Code. MuRphry has released a staggeringly good piece of work with “Synthetic Outcomes”, but it isn’t for everyone. The music might be too complex and far too challenging for the casual listener – his sense of humour is abstruse, and the lyrical content about humanity having good intentions, but also a deep-seated propensity for destruction as well as humanity essentially giving itself up to technology might not be to the taste of someone five beers in and wanting to hear music about girls, screwing and drinking. That being said, there is much to enjoy on this album, which runs the gamut from uber-technical Prog, to Psychedelia (‘Inadequate’) and beyond to ‘Junk Piles and Their Lonely Owners’, which really is a heavier King Crimson song, being as it is influenced by that band’s “Red” album, and even apes the violin playing on that album with a midi version of an erhu (which is apparently a Chinese instrument, says Google). 

In short, “Synthetic Outcomes” is a deeply satisfying listen if you like your music to be dense, multi-layered and to come with an idea and a concept that the music and the lyrics expand upon. It is spectacularly complex and rewards repeated listens to an egregious degree. It isn’t overpoweringly heavy, but it’s heavy enough to bite you in the arse and it is a challenging listen indeed. Some punters may find it a bit too much to digest in a single sitting, however Dark Juan is made of sterner stuff than that.

You know how I am always banging on about how intelligent and challenging The Chronicles of Manimal and Samara are, and how their use of instrumentation and arrangement forces the listener to change their habits in order to gain the maximum from their music? Chain Code are the same. However, where TCOMAS always have a sense of control and an almost aloof sensibility about their music, Chain Code are the exact opposite – this album is the result of someone plunging head-first and without any restraint into a chaotic musical battlefield and lashing out in all directions with whatever is within reach. MuRphry is the consummate musical warrior.

I can’t find a bad thing to say about this record – the production and engineering (more than ably handled by Dan Klein and Iron Hand Audio) is absolutely top notch – you can hear every little flourish, every china hit and no one thing overpowers another, which is a magnificent achievement when you consider just how spasmodically mental the music is, the music superbly written and performed, and the overarching concept interesting and timely and it appears that MuRphry can currently do no wrong in Dark Juan’s head.

The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System has no hesitation in awarding 9/10 to Chain Code. One mark was deducted because a) Dark Juan is a colossal arsehole, and b) because Chain Code will blow the minds of rather more people than they bargained for. A lot of fans are not going to get this music. However, Dark Juan is a massive and enthusiastic fan from this moment forth. I want to see Chain Code be absolutely fucking massive because their unique sound and concept are fucking amazing.

TRACKLISTING:

01. Human(kind of) 
02. A New Face 
03. They’re NOT Mad Scientists 
04. Unlearn 
05. My Buddy 
06. Inadequate 
07. Junk Piles and Their Lonely Owners 
08. Reaching Out 
09. In Line 

LINE-UP:

MuRphry – Fucking everything you hear. Goddammit, I can’t even write reviews properly. This level of talent and ability is simply not cricket.

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Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.