A self-described four by four electronic music release, CITIZEN:KANE’s ‘Familiar Voices Are Easier To Understand’ does indeed tread the lines of a whole host of genres and styles across its four pieces. It’s a blend and flow of acid house, deep house, and techno all in one. A complete smorgasbord, a sonic palette that’s loaded with sounds almost as varied and interspersed as a modern art canvass is scattered with brushes and splashes. From the opening piece ‘Woman Starting At The Garden With Her Wine Glass Dropping Slowly’, you’re hurled into a seemingly hypnotic trance of a piece that follows a bumpy rhythm alongside some almost science fiction reminiscent odd sound bits and pieces thrown in here and there.
The entire album doesn’t seem like a piece built today, it feels inherently futuristic or even alien. But what’s clear is that the core beat, the core rhythm, and the core feel of each track has a sense of repetition and pulse to it. Each song feels steered by a motion, a driving force or sensation that’s able to reel the listener in and keep them transfixed yet entirely bewildered all at once. You have to have an appreciation for the absurd, a keen attention to the manic, and an affinity for the fantastical to really fall in love with this piece. It’s an oddball record that will appeal to the oddballs.
But Familiar Voices Are Easier To Understand is also a treat to focus on. It allows you to be single minded, completely surrendering yourself to whatever you’ve sent your mind to at the moment. Because of its frenetic repetition, it’s continual pulse, you’re allowed to feel at ease while that serves as your steering wheel. A truly sensational piece of experimental electronic music.