Silicon – the new project ex-Mint Chicks Frontman, multi-instrumentalist Kody Nielson – releases its debut album Personal Computer on Friday the 28th August through Weird World/Universal Music.
Personal Computer is a seductive electronica record that pits Nielson’s brilliant soul, funk and disco influenced songwriting against a backdrop of extra-terrestrial noir sonics, calling to mind the varied likes of Flying Lotus, Panda Bear and Daft Punk in the process, as well as that of the project of Nielson’s brother Ruban, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, with whom Kody co-wrote and co-produced the new album Multi-Love and who was also his former band-mate in cult New Zealand punk group The Mint Chicks.
A prodigiously talented multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer, who remains resistant to any kind of easy pigeonholing, Kody Nielson may well have concocted the purest distillation of his hyperactive musical brain yet, in the shape of Silicon. Created in the small hours when the energy is strong, Silicon sends out pulses of warped, genuinely soulful, retro-futuristic electronica that smudges the lines between human warmth and disembodied voices from the machine.
As much as there are traces of his previous work to be found in the sounds of Silicon, ultimately this latest incarnation of Nielson’s genius goes some way to closing the loop on the music he made before the Mint Chicks came into existence. It’s a return to a self-contained mode. Cultivating his own distinct brand, Silicon has been introduced by the svelte machinations of lead single God Emoji where sumptuous electronics meet magnificently harmonized, vocal confections. The aesthetic solidifies and expands with Burning Sugar, a Stevie Wonder like development on the sophisticated funk that Kody explored on previous solo release Devils, which also signifies the caramelised centre and beating heart of Personal Computer. Next cuts like ‘Cellphone’ and ‘Love Peace’ add further layers, coming across as individualistic, sublime pockets of quietude to bring relief in times of information overload and perpetual surface noise.
The release of Personal Computer will be augmented by a series of twenty nine paintings of Kody’s ‘Emoji’ icon which adorn the artwork, and will subsequently be exhibited in New York and London, and made available for sale after the album’s release. The Silicon live experience, which has already manifested itself in the U.K. and Europe, will not be subscribing to the usual dreary linear path that is the default mode of the less imaginative.
