- Standard Nature's theme is disruption. The Daniel Sannwald artwork, a hyperreal graphic of an engine reflecting a forest, is said to represent a "violation of nature." In the music, WIFE, AKA James Kelly, revs his machines in fits and starts, seldom letting a track settle for long. A song might come to a dead stop, only to return in a flood by the next bar. The ascending swells of "Native Trade" are made more dramatic by periodic silences.
In several ways, Standard Nature is a change in WIFE's sound. His music often found a solemn intersection between gothic pop and electronic music. What's Between rendered isolation in earthy singer-songwriter tones and radio static, but Standard Nature is more abstract, and sometimes violently so. Wreathed in synthetic sounds and pressed forward in jump cuts, the EP falls into orbit with Oneohtrix Point Never's Garden Of Delete.
Kelly's voice is the most interesting thing here. He chops his vowels into single notes and plays them through a keyboard on "Native Trade." The playing gets tighter as the song climbs, until the sounds seize up into a double-time rhythm. On "Standard Nature," Kelly's syllables are almost organ-like. Despite its sudden movements and wounded cries, Standard Nature can also be beautiful. "Glass Interruption" subverts the EP's reference points (post-dubstep, James Blake, Rustie) with an orchestral string section, but Kelly's destructive streak soon shows up again, pummeling the track's coda with ragged bass drums.
Tracklist01. Wide Nine
02. Standard Nature
03. Glass Interruption
04. Native Trade
05. Lovelock