Julien-K
Death to Analogue

Campus Correspondent By Paul Lewis,
Eastern Washington University


The Band Julien-K wants to “start a new movement” with its debut album, according to guitarist Ryan Shuck. The band founded by two members of the synth rock band Orgy, (Shuck and guitarist Amir Derakh) release its debut Death to Analog (Metropolis Records) after spending two years promoting, working on soundtracks and touring. The band gets an “A” for effort and will find a following with fans from Orgy, but it’s fallen well short of wanting to start a revolution.

The most impressive feature of the album is that every song has a distinct sound and the vocals are understandable. The first single “Kick the Bass” is up-tempo and the words can easily be understood. One standout track is “Systeme de Sexe” where the singer is seducing a woman like something out of a devilish dream. 

The one drawback is that the band can’t seem to find the balance between the sound and vocals on a couple of tracks. “Nvr say Nvr” starts with thirty seconds of nothing but beats and then vocals that blend into the background instead of becoming the focal point of the song. The comparison can be made to giving a short order cook Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen- the band saw the technology available and went nuts.