In scanning the crucial components to contemporary society’s disconnection from the real world.
The Cardiff Post-Hardcore trio Holding Absence seek to defrag their inner emotional despair while yearning for a life outside our self-imposed technological prisons, with their latest concept record, Modern Life Is Lonely.
Paying homage to Blur’s 1993 sophomore studio album – Modern Life Is Rubbish, with a slight subversion in its name, allowing us to focus our attention on the true core of the album’s lifecycle – Where Blur sought to humorously comment on the state of suburban England’s culture and prejudices, Holding Absence jacks into a desperate thematic exploration, centred on mental imprisonment, intense longing and liberation from past wounds.
In holding space with the album’s dreamlike, emotionally dissonant atmosphere, the processing of certain tracks’ architecture left much to be mulled over.
The album’s namesake track, which was originally released last month, is a dichotomous wave of regretful insight, the illusion of isolation and frenzied pleas for a shortcut out of overstimulation. As it is quite obviously positioned as the cornerstone of the entire record, Modern Life Is Lonely’s emotive language, continuous glitching back and forth between alluring soft melody and crushing audible redlining, is a masterclass in Holding Absence’s impressive, yet still under-appreciated, sonic craftsmanship.
