Review: Pendulum's In Silico

In Silico is the 2008 studio album by Australian electro-drum and bass-rockers Pendulum. Ten tracks of thumping, drum-heavy, electronic rock. It’s a very straightforward album, and there isn’t a whole lot to say about it for one very important reason: it is a techno-rock album.

This is not a bad thing. What I mean by this is that, being a heavily techno-influenced work of music, you can expect a significant presence of looping, dancing beats and synths. The seven-minute Midnight Runner is the perfect example of this. Just a thudding beat overlaid with warping, bending synthetic tones that would be perfect in a foggy, laser-strewn club. On the very plus side, it’s not a drum machine, but an actual human drummer; Pendulum may be practitioners of thumping, spacey club tunes, but they’re still serious rock musicians on top.

All of the vocals are electronicized to hell and back, making for a frequent and richly layered harmonies. Unfortunately, many of the songs that feature vocals do not follow the standard verse-chorus-verse structure, so many of these very delightful melodies are not revisited, as the song moves into the next musical phrase.

Synthesizer and guitar compete for the spotlight the entire length of the record, with Mutiny boasting the best competition between the two: In this track lies a jumping, energetic bass and keyboard melody that would be right at home in any of the classic Sonic videogames, followed by a twangy guitar solo halfway through, with the rest of the song being a mosh-lite rock breakdown. And in Propane Nightmares, a pleasantly clean guitar backing gives the perfect accompaniment to what is, I think, the perfect song on the album to listen to first, for within it every aspect of the band is on display: the deep, repetitive drumline, edgy and distorted electronic and stringed instruments, and a heaping amount of vocals, both in lead and highly electronic background accents.

In Silico is a good album, and for different reasons than the other ones that I’ve written about. This is not the kind of music that will get you up and rocking all around the room, and it’s not going to make you think about the greater issues of our world. It’s non-invasive music that is simultaneously the kind you can dance to, and the kind you can very easily mellow out to. And as I have just learned, it’s great for writing to. So if you’ve wanted to explore the netherworld where rock and techno meet, here is the perfect leaping-off point.