Having grown up with and on the internet, Martin Steer (1986) has transformed its pull into a concept album that is just as immediate and intangible as the digital world. Bad Stream is guitars and machines vanishing in the spaces between Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails only to reemerge amidst techno, noise, and drone. We’re told that Bad Stream is his modus operandi—a soundtrack to the feelings of resignation, isolation, and cynicism within neoliberal cyberspace and to that strangely numbing comfort of bodies transmuting into zeros and ones in real time.

“Already Dark” is the first single and the central piece of the concept album which will be released on April 6 on his own Berlin-based label ANTIME Records. The song is distinctly post-industrial in composition, commenting in its seven minutes on our accelerating world of face recognition, big data, species extinction, mind hacks, and human uploads.

The music developed in dozens of recording sessions over a period of more than two years. It was inspired by artists like Health, Alessandro Cortini, Daniel Avery, Synthesizer Soundtracks, and countless experimental/techno nights in Berlin. The arrangement connects styles like electronica, shoegaze, and pop appeal with instruments like piano, theremin, the unique sound of the Tempest Drumsynth and Martin’s distinctive voice.

In support of the release, and ahead of the album, you can grab “Already Dark” (Album Version) via the WeTransfer button below.

Tracklisting

01. Already Dark (Radio Edit)
02. Already Dark (Album Version)
03. Already Dark (Kaigy Etix Remix)
04. Already Dark (Blurred Vision Remix) 05. Already Dark (ˆL_ Remix)

Already Dark (Album Version)