Pronoise - The Border Crossing (2015) – Song by song

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If you find yourself comfortable with a combination of darkwave music, intertwined with EBM and dark electro tunes, with some vintage sounding post-punk and gothic rock insertions, Pronoise’s album The Border Crossing is what you need to hear. Valencia based duet was founded back in 1996 by Nacho Artax and Javi Andreu, two longtime friends, who also found a common point in their passion towards music. A year later their first album, entitled Low Light Vision, was self-released, followed by 2000’s La Fiesta Trieste. After that, it wasn’t much heard of Proinose, up until in 2013, when they re-released their debut Low Light Vision on vinyl. Their latest musical creation, The Borders Crossing, which they were able to release due to a steady and supporting fan base through crowdfunding project, delivers beautiful soundscapes filled with passion, emotion and atmosphere. The combination of various genres, which rely mostly on 80s darksome sounds -  but tend to get a bit futuristic at moments as well- comes simply from Javi being an enthusiast of dark rock and post-punk and Nacho being more into electronic and industrial music. As the album title suggest, you will cross the borders of murky sounding dark ambiances as well as danceable electronic tunes, which will carry you through a sea of atmospheric waves, with its liquid dynamic and smooth passages between the merging genres. Both Nacho and Javi kindly took some time to present the songs of the album.

Song by song commentary by: Nacho Artax and Javi Andreu
Edited by: Ines

Band: Pronoise
Album title: The Border Crossing
Release date: 15 May 2015
Label: Surgical Knife Records (self-release label)

Tracklist:
01.The Speed Of Dark
02. Dangerous Games
03. Rapture (They Won’t Care)
04. Suzanne And The Sea Of Souls
05. Evil Machine
06. Malfunction
07. Hunting 2015
08. After The Rain
09. Mil Pedazos

1. The Speed Of Dark

This track has one of the most interesting stories on the whole album. The rest of songs were all still half-way done and the whole concept was not defined yet. It was almost finished, but needed a concretion. We were looking into making a song about speeches (political speeches and similar), showcasing fragments of different speeches in history, comparing them to current situation (and at this point we need to ask ourselves: have the times changed at all?) and so. The  mainidea was to have theese speech fragments with danceable leads or plucks and bassline in between the voices. The plucks melody and the 303-esque bassline took a lot of work and sounded awesome. Then, the research for fragments of old vocal speeches came, when we came across this fantastic fragment of an old recording. It was a scientist describing Einstein's train and light experiment. We felt this was a connecting piece, the glue for the whole album concept: trains, rails, squeals, movement, and power. We had already decided about the album title - The Border Crossing, because we mix so many different styles on it, which many purists don't like at all -, so it fit into the entire picture: railroad crossings, destinations, journey stages… Musically the percussion was adapted to this idea too, so it is completely different from the initial idea. And the final result made it obvious that this had to be the opening track.

2. Dangerous Games

This is the track that re-started it all. After the vinyl re-release of Low Light Vision in 2013, and encouraged by fans, Nacho started creating music again. Amongst all the initial ideas, this one was the one we thought sounded the best. In the first phase it consisted of the bassline and atmospheric cinematic sounds. When Javi heard it, the spark lit a fire instantly and guitar add-ons came to his mind. And we said: "OK, let's do it!". The lyrics speak of observations seen in night life – it's about girls and guys playing dangerous games, with unclear intentions and the consequences of not being clear or smart from the zero moment of truth.

3. Rapture (They Won't Care)

Would drugs be used and not abused in another legal and educational context? What happens when society presses you so much that you need an escape way too often? Is it OK to live fast and to the limit, intentionally or unintentionally? Will anybody really care about "your shitty story" - as seen by society- in the end? Will you, in that same moment, give a damn about what they thought? Again - based on observation.

4. Suzanne And The Sea Of Souls

Quite obvious, isnt't it? It's a song which tells a story about strength and will to hold on to a good relationship against others, who are being envious or even filled with hatred towards it. It's about helping each other and having support from friends.

5. Evil Machine

"Evil" is a reference to the darker sides of our music, and "Machine" to the more industrial ones. In fact we've also used this concept in the visual design: the vinyl edition features an inverted pentagram on one side (instead of saying the typical A-side) and a gear on the other side (instead of B-side). The Machine is on! We hope you crumble on the dance floor.

6. Malfunction

Imagine a steampunk The Matrix in a lab. Can we really be happy? Musically this song was the toughest one to finish and is probably the best one too. People don't realize what it takes when you need to mix such a wide array of different material: voices, electronics, guitars and more. Pure electronic or pure pop/rock are much easier: the standards are set, but oh boy, when you have all kinds of things and want all your sounds and instruments to be distinguishable and at the same time sound cohesive and powerful...

7. Hunting 2015

"Hunting" was one of the most acclaimed songs in our first album from 1997. Still, that album had been done with so little means that we always thought if we ever did a revision of one song, it would be this one. This is probably as musically tough as we've gone for now (in the Pronoise form, not individually). Lyrics are short but very, very good. These are the only lyrics in the whole album written with the help of a friend, Alfredo Álamo, who is a book and comic writer in Spain.

8. After The Rain

Love, deception, confusion, despair... sounds familiar?

9. Mil Pedazos

Literally translated to "A Thousand Pieces", but more in the sense of "Torn Apart". Beautifully torn apart and a perfect finish to The Border Crossing. We wanted a special ending track, which also left the door open to future works. This speaks of the pain and sadness in the end of a stage; a good-bye (A lost love? A farewell from a beloved one?). We were playing the piano, which is a perfect instrument for this, for many hours in different moments, and then revised which melody reflected better melancholy and a sad mood. Also the storm is used as a traumatic conflict remembrance. But at the same time the melody, supported by the backing strings, portrays a message of hope. After the storm comes a calms and the horizon lights again. Last stop, but now, can you get up from your seat? Or do you rather have the feeling you'd just stay sitting in opioid comfort? You need another spin to get moving again.

Pronoise links: Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp

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