Diagram of Suburban Chaos :: Status Negatives Review
2002-03-01
Pulse! Magazine (Tower)
http://pulse.towerrecords.com/contentStory.asp?contentId=485
By naming his electronic project Diagram of Suburban Chaos, San Diego's William Colin Snavely raises the specter of angst. The music he creates on antiquated Omega computers could be construed as commentary on America's strange sociology, on its crowded highways and manicured lawns and mall-strewn landscapes. Yet it's also oddly soothing, a collage of scratchy blips and warm ringing tones and assuring beats. So what is Snavely trying to say on Status Negatives? Don't look to the song titles for answers: His tracks take their orthographic cues from Aphex Twin, lowercase jibberish like "w.a.a.c. (dx)" and "cryhsat." (Or maybe it's an anagram game?) At any rate, Snavely's compositional skills don't match up with his technology smarts, rendering much of Status Negatives as passable bedroom electronica that doesn't add much to the dialogue, and which borrows too liberally from Aphex's style. Not a crime, surely, but when you bear such a provocative name as Diagram of Suburban Chaos, inventiveness had better be your hallmark.
2.5 Stars
By Richard A. Martin
