Diagram of Suburban Chaos :: Status Negatives Review
2002-02-21
Philadelphia City Paper
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/022102/mus.cds3.shtml
San Diego’s young William Collin Snavely (a.k.a. Diagram of Suburban Chaos) paints a sonic picture of the hints of gloom and isolation persisting within the suburban world of manicured lawns and two-car garages. Snavely believes more emotion exists in the ’burbs than in a big city, anyway. His debut album, Status Negatives, is a 15-track, 70-minute, unconditionally heartfelt, serene, somewhat depressing, borderline gothic portrait of the unspoken "suburban chaos" that throbs in the hearts of its dwellers. More appropriate for a late-night, before-bedtime listen than for dancing, this moody and mellow experimental heart-plunger regurgitates a sound already spawned by early Autechre without really ripping them off — combined with touches of Boards of Canada, Bowery Electric and even the Cure’s Faith album. One could argue that DOSC embarks on the opposite of what DJ Spooky and the illbient scene once painted with electronic music — that is, the illbient artists sonically draw out the morbidities and turmoil of city life, while DOSC delves into the bleeding hearts of suburbanites living with loneliness and despair. Nonetheless, similarly to Enya and other new age sounds, these poignant soundscapes can also bring you comfort and inner peace.
—Sean O’Neal
