I Think They Hate Me.. :( - microMACRO
Released: April 29, 2023
Musical risk-takers, as I’ve found over the last few years, are pretty much everywhere. Whether successful or not, for every Focusrite Scarlett set on the market, there’s 15 songs that have been played on any given midi controller and washed through a VST, and an unused condenser microphone sitting in the bottom drawer of a desk that wasn’t quite built correctly. Once in a million producers, however, we will float across a project that is experimental, sonically ground-breaking, conceptual and best of all, cohesive.
For me, that has been I Think They Hate Me.. :( or, for the sake of Google Docs not chucking the shits, just I Think They Hate Me. Starting the project in 2022, project lead Cassandra Hollow has already smashed out four albums of pure, electronic goodness, all of which feel as though they’re answering the question “how does an island of ageing populous 300 kilometres off the coast of the creative hub of the country respond to its darkness?”
The answer has proven to be a brooding gamut of albums that were all released over the course of 12 months: Afraid of Dying Alone and Insane, Hopelessness, Similarity, and most recently, microMACRO. This has formed a body of work that echoes the feeling of walking through the melancholic ridiculousness of takayna/Tarkine Forest, or that of passing crumbling buildings in a semi-dystopian cityscape with Hogs Breath Cafes, Country Roads and government offices shoved into them while “retaining their heritage,” whatever the fuck we choose to believe that is. Further than that, these albums reflect a distinct sadness that I feel like I can relate to. Being nonbinary and recently diagnosed with BPD and C-PTSD, Hollow’s music feels like a friendly and understanding hug.
The most recent album, microMACRO, feels like the truest version of the biography statement, “introverted electronic music for introverted electronic people.” There is a loneliness within this record that can maybe only be truly understood by an introvert; an expansive, sprawling dreamscape filled with everything one has experienced, that simultaneously spirals into void. Sitting in the car before walking into a supermarket; the waiting room of a doctor’s office; the time between times in which nothing happens bar thought… a frequently occurring, more accessible version of limbo.
Musically, microMACRO is a masterwork of synth exploration and experimentation. Hollow wanders through industrial electronica, taps into synth-wave and draws in inspiration and instrumentation that makes obvious a penchant for nostalgia and memory without venturing into already well-trodden territory. Beautifully sparkly synths backed by crunchy, distorted and deliciously warped basslines pervade each track on this album.
It almost isn’t possible to speak to an individual song within a work this cohesive. There are certainly some describable moments, such as the industrial percussive elements we get on MACROwave, or the vaguely middle-eastern theremin-like section heard on Amnesia? that was reminiscent of Melbourne-based dark-electro band Sirus’ last album. The final track on the album, Christmas.. delivers an epic, 14-minute synth odyssey filled brim with arpeggios, heart-touching soundscape work, and a gut-wrenchingly emotional overtone that synth music generally lacks. Listening to all the albums back-to-back in one sitting could certainly signify this track as I Think They Hate Me’s magnum opus.
STANDOUT TRACKS: bleakSIM, Amnesia?, Christmas..
10/10
Written by Ben Barwick from Definitely No Relation June 4, 2023
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