''It's Immaterial'' is the second studio album by American

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

project Black Marble, released on October 14, 2016 through

Ghostly International Ghostly International is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City with team in Los Angeles, and London. Artists include Matthew Dear, Dabrye (a.k.a. Tadd Mu ...

record label. It is the project's first album not to feature Ty Kube, making it a solo project of the other member Chris Stewart.

Composition and style

According to '' Drowned in Sound''’s Stephen Proski, ''It's Immaterial'' combines elements of "early Eighties

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

and synth-driven proto

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Tim Sendra argued that the album harks back to the "gloomy, muted sound of the first record, which mixed together Stewart's disembodied vocals,

Peter Hook Peter Hook (born 13 February 1956) is an English musician. He was the bassist and co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division and its successor New Order. He often used the bass as a lead instrument, playing melodies on the high strings wi ...

-style basslines, janky drum machines, and synths so cold they'd freeze water." ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

''’ Ian King thought that the record "doesn’t make any seismic adjustments to Black Marble’s era-faithful synthwave which arrived fully formed on the debut ''Weight Against the Door'' EP and full length ''A Different Arrangement''."

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''It's Immaterial'' received positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 72, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 6 reviews. AllMusic critic Tim Sendra wrote: "Stewart is content to work on the fringes of the synth pop underground, and that's the kind of iconoclasm that makes ''It's Immaterial'' worth seeking out for fans of the sound who are sick of how omnipresent it seems." ''Drowned in Sound'' critic Stephen Proski thought that the record "keeps you floating in an undisclosed location between heaven and purgatory, spiralling with no direction." Ian King of ''PopMatters'' stated: "Without crossing too far over Black Marble’s own tastefully stark lines, It’s Immaterial allows a little more endearing color and candor." ''The Skinnys Joe Goggins commented that the record is "always going to feel like either an engaging listen or a frustrating one."

Track listing

References

External links

''It's Immaterial''
on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

{{Authority control 2016 albums Black Marble albums Ghostly International albums