Synthetic ID - White Walls 7" (Satellite Visions/Cut The Cord That... records)

I was immediately intrigued by the very sober artwork on this release. The black and white image on the cover, at first glance, looked somewhat like a giant barcode. Closer inspection made me suspect that in fact it might be a manipulated image of the side of a skyscraper or an office building; quite possibly the Twin Towers on 9/11. In which case the little black dots at the bottom of the image might just be people falling from the windows, but I admit: this is purely my personal interpretation of the image and is therefore all highly speculative. Ergo: the image remains a mystery.

Let's try to shed some light on the music then: Synthetic ID is a fairly new band from the San Francisco region. They debuted with a three song tape last year, and this 7" is the vinyl version of that tape. Apparently Synthetic ID features (ex-)members of several different bands from the Bay Area, of which Nightstick Justice and Deadfall are best known to me. But whereas those bands went for relatively straight-forward, fast, 80-ies inspired hardcore, Synthetic ID walks a different path. Looks like these guys traded in their Negative Approach and Infest records for copies of 'Pink Flag' for some post-punk inspiration. Nothing wrong with that of course, especially as they shun from sounding 'retro' in any way. Being from the Bay Area, I can imagine these guys sharing a lot of bills with fellow locals Rank/Xerox. Other comparisons that came to mind were Autistic Youth or a less-melodic Observers, especially on the last song on this EP: 'Throwaway'.

Lyrically, the songs on side A are the most interesting in my opinion. They deal mostly with the singer's feelings of anxiety about being stuck and wanting to escape from a sterile existence:

"Oh my world, so orderly.
Boxed in white walls, so neat.
They think that my instincts have died.
But behind the facade a beast resides."
- from 'White Walls'

and

"I'm of an anxious mind when I can't move.
A faceless face in the multitude.
Confined within these stark confines.
With nothing but this unease of mind."
- from 'Between the Lines'

These sentiments fit the music well, as you can literally almost feel the singer's pent-up restlessness in his monotonous, shouted way of singing and in the angularity of the songs.

All in all, this 7" lasts only a few minutes, but in those few minutes, Synthetic ID have managed to make quite an impression on me with these three songs. I'm very curious to see where they'll go next and am looking forward to hearing more!