• Home
  • Releases
  • Blog
  • Design
  • Posters
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About
  • Privacy Policy

Loser City

Multimedia Collective

  • Home
  • Releases
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Art
  • Submissions
You are here: Home / Features / Fossil Records: The Units’ Digital Stimulation

Fossil Records: The Units’ Digital Stimulation

April 15, 2015 By Nick Hanover Leave a Comment

Fossil Records

Sometimes, for whatever reason, great art slips past audiences and remains woefully underappreciated. Which is why we’ve created an essay series called Fossil Records, devoted to helping people discover work that never got its due.


The creative process gets compared to conception and gestation fairly frequently and for good reason. There is the conception of an idea and then its maturation, growing from tiny artful egg to a developing embryo to something that must be expelled into the world, where it may thrive or die. An idea that is completed by its artist isn’t necessarily guaranteed long term survival, any more than a fawn is guaranteed to survive the wolves and bears long enough to spawn its own young. Viewed pessimistically, Fossil Records is a column devoted to artistic children that never reached adulthood (though in the world of art, unlike nature, there are a seemingly unending number of second chances at life, opportunities to go the cicada route and remain in a larval form for eons until time and temperature are just right). Viewed a little more optimistically, evolution is as much about failure and death as success. Our DNA is full of dead ends or formerly great ideas or traits that will pay off or kill us at some genetically predetermined point, why should art be any different? And there are few groups that illustrate all this art as human reproduction metaphor as well as The Units. Hell, they even sing about it on “Warm Moving Bodies,” turning human existence into a competitive triumph:

“Out of six million sperm cells
I came in first
And won a warm moving body”

The Units can certainly make a case for being the first sperm into what has since become a very fertile egg, forming in San Francisco in 1979 and becoming pioneers of “synthpunk,” or “dark wave,” or “minimal wave,” or whatever term catches your fancy. In concept they were predated by LA’s The Screamers (more on them some other time), and the two bands would cross paths regularly, with Screamers’ mastermind Tomata du Plenty even coming of artistic age with the help of legendary San Francisco drag art troupe the Cockettes. Both bands shared thematic DNA with synth-toting punks Suicide and Devo, but the Units immediately accomplished something The Screamers never managed to do by recording a single and unleashing it for wide consumption.

Nearly forty years on, that single, “i-night,” remains an alien artifact, a divergent musical path that was left mostly uncharted until the early ‘00s. Like Devo, the Units mixed a barrage of synth sounds with live drums and clever, cheeky lyrics but frontman Scott Ryser shares Alan Vega’s knack for cool, disaffected vocals and reverberation. The Units went further than disaffected cool, though, stacking incredible hooks on top of the bleak vocal deliveries and trippy concepts, aligning them closer perhaps to what Joy Division was exploring half a world away in Manchester at exactly the same time.

Or maybe the Units’ closest sibling was a little nearer to home. Throughout the Units’ lost masterpiece Digital Stimulation (double entendre is another Units trademark), Ryser shares vocal duties with bass synth player Rachel Webber, making the two a synth scene Exene Cervenka and John Doe, particularly when they sing in tandem on tracks like “Warm Moving Bodies.” Boosted by Brad Saunders’ exotic drumming, “Warm Moving Bodies” is uncharacteristically lively for a synth based song, more passionate than cold, occupying a jubilant opposite spectrum end from the nihilism of the Screamers and Joy Division. Saunders once told a reporter that “The Units have more of a party, folksy attitude…it’s music for the whole person, not just for the brain” and you can feel that in the band’s embrace of dense sound, from the dual layering of the male-female vocals and the drums. X pulled from the past to make their brand of punk more communal, assimilating country and folk sounds in their new raw groove, but the Units went deeper, navigating strands of musical DNA the western world forgot while simultaneously predicting where it would head.

‘
A posthumous video for “Warm Moving Bodies” made by Scott Ryser
The group’s futurist bent got its clearest moment in the spotlight with Digital Stimulation’s most recognizable track, album lead off “High Pressure Days.” Flanked by a propulsive arpeggiating lead synth line and a bubbly bass, “High Pressure Days” has a violently nervous energy, so it’s not too surprising it’d catch the ear of LA noisemakers HEALTH, who would cover it decades later. When it reaches its machine grind chorus, androgynous, robotic vocals peeking out of siren blasts of atonal synths, that connection becomes all the more clear. “High Pressure Days” may as well have been a buried treasure map left behind for HEALTH and likeminded synthpunks, stuffed with blunt, repetitive simplicity and ferocious walls of untamed sound, but also moments of stunning beauty, melodies surfacing from the depths of chaos, alien voices morphing into true human emotion. The song’s phantom future element is in play on the album’s title track as well, though the music itself is explicitly Devo inspired with its speak-singing vocals and energetic drumming. There it’s the lyrics that provoke the unsettling vibe, hitting a little too close to the current era for comfort.

Documenting an ad man’s pursuit of a woman he spies on from afar, “Digital Stimulation” mentions the “comparative analysis” the song’s protagonist utilizes to ensure she’s a romantic match before ultimately realizing swiping right doesn’t guarantee any kind of chemical reaction. Lured in by a need to “experience” something new and fantasize about a shared future, the man in “Digital Stimulation” is let down by the reality of needing to know a pretty face you don’t know much about.

The Units’ prophetic tendencies don’t end there, either. “Cannibals” describes “Lines and lines of people/Waiting for a victim,” condemning the masses as a “generation of cannibals.” The social media parallels only continue, as Ryser and Webber take these digital vampires to task, laying into the hypocrisy of these fiends as they wait to be discovered and uncovered themselves, all set to one of the band’s most blatantly punk tracks, filled as it is with guitar-like synth wails and call and response shouts.

But coming in first and having eerily on point visions of the future aren’t guarantees of success. Digital Stimulation was well received and seemed to indicate greater things were on the horizon for the Units, but instead the band was sent down a recording career that reads like a joke. Lured over to Epic, the band had a minor hit with “A Girl Like You,” a track that is nearly unrecognizable from Digital Stimulation in its desperate need to fit in with the then popular synthpop movement. But the band’s second and third albums inexplicably never got a release from their label. Attempts at reissuing the band’s catalog have been similarly stillborn, though a number of remix projects featuring their music have come out over the years.

This summer, the boutique revivalist label Futurismo Records is reportedly reissuing Digital Stimulation, and unsurprisingly Futurismo’s roster reads like a who’s who of unfairly forgotten pioneers, from James Chance to fellow San Fran expats Our Daughter’s Wedding. If it happens (and given the Units’ bizarre history, that’s unfortunately still a big if), maybe the Units will move from being a sperm that won a warm moving body to a body that’s finally allowed to be recognized.

Update: Futurismo came through, and we spoke to Ryser about that reissue and other things here


Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands.  You can also flip through his archives at  Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Fossil Records, Music, synthpunk, The Units

About Nick Hanover

Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Loser City as well as Ovrld, where he contributes music reviews and writes a column on undiscovered Austin bands. You can also flip through his archives at Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with Dylan Garsee on twitter: @Nick_Hanover

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

SOCIAL

FacebookInstagramTumblrTwitter

Buy Loser City Apparel

loser city T-shirt

Be a Loser

Sign up for Loser City's mailing list to receive weekly updates about the latest articles, shows, and releases.

TRENDZ

Anatomy of a Page art Austin CBS comedy comics Dark Horse DC DC Comics documentary Fantagraphics Film Fossil Records Games HBO hip-hop horror humor IDW Image Comics Indie indie comics jake muncy manga Marvel Marvel Comics Melissa Benoist Music penny dreadful Pete Toms punk Questionable Comics Review Ryan K Lindsay sci-fi Seattle Showtime Supergirl SXSW Television the CW TV video games Video of the Week ymmv

Top Posts & Pages

  • Codeine Crazy
  • Visual Domination: Angelina Jolie's Sexual Power in Mr and Mrs. Smith
  • Below Her Mouth is Yet Another Disappointing Film About Lesbian Experiences
  • Lost in My Mind: I Believe in Unicorns is a Gauzy and Inventive Exploration of Girlhood
  • Judging the Book By Its Cover: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
  • Greg Lake was Distinctly of His Era and That Deserves to be Celebrated
  • Fluid Exchange: I Roved Out by Rupert Everton
  • Miss Stevens is a Film About Loneliness That Forgets it's About Loneliness
  • All Things Must Change: Silk Rhodes' Debut is Delicious Audio Foreplay
  • Fossil Records: Dr. Alimantado's Best Dressed Chicken in Town

Follow Loser City

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
Instagram did not return a 200.

Follow loser_city on the Gram

Loser City is…

Comics, shows, a secret critical network -- we aim to fail big.

Danny Djeljosevic: Co-Founder

Morgan Davis: Co-Founder

Nick Hanover: Glorious Godfrey of LC

David Fairbanks: Creative Writing Editor

Kayleigh Hughes: Film Editor

Julie Muncy: Games Editor

David He: Assisting Consultant*

Contributors: Nate Abernethy, John Bender, AJ Bernardo, CJ Camba, Liam Conlon, Daniel Elkin, David A. French, Rafael Gaitan, Dylan Garsee, Stefanie Gray, Johnson Hagood, Shea Hennum, Zak Kinsella, Austin Lanari, Marissa Louise, Francesca Lyn, Chase Magnett, Justin Martin, Diana Naneva, Claire Napier, Joshua Palmer, James Pound, Mike Prezzato, Lars Russell, David Sackllah, Keith Silva, Nicholas Slayton, Carly Smith, Ray Sonne, Tom Speelman, Mark O. Stack, Dylan Tano, Mason Walker

Art

Why So Angry: Refusing to Forget Stories of Abuse

Poetry: My God, My World

Comic Cinema Club: Sorcerer by Rafael Gaitan and Mike Prezzato

Nonfiction: Progeny in Crisis by Kayleigh Hughes

The Persistence of Synergy: Scenes from the Stock Business Photo Prison Hellscape

More Art

Interviews

Dhani Harrison Plots His Own Path With Solo Debut In///Parallel

Boston Terriers and Desert Vibes: A Conversation with Jay and Sanders Fabares of “The Pale”

Questionable Comics: Becky & Frank and Rachael Stott

More Interviews

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in