What Have A Nice Life have accomplished on The Unnatural World is, from what can be so far told, at a very similar level of subtle, wilful coordination.
The unnatural world have a nice life full#
The original release for me personally took over a year of repeated listens, in order to attain full appreciation for what was being demonstrated. Barrett and Macuga labour to effectively draw the listeners in from the get go, and slowly but surely inch them down into an unseen mire of despair that by the end of the record succeeds in fastening an ineluctably tight hold. In fact, it is the slow, calculated disintegration of the compositional structural integrity of each track that serves to really characterise what The Unnatural World achieves as a work.
Despite the almost upbeat flavouring of preliminaries such as "Defenestration Song" or "Burial Society", it is their placement among the likes of the more contemplative pieces that allow the listener to cherish their presence, rather than become bored with a singular level of such consistent intensity. This is as well as the more fervent first movement at first appearing to take away from the overall solemness of the affair, which can admittedly serve as startling to some degree upon the initial hearing. That being said, the overall austerity that was found on the preceding release is somewhat diminished here, via the much clearer production that it achieves in comparison to its predecessor. Although it does away with the stifling desolation that seemed to embody the latter half of the debut, the gloom and loneliness of the new LP runs deeper and less apparent than before, permeating through each track as more of a mere reminder rather than as a definition of the work. Though that is not to say that nothing new has been added - but only that the most recognisable distinctions of the duo have been left in place, in order to provide a more coherent framework for the experimentation that goes on across the 50-minute-odd runtime.Īnd experimentation is perhaps the most apt description. The dark, omnipresent, processed drum machines, Barrett’s distinctive ability for crafting memorable melodic passages, as well as the crushing, heavy dynamic shifts that were found so prevalently in the second movement of deathconsciousness. In many ways, the characteristic Have A Nice Life sound is left relatively unscathed. After what had undoubtedly been a burgeoning time frame for those involved since the initial release, it can be said joyfully that the changes, growths and analogues to be found on The Unnatural World present a myriad of new and engaging ideas across its (comparably short) run time. Given this background, it was of course only natural that the follow up to the much-revered debut would be met with some degree of anticipation. With a refinement of the original formula displayed fleetingly across its four tracks, fans held their breath waiting for what Dan and Tim would come up with for the newest full-length installment. While intentions where focused elsewhere for some time, fans where teased in late 2010 with the fantastic Time Of Land EP.
In retrospect, it was perhaps the release of deathconsciousness that went on to represent for many what is not only now a classic record, but also the marking of the beginning of the wider enemies list musical ideology. Six years down the track, Barrett’s efforts with label ‘Enemies List’ and its associated side projects resulted in the full time investment of the charismatic Connecticut resident into its further maturation. Inaccessible to many thanks to the duo’s characteristically abject bleakness and startlingly desolate atmosphere, it went on to become an instant classic among the cult following that did manage to break through its considerable inscrutability. Have a Nice Life – The Unnatural World - Enemies List / The Flenser, 2014ĭan Barrett and Tim Macuga’s original gloom-filled masterpiece deathconsciousness managed to pique the interest of the collective interweb persona back in 2008, where an eager audience received the monolithic double-release with a certain trepidatious appreciation.