Scenius: 13 Billion Dark Years
CD | DL
Available from 24 October
The synth-pop collaboration that is Scenius from Leeds and Angers (in France), continues to slide into darkness. Neil Crud crafts his work and listens to their third album.
Scenius, the Anglo-French duo known for weaving post-punk angst into crisp, modern dark synth-pop, have delivered their most thematically ambitious work yet with their third full-length album, ‘13 Billion Dark Years’. Positioning the cosmic ‘Dark Ages’ – the period before the first stars ignited – as a metaphor for modern-day uncertainty, the album is a masterclass in controlled tension and spacious electronic production.
While the advance singles gave us a glimpse into their spatial energy, the true strength of this album lies in its deep cuts, which provide the crucial atmosphere and emotional texture needed to sustain the conceptual weight of the title.
The album opens with the title track, 13 Billion Dark Years, it instantly sets the tone. It’s a slow, unfolding piece of kosmische music, built on an evolving, cold, wide, sweeping analog synth sound with a slow funeral march for a beat. It creates a feeling of vast, terrifying stillness – the sound of an empty universe.
Swift As Light, then explodes the mirth, with its upbeat rhythm and Fabrice Nau’s detached, melodic vocal delivery, feeling like a hit single. Golden By No Means is a standout deep cut, trading the dance floor urgency for a stark, New Order-esque gloom. It features a sharp, metallic bassline driving a mid-tempo beat, while the vocal delivery is particularly resigned, reflecting the futility inherent in the album’s metaphor. It’s one of the most affecting moments, perhaps confirming that the darkness Scenius are referring to is entirely internal?
Next, is the beautifully daunting and haunting Funny Sky, followed by Every Time. This leans heavily into the duo’s post-punk Kraftwerk-esq influences. The melody here is hauntingly circular, built around a recurring, synth motif that conveys a sense of cyclic failure and repetition. The arrangement is dense with echoing separation and layered atmosphere, giving it the necessary gravitas and weight to address the feeling of being trapped in an English/French loop.
The short (by Scenius standards), Guesswork continues the journey, pushing you further into sonic space. While All In Good Time, acknowledges that illumination may take eons to arrive, and once in a lifetime you can sit on the fence and wait for it to happen.
Five-Arm Crystal and Blink conclude the album, the former being typical Scenius while the latter almost leaves you resigned, yet uplifted at the same time. Steve’s incredible widescape synth work coming to the fore one last time… Until the next time…
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