Through the lens of Fotocrime, Ryan Patterson has been the architect of the kind of neorish, diesel-fuelled darkwave designed for these times.
Over a reign of five long-players and four EPs, Patterson has moved in mysterious ways and to equally mysterious places. My first encounter with the former Coliseum leader was on a winter’s night in 2019 at Scunthorpe’s Café Indiepenent. Alongside Crippled Black Phoenix, Patterson – dressed head-to-toe in leather amid plumes of smoke – conjured up darkwave magic in support of his excellent debut LP, Principle of Pain.
Seemingly plucked from the realms of obscurity (he stayed in a room on the venue’s top floor three days before the tour began), it was the moment where Patterson sank the hooks in. Each of Fotocrime’s ensuing LPs (South of Heaven – 2020; Heart of Crime – 2021; and Accelerated – 2023) forever occupying the bloodstream. Patterson’s narratives are etched to the shadows. Moments that feel more filmic or through the backstreets of a Philip Kerr novel than through song. His stories, always at the cliff’s edge as desperation takes hold.
His fifth full-length release, Security, is no different, and perhaps defined best during Disharmonizer, where Patterson claims that “In times of war / In nights of peace / You still find no relief… The loneliness follows you”).
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It’s sonically where Patterson makes the biggest leap on Security. Taking the ideas from the skinny darkwave of his previous releases, he blows things open to compelling results. It’s largely brought about by new additions, Benjamin Clark (guitar) and David Cundiff (bass). Fotocrime, now a three-pronged attacked, and the songs are better for it.
Produced by J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines), the recording of Security saw Patterson joined by an all-star cast of alternative and Louisville alumni. Suicidal Tendencies’ drummer Jay Weinberg, Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway, the members of SUMAC and Young Widows’ Evan Patterson and Nick Theinman, just some of the guests that provided the sonic bedding for Patterson’s shadowy tales.
Fotocrime - SecurityDespite this expansion, Patterson remains as “the kingpin of the common man”, as he emphatically attests on opening gambit, Crimewave. A song that finds him storming out of the gates in attack more. In the lead up to Security’s release, Patterson spoke of bands who shaped his musical journey, with Big Black and Killing Joke among them. However, Crimewave sees him channelling something akin to Head Of David barrelling through a brick wall.
It gives us some insight into Patterson’s outlier tendencies. Whilst his punk ethos and darkwave leanings have always been evident, Patterson has always been on the fringes. It’s this reason why Fotocrime will forever resonate with fellow outliers. The metallic flash and bang of Plowjob, a fitting communication between artist and listener. And as it smashes against the leather-clad surge of Shockwave, both songs lead you one step closer to a Band Of Susans binge.
Elsewhere, from the droning of Unthinkable to the BPM panic attack of Intimidation, there’s a bristling energy that feeds into the dynamic duo of Dreamstate and Cautious. The latter, all creak and crunch as Patterson parts with a poetic snippet that illuminates the Fotocrime remit. (“When you see the fear behind your eyes / It send a chill down my spine.”)
There’s more of it with Security’s final two songs. “One cold night, revenge will have its say… we’ll dance as your blood drains,” sings Patterson alongside Amber Thieneman on Grifter. An epic takedown on capitalism, which dovetails with the closing eponymous track, as Patterson mediates on the dire straights of the modern world. (“The dark path that leads us back from the death trip we’ve been on in this valley way too long.”)
It reaffirms Patterson’s lust for the dark arts. And while the nimble, skeletal aesthetic of his past shines through, with a supporting cast, there’s added heft to Security. Indeed, a plow job that is Fotocrime 2.0. Patterson still remains in the shadows, except this time there’s something more urgent and devastating about it all.
Security is out via Auxiliary / Shirt Killer (vinyl) and Artoffact (CD/digital). Purchase from Bandcamp.
