When he embraced the analog synthesizer on 2007's Arrogance Carlos Giffoni's music took a turn. The man whose previous efforts often featured harsh digital onslaughts, laptop-driven efforts to shatter and shear the ears has found himself slave to warm analog tones and far less aggressive composition. Adult Life is perhaps his most temperate release yet, fifty minutes of slow burn synthesizer that's surprisingly easy to swallow. Giffoni hasn't gone soft: he still isn't averse to heavy doses of distortion and jagged edges, but, in terms of composition, the album is strikingly straightforward. There are few sudden turns or unforeseen drops; instead, Giffoni often opts for a simmer, letting his ingredients mingle slowly rather than tossing them in all at once. He's not forsaken the noise, but Giffoni's taken a nod to something old to create his new sound.
There's a definite hearkening back to the days of early synthesized electronic music within Adult Life, where the mix remains relatively sparse, and the listener is provided with plenty of time to digest timbre and tone with no fear of whiplash. In these exhibitions of sound, any change in trajectory is signaled well in advance, with new synth voicings fading in and out methodically like an exaggerated Doppler effect, and fans of Giffoni's older work might need Ritalin to stay focused on this disc. Adult Life is far from a snooze though, with its warm analog sound almost tactile in its texture. The cover and disc art seem to imply that Giffoni doesn't want us to stop to smell the flowers, but, instead, inspect them closely. Some are bright and fragrant, others dark and fetid, but there's always something to take in, and sufficient time to do so. To say that Adult Life is a Sunday stroll ignores the somber tone Giffoni often employs, or the challenges that will still await the listener on a track like "This is How You Pull the Trigger," but Adult Life certainly takes a more linear path than most of Giffoni's oeuvre.
