PulsR - Dreary Land

PulsR is a dark electro project founded by Pascal R. Guzik. While he grew up with the sounds of the 70s and 80s (Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Jean-Michel Jarre), his initial sound in 2005 was driven by German Hip Hop. He explored pop and rock sometime thereafter. However, his true calling was heard with the electronic music scene as the likes of Nicolas Jarr, Amon Tobin, Boy Harsher, and LCD Soundsystem accompanied Guzik. His adventure into dark electro music thus began in 2019. Guzik chose the name of his project through an amalgamation of the letters of his first name and the Italian translation of his surname (Guzik to Pulsante). Now, in 2021 PulsR has launched their latest album "Dreary Land".

The album starts off with the title track which is nearly eight minutes in length. The intro of the song was a bit of a drudge to waddle through, however. Lo-fi synths come in during the beginning followed up by stompy percussion. Slow and rhythmic, I felt as if it were meant to build up to a magnificent crescendo. What I got, however, was a slow crawl of music wherein electronic beats trickled in one after the other without ever doing much to solidify a rhythm. It wasn't until after the three minute mark that 'Dreary Land' finally cracked open and I was set forth into a danceable dark electro tune. But, by the time I got there, I was already bored of the sounds that were presented. Lasting another four minutes with it was an endurance test. 


'The Oracle Lies' followed up 'Dreary Land' and was decent. This is not meant to be an in-your-face, four-on-the-floor club track. It rather sounds like an ominous track that would serve well as Main Menu music in a video game. An interesting bit came with 'Love Theme', which takes dark ambient themes and allocates sprinkles of industrial sound design to its core. A similar approach was taken with 'The Locust's Feast'. 'Asked For It' is a pretty dope dance track, complete with a small noise wall filling in the background. PulsR kept the track interesting by not sticking to similar conventions throughout its nearly-five minute run. 

Throughout the rest of the album's run, which includes the previously unmentioned songs 'Copper Cut', 'Your Bones', More Cake!', and 'Nowhere, Never', there is not much more to explore in terms of sound design or song descriptions. If you heard the first half of the album, you have heard the second half of the album. The sound designs and song-structures reflect one another and I feel as if for an instrumental dark electro album, this was done okay. It is not something I would come back to on my own time, but if it were thrown into a dark electro mix on Spotify, it would not sound out of place. I suppose what I'm trying to get at is that I felt as if the album were bland. 

I also found that the production value on the album was less than stellar. I am unsure if this was purposeful or not, but "Dreary Land" sounds rather muddy. Rather than hearing the electronic notes crack and pop as well as they should, I felt a lot of the details were held back due to quality control. The album was self-produced, but perhaps PulsR should find an outside producer to help with mixing and mastering for their next release so their ideas and sounds can hit home. 

"Dreary Land" is not a bad release for a dark electro album. But nor is it something of wondrous proportions. It lies in a sea of industrial and dark electro albums, bordering with techno influences without doing all that much to stand apart from the crowd. I think that PulsR has a good start with their career; they're showing that they can make music and that they have the chops to keep the music interesting in multi-part songs. Through further refinement and by maturing their sound in the future, I think PulsR can do better. "Dreary Land" as it stands, however, is not something I would recommend. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Feb 03 2021