Metroland - 0

The destination of a carefully planned journey. Belgian cult duo Metroland spent the better part of 2022 counting down toward this moment, releasing a series of EPs numbered 4, 3, 2, and 1 before arriving at 0, their most conceptually ambitious and thematically global album to date. The title is deliberately open, meant to be pronounced not as "zero" but in whatever language the listener calls their own, a small but pointed gesture from a duo who have always understood that the best electronic music speaks across borders.

The concept driving 0 is nothing less than the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the term coined by Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum to describe the convergence of digital, physical, and biological systems that is reshaping what it means to be human. Passenger A and Passenger S have taken that framework and built a soundtrack for it, one that is simultaneously fascinated and unsettled by the world it describes. Track titles like "4ir Intelligence," "Bitcoins and Blockchains," "Machine 2 Machine," "Smart Factory," "Big Data," and "Mimo" map the artificial and scientific terrain of the concept, while "7 Principles," "Klaus Schwab," and "Davos" anchor it to the worldly, political, and deeply human forces shaping the revolution from above.

Throughout, the Metroland machinery hums with its signature analogue warmth, vintage synth bleeps, pulsing basslines, bashing beats, and a Düsseldorf-inflected lushness that has always distinguished the duo from their contemporaries. Never before have they engaged with ideas of this scope and weight, and never before have they sounded more assured in doing so. The vinyl and CD editions each carry twelve tracks but with different track listings and subtle alternative artwork, a reminder that Metroland is not your average computer pop band and never has been. Industry 4.0 is here. What will it mean to be human?