Aesthetic Perfection - Closer to Human [Red]

Twenty years after it first appeared, Daniel Graves went back to the album that started Aesthetic Perfection and took it apart. Closer to Human, the project's 2005 debut, is not simply reissued here. Graves returned to the very synths and samples used on the original recording and rebuilt every track from the ground up, keeping the songs intact while giving them a depth and clarity that was out of reach the first time.

The record is where the Aesthetic Perfection sound was born: harsh, distorted electronics and screamed vocals cut with clean melodic hooks, a push and pull that Graves would later call industrial pop. "Human," "Fix," "Architect" and "Coward" hit with the aggression of the mid-2000s dark electro scene, while "Beautiful" and "Overcast" show the pop instincts that would carry him well beyond it.

For longtime fans it is a chance to hear a formative record the way its maker hears it now. For anyone who came in with later albums, it is the origin story, sounding better than it ever has.

Released in partnership with Dependent Records, this limited edition is pressed on red vinyl.