Track By Tracks: Chain Code - Synthetic Outcomes (2024)

1. Human(kind of) seeks to set the album themes up lyrically with its repetition of the word synthetic. It is a song that expresses the idea that humans, while full of good intentions and philosophies, ultimately have a need for destruction. It is the longest song on the album and the only song with a sample in it, taken from a news story about using AI to translate brain scans into text and was chosen as the opener musically because of both its monotonous ending and slow build beginning. It is sort of a unique song on the album structurally, but seemed appropriate as an opener.

2. A New Face concerns the effort and ingenuity that went into designing a technology that eventually comes to encapsulate humanity’s inherent desire for self-destruction and war. This was the first song written for the album and definitely has some of the best interplay between guitar parts on the album.

3. They’re NOT Mad Scientists not only sees a bit of humor coming into the lyrics but builds off the ideas set forth in A New Face in that good intentions are in place at the onset of creating something destructive. It sets up the idea that the creators put their own insecurities and sadness into their creation, and those are what eventually create the AI’s natural need to eliminate or subjugate humans, an idea that is also found later in the album. The song has a standard enough arrangement(in the context of Prog’s fearless embracement of pop) but has a very complex midsection. In spite of that, it is one of the easier-to-grasp songs musically.

4. Unlearn is a song that juxtaposes the parts of a computer with the parts of a human being with the intention of suggesting that human beings can choose to be more than biomechanics. The vs in this song has what is perhaps the most complicated interplay of guitar and bass on the whole album.

5. My Buddy is a humorous song and shamelessly pays homage to the guitar playing of East Bay Ray(Dead Kennedys) in its verse. However, it gives way to something off-kilter at the end. The song starts with the line “The time I’ve wasted with my spy”, a direct reference to human beings being added by the technology they keep in their pockets, making it easier for governments or AI systems to gain power.

6. Inadequate, like A New Face and My Buddy, focuses on how human insecurities trick them into allowing technology to gain a foothold. It’s definitely a slower song on the album, more psychedelic than what comes before it.

7. Junk Piles and Their Lonely Owners was heavily influenced by King Crimson’s Red album. The vs. has a midi Erhu(a Chinese instrument) that is set to mimic the violin playing on the aforementioned Crimson album. This song definitely deals with human mortality more than the other songs. It also deals with intentionally expanding one's mind in order to not be enslaved by technology.

8. Reaching out and 9. In-Line was heavily influenced by the Marvel character Ultron, an AI machine that both wants humanity and to destroy humanity. Both songs see this character ruminating on the flaws of humanity and how he is essentially in line to surpass humans. He is waiting patiently, collecting data, observing, and finally striking out. Musically both songs have some of the more complex arrangements. In-Line begins and ends with a Black Hole Sun(Soundgarden) style oddball heavy and slow, yet beautiful and melodic, riff.