DJ/producer Ernest Gonzales has released music for years under the pseudonym Theory of Everything, but the October 2 release of While on Saturn’s Rings represents the first time he’s attached his own name to a solo album.
The beat-heavy electronic sound collage, which Gonzales has dubbed “Down-South-Nintendo-Rock-Tronica,” features some crunchy electric guitar on “Summer Story 66,” a pulsating new-wave rocker that sounds like the backing track for a hypothetical 1979 Blondie/B-52s collaboration.
The album’s sonic strategy is best exemplified by the title cut, which pairs a chiming, ice-cream-truck jingle with a staggered, disorienting groove. Similarly, “Reminisce” applies icy, ambient synths and video-game blips to a bed of kinetic breakbeats. It’s not easy to make music that’s simultaneously cool and anxious, brooding and danceable, but Gonzales has pulled it off with While on Saturn’s Rings.
Gonzales officially celebrates its release on Friday, October 5 at Limelight (2718 N. St. Marys), along with DJ Nick Nack, Velcro Underground, Makes Tapes, On Hiatus, and Rae Davis.
