Amid the creative dynamism of Atlanta’s flourishing music scene, Split Diopter brings an old-school sound into sharp focus. A goth-adjacent trio that moves deftly between post-punk’s raw urgency and coldwave’s icy detachment, the band—comprised of Chuck Rosencrans, Nathan Oestry, and Matt Weiner (aka TWINS)—crafts music through a collaborative, unflinching approach to songwriting, capturing a culture steeped in digital surveillance and existential angst. Their name, drawn from a lens adapter that merges foreground and background, serves as a fitting metaphor for their sound—a cinematic tension that blurs the lines between the immediate and the distant, reminiscent of the haunting disorientation of films like The Swimmer (1968). This imagery finds a direct reference in their aesthetic, with an iconic frame from the film adorning their tour shirts, distilling the push and pull of modern existence into something profoundly resonant and strangely beautiful.
Split Diopter’s latest track, Navel Gazer, from their forthcoming album To Bridge And Bind, embodies this mix of introspection and pervasive unease.
Navel Gazer unravels the fractured frenzy of our digital age, where ecstasy and emptiness often coexist. It paints a stark picture of the manic thrill and cold disconnect born from the relentless flow of information, content, and the insatiable hunger for the next “experience.” The band plays with the metaphor of the looking glass in all its twisted forms—screens, lenses, mirrors—each reflecting a warped world that bends truth like a funhouse mirror, leaving us questioning what’s real. They pull no punches, underscoring the unsettling dance between the allure of endless insight and the hollow ache of disconnection. It’s a track that holds up a cracked mirror to modern existence, reflecting both its beauty and its grotesque reality.
Matt Weiner’s vocals balance between vibey and gloomy, set against synths that provide a subtly dreamy yet unsettling backdrop. Rosencrans’ melodic guitars anchor the haze, while the bass thrums with a Hook-esque darkness. Crisp drum programming adds an aggressive punch, crafting dense, concise arrangements that deliver tight, immersive mixes with haunting precision. Echoes of Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy, Modern English, Bauhaus, and The Damned can be felt throughout their sound.
Watch the lo-fi VHS video for “Navel Gazer” below, featuring the band in mischievous moments on tour, onstage, and navigating the subways.
To Bridge and Bind, out September 13th, explores themes of fragmented identity, false consciousness, and techno-paranoia, all embedded in a sound palette familiar to post-punk enthusiasts and its goth and industrial offshoots, yet with a distinctly cybernetic and futuristic slant.
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