There is a peculiar efficiency to a system that keeps us furious and distracted at the same time. Give the public an endless supply of things to watch, opinions to absorb, and strangers to argue with, and attention becomes a resource everyone can exploit except its owner. The daily spectacle makes being informed feel suspiciously similar to being exhausted. Somewhere between the next advertisement and the next catastrophe, we begin mistaking our participation in the feed for participation in the world. Power can afford to speak softly when everyone else is busy shouting silently into an iPhone.
New York and Atlanta duo Normal Bias examine that arrangement with Soft Power, their first new material since 2024’s Kingdom Come. The partnership of Matt Weiner, known for TWINS (That Which Is Not Said), and Chris Campion of Multiple Man returns with a seductive piece of electronic pop and a wonderfully peculiar video. The single offers the first taste of their forthcoming LP, Ways of Keeping Clean, due in 2027 via DKA Records.
Soft Power takes its time establishing the terms. Anxious, boxy synth shuffles move through the opening, their cramped little repetitions creating an itch beneath the surface. When the deep, bouncy EBM bassline enters, the arrangement acquires a deliciously elastic physicality, its low end giving those nervous electronic gestures something substantial to push against. Weiner sings with smooth, insinuating assurance, somewhere between Dave Gahan’s seductive allure and Frank Tovey’s sly theatricality. He sounds thoroughly at ease inside the song’s machinery, giving each phrase the persuasive intimacy of a proposition made at close quarters.
Campion complicates that invitation with a choir of eerie, horn-like synthesizers and warbling distortions, allowing strange shapes to swell around the vocals. There is a wonderful sense of mischief in the way the parts interact, with the bass maintaining its bounce while the upper registers grow increasingly disorienting. The track goes toe-to-toe with Cabaret Voltaire at their most pop-minded, recalling the point where their electronic experiments became improbably irresistible songs. It has the thrill of an extraordinary record discovered among a box of 1980s underground imports, the kind that makes you wonder how you managed to live without it. Normal Bias are one of the best synth-pop acts in the world right now, and Soft Power makes a persuasive case for that distinction.
The duo describes the song as a confrontation with “the numbing effects of propagandized multimedia addiction”, connecting compulsive media consumption with the destructive conduct it enables among leaders and institutions. That concern gives the music’s seductive ease an uncomfortable implication: an invitation can be difficult to question when it feels this good.
Directed by Logan Devlin and Normal Bias, the video places the pair inside an animated desert where perspective, anatomy, and time have become negotiable. Floating heads trail curved piano keyboards; purple doors open onto impossible spaces; metallic figures run across dunes beneath a yellow-orange sky. Weiner performs beside Campion on a checkerboard floor, looking remarkably composed for someone surrounded by this much visual misconduct. Clocks bend, faces fragment, and the image periodically breaks into analog interference. It suggests Salvador Dalí being given the controls of an early computer graphics workstation, with two exceptionally well-dressed musicians patiently waiting for him to finish. John Manfredi shot the video, with 3D animation support from Alex Gorman-Noelke.
Watch the video for Soft Power below:
From the industrial body funk of their 2022 self-titled EP to the melodic assurance of Kingdom Come, Normal Bias have developed an unusually deft relationship between electronic oddity and pop pleasure. Their debut LP earned a place in Post-Punk.com’s Best of 2024, while videos for Falling Down and Holy established a visual sensibility every bit as distinctive as their music.
Soft Power (Radio Edit) is available now on Spotify and Apple Music. Listen below:
Normal Bias are wrapping up their October tour with Spike Hellis, with the remaining dates taking them through California. The Sacramento show also features Buzz Kull and Kontravoid, while a November 6 appearance at TV Eye in Ridgewood will pair the duo with MVTANT and Pink Stiletto. See their remaining tour dates and forthcoming show below.
Remaining October dates, including tonight’s show:
- October 14 — Arcata, CA — Miniplex — with Spike Hellis and The Redroom DJs.
- October 15 — Sacramento, CA — The Starlet Room — with Spike Hellis, Buzz Kull, and Kontravoid.
- October 16 — Oakland, CA — Thee Stork Club — with Spike Hellis, Pink Stiletto, and DJ Hot Goth GF.
- October 17 — Oxnard, CA — The Mystery Shop — with Spike Hellis, Ceramik, and Pink Depression.
Also announced:
- November 6 — Ridgewood, NY — TV Eye — with MVTANT and Pink Stiletto.
And while you wait for Ways of Keeping Clean, revisit Kingdom Come, available through DKA and SYNTHICIDE. Purchase the album here.
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