For anyone with a passing interest in electroclash, synthwave or modern industrial, ADULT. is a well known concern. The Detroit duo of Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller first formed in the late ‘90s, pushing back against the dominance of guitar-heavy post-hardcore and late-stage punk with darkly coursing sound defined by pared-back synths and coldly commanding affect. Though they shared compilation space and club bills with early ‘00s hedonists of the Berliniamsburg ilk, ADULT.’s embrace of confrontation, glamorous nihilism, Detroit’s techno lineage, and a rich history of American noir felt positively transgressive in their earliest years. Their albums were passed among friends like a secret. “The first cassette tape I had was P.I.L. on one side, Dead Kennedys on the other side,” said Kuperus in an interview with RBMA. “When I met Adam, I didn’t like electronic music, only punk. Adam said, “Well, have you ever heard of Cabaret Voltaire, or Throbbing Gristle, or Fad Gadget?” It was a mind mint, like a burst of freshness. It was really exciting learning about all this new music.”
The duo’s fertile, spontaneous energy has been an integral feature of their work since day one. As Kuperus describes, “The way we started making music together was basically a joke. Adam got invited to play a handful of shows in Germany, and I was standing there when he got the call.” Holding one hand over the phone, Lee Miller confirmed that she had some instrumental facility before telling the label “There are two people in the band when I perform my solo work.” They've been playing together ever since.
An early hit, “Hand to Phone,” lays out the core elements of the ADULT. sound: severe, detached vocals, pulsating mono synth arpeggios, icy, driving drums and an overall sheen of desolate alienation. There’s an obvious affinity to the shimmering synth pop of the ‘80s - Kraftwerk’s landmark Computer World to Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams and, of course, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell - but, true to their industrial favorites, ADULT. treads into darker waters. Their marriage of an innate pop sensibility with a taste for raw industrial and pulsating techno positioned them as both keepers-of-the-flame and ambassadors to a neglected lineage of electronic iconoclasts.
Almost 30 years after their first releases - “We chose our band name in early 1998 with our first 12” going into production in early summer of 1998.” - ADULT. has lapped many of their influences in their unerring devotion and exploration of the sound they inherited. In their world, they remain practically peerless, and their 2017 album Detroit House Guests, released on Mute, saw them inviting some of their key influences back into the fold and elevating newer artists in their field. Both Nitzer Ebb’s Douglas McCarthy and Light Asylum’s Shannon Funchess worked with the duo on searing tracks that matched their most iconic output.
Pelada and Nuovo Testamento stand as younger counterparts, playing with similar ingredients in fresh, new ways. Pelada matches the masc/femme duo of ADULT. But instead of rigorous gothiness, they channel the spit-in-your-eye aggression of hardcore, co-mingling it with acid techno and knocking house. Their sneering, inciting live sets blaze with politicized fury, and we’re sad to say this will be their final US show. Do not miss them. Colombia-via-California trio Nuovo Testamento come in from the other side, with a slick re-imagining of the ‘80s. Their most recent LP, Love Lines, sits glistening somewhere between Hi-NRG, Madonna’s earliest hits, the ultra-80s confections of Belinda Carlisle and any era-appropriate movie club scene.
Between the three, the lineup works both as a love letter to a beloved sound and as a case for the radical possibilities of electronic music. Each act cites genres that were defined by the novelty of electronic sounds, but in 2024 you’d be harder pressed to find music that didn’t bear the mark of digital editing, sampling, synthesis or extreme processing. ADULT. & co’s devotion to the foundational gnarliness and imaginative vision of techno, EBM and even synthpop challenges audiences in the best way, reminding us of what once was and what still yet could be.