Behold The Profit
“You Hold The World Like A Gun”

iTunes / Amazon / Bandcamp

After years of creating rhythms and bubbling backdrops using various samplers and sequencers for songs by his “electro-pop outfit” Lovetron (which also featured original At The Drive-In guitarist, Adam Amparan) and doing production work for the party rap posse “The Town Drunks”, Greg Reynaud slipped off into his own world, and began work under the name “Behold The Profit.”

With Four Tet’s “Rounds”, Prefuse 73’s “Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives”, and Boards of Canada’s “Music Has the Right To Children” in mind, Reynaud began work on body of instrumental material comprised mainly of samples that continually used the occasional, live, off-time drum fill or neck-breaking synth line to avoid the monotony commonly endemic of the electronic genre.

Recorded in his house, using only the most rudimentary studio equipment and the meagerest bit of gear, Reynaud managed to muster up an album’s worth of material in only a few months time. An album that could easily rival any of the afore mentioned albums, or anything else as popular at the time.

From this album’s worth of material, a mere 21 minutes were culled to make the anti-matter dense EP, “You Hold The World Like A Gun”. Mixed as a solid piece, and sequenced like a short story, there’s an intro, climax, and release to this EP, which makes it an engaging listen from start to finish, time and time again.

Watch

Reviews

DELUSIONS OF ADEQUACY

Somewhere in the mid 90s, electronica got full of itself. Personally, I blame MTV darlings like Prodigy. That band’s brand of mindless big-beat drums ripped from the Chemical Brothers coupled with “edgy synth lines” was just what MTV needed to feed the masses a new trend. Having the rather creepy Keith Flint (whom I solely blame for that rather grotesque rave/punk fashion hybrid) shout catchphrases rather angrily helped quite a bit. So while talented acts like Orbital, Aphex Twin, and Squarepusher were busy discovering new ways to warp sounds and fuck with melodies, MTV got in bed with wholly forgettable Crystal Method and whoever showed up on those godawful Amp compilations. For some reason, most of the electronica acts not featuring break beats and lame repetitive chrouses got labeled as IDM. Intelligent Dance Music? Independent Dance Mix? Irate Disco Muff? Who cares, the point is it offered a nice often cerebral alternative to the mindless electronica of the late 90s. Now, it’s all the rage. Artists like Prefuse 73 are quickly welding together the laptop techno and hip-hop arenas into some smooth plastic Frankenstein (with Nikes!). Even better, it’s been a good five or six years since this whole IDM thing started and we’re still getting quality artists.

Thieves Behold The Profit is the project of one Greg Reynaud. You Hold the World Like a Gun is his debut EP, although it’s incredibly hard to believe this is a first release. “Silent Servant” opens up with some backward percussion and sampling reminiscent of Download before falling into hazy underwater drumbeats and shower of sonar pings and responses. Buried under all that is an innocent piano line, but it’s the overpowering Atlantean drums that really drive the track. This sort of stuff was made for a nice pair of headphones so that the drums might drown everything else out entirely.

“Silent Servant” fades out with some grim whirs and clicks and the sublime drums of “F.C.C.C.” drop in. Where the previous track was claustrophobic with a fear of drowning, this one is smoky jazz complete with a oh-so-subtle horn sample, and just so the track doesn’t get too repetitive, Reynaud slips in some slick horns before segueing into “The One and the Throng of Many.” This track will draw the most comparisons to albums like Rounds or The Dream of Evan and Chan. However, where those albums exploited the lack of soul in electronic music, Thieves Behold The Profit makes its play for the pulpy bloody heart embedded in the hard drive. Androids dream, and they dream of scotch in low-lit rooms served by seductive temptresses who have nothing to do with sheep.

The standout out track is “Give Us Your Huddled Masses.” Here, Reynaud starts off with a timeless club groove before dropping in frentic beats to get hearts pumping. Beneath all this lies an electronic sexy sheen that will push the night into the witching hours haunted by the title track. “You Hold the World Like a Gun” plays with subterranean drones that would make cEVIN jealous. Mercifully, Thieves Behold The Profit drops in a Boards of Canada beat and bubbly keyboards, else the listener would slip into the abyss of sunken notes and monophonic melodies.

It is possible that You Hold the World Like a Gun might come across as a lo-fi bedroom experiment to some, and granted the speakers might sound a little stressed at times. However, tracks are crisp and sure when they need to be and suffocating elsewhere. Only computers are perfect and precise, and therefore they lack the passion of error. Reynaud manages to channel emotion through his beats and melodies, and that is far more entertaining that precise beats or perfectly mixed samples. This EP is 20 minutes of a perfect balance between man and machine. Goofy Terminator imagery aside, this is music for people that have names for their computers and enjoy the curve of a skirt and snare with vodka on a regular basis. [EMCPHAIL]

THE BRAIN

You Hold the World Like a Gun is Texan Greg Reynaud’s self described “actualization of maximum potential.” Loosely translated, that means it’s the results of his first solo foray into the studio after doing beats as a part of electropop outfit Lovetron and spacey boombap minstrels The Town Drunks. So, now that his potential is actualized—and Reynaud has already proven he does indeed hold promising potential as a producer—he presents a dense, mysterious five track, nineteen-minute EP that thumps and pounds its way from track to track, occasionally pausing to reflect but nevertheless holding a boot to your throat and not letting go until it’s done. Among the slick break beats and crashing hi hats Reynaud flawlessly slips in the obligatory otherwise-out-of-place sample, whether it be a few guitar chords, a piano key, a jazz break or even a Darth Vader inhale/exhale. Ostensibly, the EP is a concept album concerning the current American political situation, a fact that isn’t necessarily clear with a listen and not much clearer when perusing the liner notes. Still, what is a known known (thank you, Department of Defense) is that Reynaud knows what he’s doing, and perhaps there is some truth to that whole “actualization of potential” line. Released from the bounds that come with working with other musicians, Reynaud is able to let his multitalented production skills roam free, with compelling results. Most impressive, however, is his ability to tread the thin line between improvisation and complete anarchy. His music wanders, but never aimlessly. He is able to make out of what might be an unrecognizable mishmash with another producer into a thrilling blend of surprisingly orchestrated adrenaline-laced sound. [Chris Roberts]

THE WIRE

OK, so basing a recording project on a painting is ill advised at best, but when the artwork in question is a seriously corrupted slice of blank-eyed pulp graphics, there’s an outside chance you can get away with it. Now based in Texas, producer Greg Reynaud’s preliminary release as Thieves Behold The Profit is a terse instrumental EP composed of severe beats, neat samples, and ragged sustained effects that will probably offer little comfort to the state’s former governor, hopefully one-term president George W. Bush. Violent crime and the institutional exercise of power get forced to acknowledge each other’s presence on “The One And The Throng Of Many”, “Give Us Your Huddled Masses” and the chillingly insistent title track.

SPLENDID

Greg Reynaud (aka Thieves Behold The Profit) has crafted a hell of a debut. A confident collage of Christian Fennesz’s electric textures (“Silent Servant”), DJ Shadow’s funk-tuned mixing (most of the EP), and Out Hud’s beautiful bass lines (especially on “The One and the Throng of Many”), You Hold the World Like a Gun operates upon pop principles of arrangement and progression, but remains in the realm of crackling digital composition. It’s the kind of dirty, rough-edged brilliance that should give Reynaud some serious producer cred, and will hopefully be the beginning of an impressive solo career. [Amir Karim Nezar]