''The Absurdity of Human Existence'' is the third studio album of Danielle "Danz" Johnson and first released under the alias

Danz CM Danielle "Danz" Johnson (born February 20, 1989), known professionally as Danz CM and formerly Computer Magic, is an American musician and producer based in New York City. She is a singer, songwriter, composer, music producer, DJ, and the founder ...

after using the Computer Magic alias for a decade. It was released on March 12, 2021 on her label Channel 9 Records.

Background and recording

In August 2020, Johnson announced on

W Magazine ''W'' is an American fashion magazine that features stories about style through the lens of culture, fashion, art, celebrity, and film. W was created in 1972 by James Brady, the publisher of sister magazine ''Women's Wear Daily'' (''WWD''), ori ...

that she had changed her alias from Computer Magic to Danz CM. Speaking about the album, Danz said that she went through an

existential crisis In psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning. Some authors also emphasize confusion about one's personal identity in their definition. Existential crises are acc ...

: she experienced feelings of self-doubt, went through an extreme low, was about to break and contemplated the human existence. All that inspired her to write "songs of sadness, songs about falling in love, songs about death, songs about wanting something more out of life." According to her: "it was diving both the deepest I could go emotionally meanwhile perfecting every sound – listening repeatedly to every second, making sure it was perfect and pushing myself." Danz strictly used analogue

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

such as

Sequential In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called t ...

Prophet 6, Moog Minitaur, and Moog Mother-32. She also borrowed an original

Roland 808 The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patt ...

from a friend's studio.

Promotion and release

Danz planned to release ''The Absurdity of Human Existence'' in spring 2020, but because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

she postponed it until spring 2021. The album was released on 12 March 2021 and it was promoted through 4 singles: "Idea of You", "Domino", "Something More", and "I Don't Need a Hero". The first single "Idea of You" premiered on YouTube on December 11, 2020. Its music video has been filmed in

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

. Reviewing this song, The Electricity Club mentioned: "Capturing a sombre electronic disposition, 'Idea of You' develops on the darkness that was apparent on the last Computer Magic album '' Danz'' with its self-referencing title a pointer of things to come. It is all quite distinct from the enjoyably escapist ''Obscure but Visible'' EP and its utterly charming highlight 'Lonely Like We Are'." The second single, "Domino", was released on January 22, 2021 and it was accompanied by a music video shot on the

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

coast. The third and fourth singles, "Something More" and "I Don't Need a Hero" were released on February 12 and March 5, respectively. The music video of "Something More" was released on 15 April 2022.

Reception

The Revue gave the album a positive review and mentioned that "Johnson's synth-heavy approach remains, though she probes darker spaces and more cinematic arenas than before to reflect her journey." The

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

site The Electricity Club praised the album and concluded that "what is in its place is a more intense presence and a wider ambition exploring different music styles and timbres while still remaining at its core, the creation of a talented woman who has overcome her shyness and had the courage to engage with and learn from some of the biggest names in synth." Cool Hunting described the album as "nothing short of spectacular". ''The Absurdity of Human Existence'' featured at number 47 on the 50 best albums of 2021 by

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

. They mentioned that the songs "simultaneously recall the dance music of the early '80s and imagines a modern, digitized future, filled with synths that are strangely both warm and icy" and concluded that "this is the synth-driven record you need in 2021".

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals, songwriting, production * Claudius Mittendorfer – mixing *

Joe LaPorta Joseph J. LaPorta (born ) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-laporta-mn000199340/credits/date-asc/ Career Born and raised in New York, LaPorta graduated from New York Univer ...

– mastering * Shae Detar - cover photo

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Absurdity of Human Existence 2021 albums Danz CM albums