Latest Fad Opens Durable Oxide with Radio Free Money

Durable Oxide enters with DOX-001, the first catalog number from a new Portland label focused on decisive electronic atmospheres. For that opening release, Paul Uusitalo and Dan Wilk, working as Latest Fad, issue Radio Free Money. It is the duo’s third full-length and their first outside their own Fading Systems imprint. They spent decades collaborating on professional video software before turning fully to music in 2019, a background that may explain the record’s careful pacing and control.

The sound draws on antiquated synthesizers, modern workstations, analog effects, and stringed instruments, leaning toward slow-burn, textured electronics. Tracks behave less like separate songs and more like connected environments. “Business Hugs II” introduces a static stutter that returns across the album. “Overgrowth Mindset” offers one of the clearer melodic moments, with keys and bassline providing contrast against darker material. “Aberrant Tool & Die” builds on a stable boom and a repeated cymbal note, letting background details surface before the piece closes in a darker register.

“Live Laugh Loop” pairs a mournful melody with a flanged sweep and distorting pads, leaving underlying elements partially obscured. That restraint defines much of Radio Free Money, a record that knows what not to do. For a label’s first statement, it is deliberate and clear.