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Mount Sims

How We Do

A dark, pulsing piece of electroclash from Mount Sims's 2002 debut UltraSex, released on Gigolo in Europe and Emperor Norton in the US: gritty machine beats, minor-key synth melodies and a cool, defiant vocal.

By korczis 2 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Mount Sims delivers a dark and pulsing electronic track with How We Do, from his 2002 debut album UltraSex. Gritty machine beats and haunting, minor-key melodies create a raw, rebellious energy: electroclash, the early-2000s fusion of 1980s electro and synth-pop with punk attitude.

Song Summary

The song pulls the listener into the club underground of its moment, cold synths and programmed drums carrying a defiant vocal. UltraSex was conceived as an album about technology and sexuality, and How We Do, which opens the US edition, sets out that world: machine-made, stylish and confrontational.

Lyrics Breakdown

Intro: Entering the Underground

The track begins with a dark, atmospheric intro, and the pulsing beat sets the tone.

Verse 1: Embracing Rebellion

The first verse brings in Mount Sims’s vocal, cool and assertive, the defiant stance that runs through the track.

Chorus: The Anthem of Nonconformity

In the chorus the energy intensifies and the title becomes a statement of identity, a claim to doing things one’s own way.

Verse 2: A Call to Action

The second verse keeps up the pressure, the vocal delivered with fierce determination over the machine groove.

Bridge: A Moment of Reflection

A quieter moment lets the haunting melodies come forward, a contrast to the high-energy sections.

Final Chorus: Liberation and Energy

The final chorus returns with renewed force for the track’s peak.

Concepts in Focus

How We Do is a clear example of electroclash, the scene that grew around labels such as Munich’s International DeeJay Gigolo, which released UltraSex in Europe. Its ingredients are all here: the drum-machine pulse of 1980s electro, synth-pop melody, deadpan cool and a punk refusal to be polite.

The darkness comes from the minor key. Rolling Stone’s review singled out the album’s dark, minor-key melodies; their lowered third gives the tunes a shadowed, melancholic colour even when the beat is built for dancing, the same trick much dance music uses.

The instrumentation is the synthesizer and its programmed partners rather than a band: Mount Sims wrote, performed, produced and arranged the album himself, with Mickey Petralia mixing. Compare the Gigolo label’s other emblematic voice in Miss Kittin – Frank Sinatra.

Artistic Context

Mount Sims is Matthew Sims, born in Milwaukee and later based in Berlin, a DJ, performance artist and producer who had earlier played in the American alternative rock band Citizen King. UltraSex was released on 3 September 2002 by International DeeJay Gigolo Records in Europe and Emperor Norton Records in the US; “How We Do” is track 5 of the European edition and the opening track of the American one. His darker second album, Wild Light, followed on Gigolo in 2005, and he later worked with The Knife and Planningtorock on the opera Tomorrow, In a Year.

Learn from this track

Intermediate

What you will learn

  • Place a track in the electroclash scene of the early 2000s and name its ingredients.
  • Hear how minor-key melodies give electronic dance music a dark colour.
  • Describe how synthesizers and drum machines replace a rock band's instruments while keeping its attitude.

Listening guide

  1. the intro A dark, atmospheric opening and a pulsing machine beat set the tone.
  2. the verses Mount Sims's cool, defiant vocal over gritty programmed drums, punk attitude in an electronic frame.
  3. the chorus The energy rises and the synth melody, dark and minor-key, comes to the front.
  4. the quieter middle A calmer passage where the haunting melodies carry the track before the final return.

Concepts in this track

electroclash

18 tracks

A late-1990s and early-2000s scene that fused 1980s electro, synth-pop and new wave with punk attitude, deadpan vocals and a taste for fashion and performance. It grew around labels such as International DeeJay Gigolo in Munich and clubs in New York, Berlin and Paris.

minor key

6 tracks

Music centred on a minor scale, whose lowered third gives a darker or more melancholic colour than a major key. Much dance music is in minor keys, which keeps euphoria bittersweet.

synthesizer

38 tracks

An electronic instrument that generates sound from oscillators and shapes it with filters and envelopes. Synthesizers define the sound of electronic pop, house and techno.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Rolling Stone heard UltraSex's minor-key melodies as afterthoughts; others heard them as its heart. Which do they feel like here?
  2. Electroclash borrowed from 1980s synth-pop and from punk. Which of the two does How We Do lean toward?
  3. UltraSex is a concept album about technology and sexuality. How might a cold, machine-made sound serve that theme?

References

  1. Wikipedia. UltraSex. Encyclopedia
  2. Wikipedia. Mount Sims. Encyclopedia

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