While synthesizers have been commercially available for more than a half-century, a puritanical divide long existed between analog- and electronic-approaches to music. However, owing much to decades of experimentation by artists in a range of genres — from mainstream pop to hip-hop to rock and folk — as well as the genre-agnosticism of modern listeners, the bridge between man and machine is now solid and structurally sound; also, by and large a trivial matter that only the confused or ludditical seem to push back against.

Animal Clinic, the solo project of Jacksonville songwriter James Scott Rubia, certainly bridges that divide. A multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, Rubia conjures poetry and all manner of circuitry — synthesizers, patches, drum machines — to craft Animal Clinic songs that channel James Murphy as much as Tom Waits.

On the first stop of JME’s Local Showcase Series back in February of ’22, Rubia performed songs from 2019’s Year of the Bore, his debut as Animal Clinic, and several new songs, including “Flowers In the Snow,” which appears on the just-released Alphaville, FL. Watch Animal Clinic perform “Flowers in the Snow” above.