Daze End
As you know, I’m a fan of your stuff thus far, so this is exciting.
The first track has a real Brian Eno vibe to my ear, with that crunchy distorted synth and plodding melody. Could fit on Another Green World pretty happily. Quite hopeful sounding mixed with melancholy. I like that rising pad that takes over midway. The whole track manages to be experimental and slightly unsettling whilst still sound upbeat, which isn’t an easy thing to achieve. Damn, this is really cool. It all sounds fractured, like it’s about to fall apart any minute. The cracked melodies make me think of Arthur Russell.
Another upbeat start to track 2. I like the fact you seem to have embraced percussion more, I think it adds another layer to this stuff, but you fit it into the ambient framework. The melody gets a little more dissonant and then resolves, and we get the guitar sounding strings coming in, which are neat. Nice production, like the layers coming in and tickling the eardrums, quite calming. I feel like this is an electronic equivalent of Post Rock track. I kind of wish that string sound was real guitar though. Great stereo effect towards the end as the synths bounce around.
Oooh, and a bit of sound collage, also dig this kind of stuff. The voice sounds familiar but can’t place it. Ah, Steven Fry, right? Nice manipulation, interesting stuff. Love the electronic sound here, like a wave rolling along. Great job balancing calmness, and the wild, untamed sound of the synth at this part. Then everything slows down and our boy Stevie drifts back in. Soothing but depressing in equal measure, nice juxtaposition
Ataxia starts with another sweet sounding synth. Sounds good with the arpeggio, and those rising and falling chords compliment it well
Love that distorted choppy guitar in Happy Madman, very refreshing change of pace to the earlier stuff. That’s really nice, could last longer imo
More distortedness mixed with a xylophone sounding instrument, and more spoken word parts. This is hypnotic honestly, very lovely and profound. A bit like Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed, but slightly more cheery if that’s the right word (it’s not). Then some killer sea of distortion drowning out the track
And some piano! Well I never, what a treat. Things then turn wild, all those conflicting melodies overlapping into one big mass. Sort of like Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, but electro
Brink has a bit of a trance sound to it, a little bit of a House fuelled sound. That rhythm guitar part underneath really fleshes things out and gives the track some punch and momentum.
If We Could Levitate definitely has a Shoegaze vibe, although to be fair a lot of the album does. Shoegaze with synths instead of guitars though. Definitely an ethereal quality to this one, in keeping with the name
The spoken word stuff in Saviour Signals is hella dark. Captivating though. This stuff adds real narrative and ties everything together, great device and fitting with your music. Great guitar-esque sound spazzing out in this, I can dig that
And this piano in Fixated is cool as ****. Lot of resonance to it. Is that you playing? It’s awesome either way. Emotional but not cheesy. A bit like that Aphex track on Syro with the piano (I forget its name). Again, the realness of the instrumentation here is a welcome change of pace and sound. Nice palette throughout the whole album actually. And that distortion is pretty gut-punching! But warm and smooth at the same time. The way everything soars as it reaches a crescendo is bliss. Man this might be my favourite
The synth in Rising Time sounds a bit like a Harpsichord (which is good, underrated instrument). I can imagine this on a game soundtrack actually, which again is a compliment, upbeat and stimulating, great music to listen to while engaged in some work or creative writing, I reckon
And the final track! Starts with a baroque style string sound to it, great layering as usual. Lovely sizzle to that high end synth part. This is a pretty sensory experience, though that can be said to the whole album. There’s something a bit new age about it a bit… but in a good way. I think I could meditate to this. And the guy quoted Shakespeare, holy **** that’s cool. This is a lovely ending, tranquil as ****. Love the backing parts here, great end to the journey. Man this ending is just spot on really
So… as you can probably tell, I really really liked it. Definitely your best album so far. The use of spoken word pieces really brings out a lot of emotion and narrative structure, which arguably your albums were lacking before. Really does feel like a journey. I may well actually meditate to this album soon, I’ll let you know how that goes. I think your mastery of balance, musically and emotionally, and your integration of upbeat, light sounds, and darker melodies and distortion, is really utilised well here. The little percussive and rhythmic elements were a step in the right direction too. I enjoyed it immensely dude.
A couple of notes, because you probably want a bit of constructiveness too, so I’ll say this:
A lot of the tracks accentuate the high end, as in, everything really sizzles with those swathes of synth and distorted guitar; and while that sounds very cool and pretty, I think your missing out in some of the dynamic range of the song. It’s not easy to pull off with ambient stuff, but there are whole registers of sound that you’re missing out. Trying using lower sounds and bass instruments, perhaps, to give the music more scope. Could add a lot to some of the tracks.
Overall, though, this was a very strong release and I’m happy to have heard it. Definitely going to listen to it some more. Ace/10