In Rotation, January 2005
Andrew Fenner
Echo Us
Track Listing: My Sirens, Dreaming, Directed Study, Her Heart’s Army / White Wednesday, Who Loves You, To Save You, I Radiate I, Black Thursday, In The Fall.
Swelling, airy textures with sensitive male vocals and tasty, highly skilled guitarwork. Hard to pigeonhole in any subgenre or ferret out other than discreet influences. Personal, introspective lyrics that are unafraid of their own vulnerability. A thread of unbridled joy running through the sweet and sour. A good listen, and probably a really good live band.
Trigger10D – The Difference is a Boy
Track Listing: Babyteen, Elaine, Dirty Water, Bittergold, Most People Don’t Forget, Embers, Siren, You Complicate Things, Fuckfox, Sissy, Burgundy, Parade.
This one breaks with the atmospheric etherea tonality of the rest of the current collection. Driving, even frantic, rhythm section and shattered glass synth arrangements hold serious, often emotionally intense female vocals in matrix, leading to explosive choruses. Reminiscient of Switchblade Symphony, perhaps even better at times. A few slower tracks also hold up well (one of these, “Sissy”, is melodically amazing). A skillfully rendered and worthwhile effort.
Synthetic Dream Foundation – A Rain of things which happened in Flashes
Track Listing: My Cavern Within Exile, Cold Stares, Stargazer, Failing Heart, How Desire Learned Thievery, Uncaging Her Demons, Moonbeams Through The Wreckage, Mists Of Solace, The Puppeteer’s Harpy, Black Halo, For Childhood Memories.
Intros that seem like a prelude to the horror movie soundtrack for... your life... which then give birth to danceable, tranceable, instrumental music, or in one case, a delicate, dreamy piano solo. Often more subtle than you might expect, which is engaging, with myriad little emotional frissons that keep a touch of sweetness in the mix. Very nice ambient club style music.
Demain – A Silber Records Sampler
Track Listing: Origami Arktika - Skilpadde, Peter Aldrich - Less Visionary Than Expected, Peter Aldrich - Cherry Romero, small life form - decay
small life form - mouthed, My Glass Beside Yours - Self-deliverance, My Glass Beside Yours - Sixteen, Remora/Aarktica - Ends, Remora - Rivin, Remora - Angel Stalk (Anaaron), Remora - Slipsky, Remora - Diagnosis, Remora/Clang Quartet - Distressed, Clang Quartet - Idiot, burMonter - Thirteen Layers of Heaven, Vlor - Guilt Jersey, Vlor - Valge, Vlor - Automatic, Fade - Sadness, Still - Each Day is Like Winter (excerpt).
Inventive electronic noise. From horrific murk, in which things gnash at your flesh as if from a Geiger nightmare, to deep space with the pulsing throb of plasma engines... then, WTF, a two-chord guitar band! Next, something that starts in the depths of an ice furnace and proceeds to, well, end. On to something that sounds like water percussion controlled by an oscilloscope. Now more guitarishness with some sort of retro ostinato figure that dangles and jangles like a wind chime as synth wind moans through it. Next something that sounds as if it will become a folk song, but becomes a short composition instead. This is just the first 8 tracks; there are 20 on the CD, mostly sans vocals. When there are vocals, they usually consist of a style of droning, rather than singing (though there are lyrics), some of it Gregorian Chant inspired. Then right in the middle of it all, a very credible actual song with fine female vocals (Thirteen Layers of Heaven). Is there a genre for off-off the beaten track?
Regan The High Priestess
Track Listing: Oblivion, Opium, Interrogated, I Am Your Garden.
Regan does the siren somewhat in the mode of the great Regeana Morris of Changlings fame, with Arabic/Indian strains over drum ‘n’ bass, synths, and tablas (is there actually some violin in there somewhere too?). Some more rappish bits ala My Scarlet Life break things up nicely. I am already predisposed to this sort of music, so I liked it a lot.
(The review here applies to a pre-release cd. Pictured here is the debut cd.)
Mike VanPortfleet – Beyond the Horizon Line
Track Listing: Deep In The Morning Sun, Echoes Of The Lost Sea, Towards The Blinding Glare, The Call Of The Horizon Line, Stellar Buckshot Awaits, Night Sky Illumination, Dark Gateway, Strange Star Transmissions, Stellar Shower Begins, Unsettled New Day.
If there lies, somewhere beneath the crust of this wearisome planetoid, an enormous catacomb of great depth, with astonishing portals that somehow open onto the whole starry universe... then Mike VanPortfleet knows where it is and how to get there. I mean, the guy does this terra/cosmos stuff like it’s second nature, which it surely must be by now. What we have going on with this solo release seems to be the spinning Earth; a sunrise complete with pastel streamers and the resonant disc of the radiant sun, passing through the afternoon into the awe of deep night, further meditations and perceptions of what lies beyond this place, then bathing in the immensity while rediscovering the lost sense of holiness, mystery, and journey that is all too lacking in the rude overground world. That it is instrumental might be a requirement, since speech would only cloud the mind within the snare of language. This stuff will make all that daily grind crapola fall away like a scab of dead skin.
Kobi – Projecto
Track Listing: Looking Down Over The Waves A Hundred Feet Below, It Was Often Enough Simply To Pursue Doubt, It Had Been There All Night, He Shot Me A Chilling Glance Of Recognition, Just In Time He Turned And Ran Blindly Back, However This Feeling Can Be Cultivated, He Turns To Welcome Me Stretches Out His Hand, Marked Time With His Feet Or Moved His Fingers, We Were Surprised At The Quantity And Quality, Riding Her Trainer Bike In Obsessive Circles.
Something like instrumental chant, but more subterranean than cosmic. Distorted vocal utterances woven into various electronica and ethnic instruments, whether VST or actual, evoke a nebulous twilight netherworld where assorted sprites, spirits, and demigods swirl in a slow dance of... something. Elaborate and interesting titles suggest human interaction within in this realm. Good meditation music for your darker moods.
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