The shimmering ghost of rave and hardcore lies buried in this album, smothered by layers of choral drone, subtle bass kicks that rumble under the clouds. But that is only the referencing of the vocal samples in the first track, ‘nothing you want will ever come true’, they are almost urban R&B style, that are as close to the ‘ohh baby’ strangeness that is wielded by some purveyors of the genre, it seems distant to the layered drone honed into beatific wall of static soaked epic ambient that Ian Hawgood and Brock Van Wey cloak it in. In ‘Beauty is in the eye of the pretender’ the vocal samples are heavily treated and form in part the substance of the drones and tones that compose the track. It is a much more understated and nuanced track that aims close to the form of a beatless ambient house. Changes build around the central cycle with subtle changes and minute additions. The vocals float angelically high in the mix with many overdubbed moments and effects before the inclination towards choral drone wall eventually captures the track. ‘Lie in Lone’ is the excellent in counterpoising the faltering amateur strumming guitarist, almost a caricature of loneliness, done with a wistful memory of the absence of others, it combines the electronic elements to elicit the emotive presence to enhance this portrait. It builds in the tone of its insistence and the menace of the wall it builds, insisting on the importance of these emotions by almost classic intensity and grandiose posturing. ‘Your Grand Finale (A theater of One)’ is slightly tamer in that it doesn’t reach for the emotive buttons as much and buries the vocals as sonic shadows between the layers jutting out for the ear in slight echo and extended drone, it creates a low intensity and carries it in the track, with hints of mood as being a form of melancholy, building to a mid track climax of sorts before a brief interlude then back into a wave after wave of drone and loftier vocal samples stripping operatic tomes for it’s serious intent.
It is definitely a well made album, but the wallowing in despair of loneliness is slightly on the indulgent side, it makes it a baroque catastrophe that anyone with a hint of the memory of joy would reject out of hand. It suggests the bleak and unremitting misfortune that the two creators may have felt or empathised with but scales the proportions to almost the scale of tragic comic opera. On the brighter side all the profits from this release will go to relief funds in Japan for the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support organisation.
Innerversitysound
