Okay, I will take the plunge. I do have another album (‘You all Look the Same to Me’ from 2002) from this lot that did not bowl me over, but I do also read my colleagues scribblings regularly, albeit with polite enthusiasm, hoping to be seduced or at the very least, challenged into acceptance. Many have stated for the record that this new release is allegedly a corker. I will give this a cold-one shot listen, eschewing any rewinds or revisits and see what sticks. We shall see.
The opener “Broken Bits” comes across like a soundtrack from War of the Worlds, with pulverizing synthesizers marching through cities, flames erupting from their hell-fired lasers as they destroy everything in their wake. No resistance offered, surrender expected. The tone is appropriately gruesome, relentless as the sequencers combine with the marshalling pace, a monstrous mixture of electronic doom, cinematographic sci-fi score and breathless anxiety. Band founders Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths lead the alien onslaught on decimating keyboard barrages that bode well for an ominous and unexpected voyage into the absurd. The somber tone is only slightly relieved on the title track, with an ostentatious female voice (Lisa Mottram) pleading for some form of salvation, the turbulent symphonics fully interconnected with the grim outlook, petrification guaranteed. One can immediately pick up on the thought-out structure, as each piece blends perfectly with the next, creating an undeniable progressive flow, with a clearly defined starting point as well as a distant endgame on the horizon. Obviously, there will be ten stops in between, each interlocked yet inherently unique. The agonizing lilt on “Patterns” is almost grisly, as if attending a funeral parade, various shuddering voice effects bristling with anguish, it’s a garish procession that can leave on speechless at best and possibly in tears.
On the other hand, “Look at Us” has a distinct gothic/industrial 80s sound (think Bauhaus, Modern English, Killing Joke, Love & Rockets) but infusing an obsessive chorus that is mesmerizing. The bleak mechanical pounding verges on the preposterous, incessantly aggressive. The next resonating piece keeps the style but blends in a slower pace, the vocals metronomic and obsessively repetitive, suddenly shifting into interwoven harmony vocals, a complete tour de force that is utterly beguiling. Its title is ”When You’re This Down”, not exactly pretty or joyous. Immediate swerve into more irrationality with the almost puerile romanticism on “So Far from Losing You”, electronic kindergarten music colliding with fbombs, poetic cyclic rapping, and then, inciting one into a trance. Everything sounds like its fading to grey, an inevitable descent into delirium, reaching a paroxysm of emotion, only to fall back into a child-like cocoon of disbelief.
“Wake Up Strange” has a drum machine-led (TR 808 ?), plenty of synth bass and a probing vocal delivery, the electronic back drop comfortably confused. Totally addictive, timeless but poignant and makes you kind of feel, well…strange. To maintain that sense of otherworldliness, I was caught completely by surprise on the delicacy of the stripped-down melodic beauty of “City Walls”, a mostly solemn voice and twinkling piano with a discreet orchestral keyboard backdrop that astounds like no other track on this substantial recording. Its minimalist sensibility is like a bejeweled gift from heaven.
A return into more byzantine stylistics, though still adamant on the obsessive vocal/lyrical substance, there is brutality in the revolting concussive thud, an extremist track that recalls a certain Steve Hillage vocal section, “The Love the Light” is a powerhouse of resolute grandiloquence. The fragile beginnings of “Shine Out Power” challenge the subsequent bombast, and when the chorus finally enters the maelstrom, the brass synths and dense electronics elevate the arrangement, dragging the pleading voice into an upward vortex of unabashed ache, colliding with the awaiting panacea (hello, organ). Is there a heaven ? I would like to think so.
Sorry, lads, rap is not my thing, though the urban poetry may be valid and even appealing, the unmusicality of the arrangement leaves me somewhat uninspired, even the electronics come across as tepid. I simply cannot see the relevance of this with all the amazing music before this one arrived on the scene. “Heads Are Gonna Roll” indeed! This glove does not fit.
Thankfully, the navigators have taken over the controls from auto-pilot and veered the craft back into the previous comfort zone flight plan. “Where I am “ suggests a fateful landing in more hopeful surroundings, a statement of self-analysis and perhaps even understanding. Musically, it’s a softly encompassing sensation, a fitting end to an overpowering journey into the inner world, where nothing seems like the real thing. The apocalyptic finale is simply amazing.
So, take mental notes, and place this release in your cerebral archive of successful modern prog albums. This was way more enjoyable than I expected, surely their finest effort yet.
4.5 vitreous thoughts