Przemyslaw Rudz and Roman Odoj have teamed together to offer electronic prog with a swift kick in the backside , a beefy release that has more muscles than Arnold Schwarzenegger, recalling more early Ultravox/John Foxx, what with the thrilling bass propulsion and the razor-sharp guitar work (from Odoj) and Rudz elaborating on the electronics side with some slicing synthesizer runs that defy the imagination. The homage paid to all the great electronic pioneers from the Berlin and Dusseldorf schools being the most obvious but equally involving many of the current breed of synthesists.
The title track wastes zero time in getting the blood flowing, a fast and furious turbo-charge race on the highway. Arkadiusz Suchara on bass does a masterful job at thickening the sauce, while Michal Malinski pounds the living daylight out of his kit, channeling Warren Cann in the process. A brooding track that reflects perhaps the current turbulence in that area of the world, regularly prone to conflict of one kind or another. The limitless tonalities radiating from Rudz’s synthesizer arsenal are tectonic, by the end of this opener, there is little doubt that the mind will be satisfied until the very end. And what an ending we have in store!
The extended “Pyramidion “ is overtly more orchestral, not too far removed from Mark Shreeve, in that it’s a brawnier form of sequencing, a lusher class of melodic sweeps and a granite rhythmic foundation that pounds mightily. Laying some dense electric guitar layers only thickens the recipe, Odoj unafraid of soaring and scouring the horizon for new territories while Rudz locks in a series of overlapping synthesizers structures that, while keeping it relatively simple, combines expertly with a more forceful attitude that cannot be denied. Over thirteen minutes of unrelenting sounds, completely thrilling.
Knowing full well the benefits of melancholy, a Polish specialty that comes across in glorified fashion on the dreamy “Two Faces of Autumn, Rudz and Odoj propose a total transition into an altogether different style, where clanging guitar chords, pooling e-piano motifs, and substantial orchestral swaths of electronic strings luxuriate in ethereal splendor. The romanticism is overt, expressing the transformation of green into red and then brown, the hot sun replaced by driving rain, the winds warning of an eventual winter rolling in, unfettered. The effect-laden guitars flicker gently in the cool twilight, long enough for the magnanimous pipe organ to absolve all the sins of the summer and prepare for the seasonal atonement.
“Into the Higher Domain” is a substantial 20-minute sonic exorcism, a respectful invitation to introspection, in full accordance with the powers above, a very cathedral sounding symphony that wavers between Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. With its overtly arching properties there is a suggestion that the fight has now become flight, an extra corporal voyage with a synthesized sax patch and a wonderful acoustic guitar phrasing amid the reverberating e-piano puddles. Shifting into the upper cosmos, the sounds become more compressed, as if forged by the atmospheric pressures of escaping into the void. By the 10-minute mark, the stark reality kicks in with some rivet-busting commotions, issued from both key and fret boards, as if dueling with charged shrieks to achieve some kind of dominance. The guitar-synth work is a mixture of slippery Asian sounds (Yellow Magic Orchestra meets Bill Nelson) and dense industrial pounding, excitable synthesizer forays spinning in a myriad of directions, and depth-charge bass rumbles notwithstanding. Mesmerizing electro stuff.
The album is finished off by a stupendous instrumental cover of “Watchers of the Skies”, yes, you read correctly, the Genesis classic! Rudz and Odoj pay their respects by altering the technical elements without sacrificing the unalterable core beauty of the piece, the synthesizers starker than the original, the mellotron kept honorific. Bravo.
4.5 airport sendoffs.