SYSTEMS THEORY

Soundtracks For Imaginary Movies

Independent Records (2004)

review by Bill Binkelman

Three musicians make up the group Systems Theory: Greg Amov (all manner of synths, keyboards, E-bow, viola, guitar, percussion), Steve Davies-Morris (guitars, bass, synths, percussion) and Mike Dickson (mellotron, Hammond, synth, sequencer, piano, timpani, samples and loops) plus a small cadre of accompanists joins them on guitars, violin, dulcimer, and flute. With all that gear, you'd be right in thinking that this is a fusion recording and not one of gentle serene ambient music, to say the least. Soundtracks for Imaginary Movies is challenging yet rewarding progressive instrumental music of high caliber, encompassing everything from churning rock-like rhythms to fluid stinging jazz breaks to improvisational jams to even some rather quasi-ambient soundscape moments. Since I'm not as plugged into the prog scene as I used to be many years ago, comparisons will prove pointless so I won't embarrass myself by attempting any.

As you might expect from the album's title, some stretches of this CD are, indeed, cinematic in feel and characteristic, containing a "full" sound with layers of synths, rhythms, and other instrumentation. At other times, the music veers into a more group-oriented vein, although with the multitude of instruments each member of Systems Theory plays, that statement is somewhat paradoxical. Quiet moments occur here and there, but they are usually merely a bridge to the next explosion of forceful rhythms and fiery melodies or refrains.

Describing the actual music itself will prove problematic for sveral reasons, one being that many tracks evolve drastically over their duration, such as the opening "Green Miata Baja Bound" which starts off as a desert soundscape, awash in twinkling synths and mellotron strings, before spiraling off into a propulsive prog tune fueled by superb Spanish guitar, stinging electric lead, drum kit rhythms that drive forward with energy and verve, and dramatic keyboards underneath it all! It's an audacious, exciting, and thoroughly rewarding opening to this album. However, this is one of the shorter tracks on the album (6:39) and, as such, is easier to put into words. The next track is likewise relatively brief, "The Cool Vibe of Asia C" which combines Eastern musical influences (flute and violin perform this task) counterbalanced by prog kit drums, healthy doses of soaring mellotron, and a funky guitar lead, as well as a wall of sound approach to background textures.

However, trying to encapsulate something like the thirteen-plus minute "Four Piece Suit" would prove problematic at the least. It contains dramatic spacy synths and retro keyboards, a mellow but bouncy refrain on what sounds like sampled kalimba (African thumb piano) percolating over a trippy bass line, thumping bass beats under ominous drone-like swells and mildly dissonant choirs...okay, you see where I'm headed with this, right? "Silent Service" the second longest track on the album, is even harder to crawl inside of, covering an impossibly wide assortment of moods and motifs, some of them borderline inaccessible and experimental. On the other hand, "A Lifeboat, Tallulah, And Me," while bizarre to contemplate, remains relatively cohesive in its stark vision of plaintive piano, seagulls crying, thunderclaps, and synths and textures bobbing along on the open sea in a rather dour tone poem kind of song.

Soundtracks For Imaginary Movies is, to state the obvious, challenging to get through and not always easy to digest, especially given its twists and turns from quiet to powerful and back again. However, the musicians play together as if they were born to it, and the energy they exhibit is frequently contagious. Many of the keyboards have a pronounced retro sound to them (obviously, especially the mellotrons) so there is that side to the equation too. Guitars, bass and drums are present in many instances, although there are whole minutes that go by (such as at the start of "Water Through Fingers") where they are absent. On that particular cut, things kick off with mysteriously wafting flute, merging into a miasma of eerie textures and synths.

If you find a lot of ambient music boring or if a lot of prog or fusion is too predicatble for your taste, then Soundtracks For Imaginary Movies should throw you lots of agreeable curves over its 74 minutes. It's a unique musical vision played by artists who are decidedly outside the usual spectrum covered on this website.