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review by Dene Bebbington Prolific synthesizer musician David Wright has teamed up again with producer Dave Massey - the two Davids having previously worked together on David W's Continuum and Code Indigo's TimeCode>Indigo albums. In this first outing under the Callisto name musical ideas encountered but not used when working on Continuum have been developed. The result is over an hour of well-crafted rhythms, melodies, and sequences that bear David W's stylistic and sonic hallmarks. The album is divided into what one might consider to be five movements, each one of which encompasses between one and three tracks. Part 1 (out of 2) of "Sycorax" gets things off to a rousing start; initially we hear distant electronic effects before a pulsating rhythm and sequence build up the pace to be joined by reverbing synth melodies, one of which is quite insistent and strangely sensual (at least I thought so!). The tenor of each of the five "movements" is different, for instance, and in contrast to the upbeat predecessor "Sycorax", the mood partly quietens down in "Iosphere". The three tracks of this movement essentially explore a core melodic theme while building different sound patterns and structures around it, each piece sounds a little more urgent and upbeat than the last until it completes with the percussive rhythms out in the open and the melody sounding celebratory. This increasing intensity of a theme is also evident in "Setisphere". The final track, part 3 of "Naiad" is also worth a mention. In contract to a lively part 2 it's a relaxed piece in which piano and synth deliver a haunting melody over a quietly pulsating backdrop. In my opinion David Wright's music has gotten better over time, I consider the album ThreeSixZero to have been a watershed where his music matured considerably. As with his other recent work, both solo and with Code Indigo, Signal to the Stars is well worth getting hold of. The one criticism I have is that his albums are too long given the material available because he has a tendency to stretch out and repeat musical themes. |
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