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review by Dene Bebbington With Empathy Test, Anthony Paul Kerby has delivered another singular ambient album exploring various themes through downtempo rhythmic music that has enough sounds and quirks to make the listener keep coming back to discover more. Readers who have heard his album Confluence will know the general style of music to expect and won't be disappointed if Confluence is their kind of music. For me, Empathy Test comes across as being as much music for the intellect as anything else, though the title refers to a test used to determine if someone is human or a replicant in the film Bladerunner. Eight individual tracks make up this album, and interestingly each one has a brief description which gives the listener a better idea of what the artist had in mind when creating the music. Before I read those descriptions in the liner notes, I felt like this album was taking me through the mental landscapes of "inner space," though at times some of the unusual sounds can point one's imagination towards alien worlds. The texture of most tracks relies on some kind of rhythm, though it's often executed in a less than conventional manner - at times I wondered if I was listening to sounds on an alien world. Working with the rhythms are a variety of sound effects that I'd describe as surreal, blistering, buzzy, bleepy, and squelchy; typically, these sounds are put together in a manner which has a restrained chaos quality sometimes verging on the edge of melody. Empathy Test is a kind of patchwork quilt of music where the colours and structure aren't greatly varied but there's plenty of detail to explore on repeated listens. It's an album that rewards the careful listener who is happy to let the music grow in charm as it reveals its secrets over time. |
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