|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
review by Dene Bebbington From the title, I was expecting this second album by Glenn Adams (aka Galactic Anthems) to be some form of glitchy downtempo music of the type found on the Databloem label. Upon playing, I found that it's actually similar to its predecessor Galactic Anthems apart from the themes being more Earth-based. Glenn's forté, in my opinion, is to employ out of the ordinary sound textures to create a varied sonic experience that overlaps EM, ambient, and spacemusic. The salient feature of this album is how many of the pieces are very evocative. Take "Madness" for example; this features a gentle background rhythm over which unsettling sounds and voices convey a sense of being in a mentally dark and unpredictable place. Another is "Sunrise at Sheep Pass" on which shimmering, calmly shiny, and slowly rousing synths help make one imagine the rising sun spreading colour and light. It seemed to me that the tracks which work best are the more free-form ambient ones. With the exception of "Smooth" I found the rhythmic pieces, many of which have a tribal and primitive feel, to be a bit bland because the rhythms tend to be too homogenous and unchanging. Of course, they may well have been intended to be that way, but for me it's the only real gripe about an otherwise good album. As for the ambient pieces, "Downtime" is particularly worth mentioning due to its restive chilled out mood which -- thanks to some oceanic kind of sounds -- made me imagine being calmed by an ocean vista. Ending the album is another drifting ambient style piece called "The Enchantment" on which expansive chords, drones, and metallic sounds shift around yet also flow like the surface of a river, giving the listener glimpses of an enchanted realm. With Abstract Circuitry Glenn has created what I'd best describe as a sister album to the debut Galactic Anthems because he hasn't pushed the musical envelope far from that beginning but instead seems to have explored it further. Overall, it's a work I can recommend despite a few "misses" in between the "hits". |
|