Title: Echoes from Future Memories
Artiste: Gert Emmins and Ruud Heij
Year 2015
Nationality: Dutch
Genre: Electronic
Rank: Noob
9
Expectations: Well it only has four tracks but none are less than twelve minutes long. And that's the shortest one! Next one up is seventeen, then we go into the twenties. Hope it'll have more going on than yer man Roach did. Don't know what to expect...
1. Secrets lie within the event horizon: Spacey start with kind of echoing, hollow sounds, sure conjures up the idea of falling into a black hole all right. Okay, already a kind of juddering percussion is cutting in and it's getting a little Vangelis, some buzzing, running synths now. Yeah, think I may like this. Think I may like this a lot. Halfway through already and there's a whole lot happening. Getting very uptempo. Well it's twenty-one minutes long and halfway through I feel it's kind of mostly the same. Don't get me wrong: it's great and I'm enjoying it, and there are extra bits being thrown in, but for a piece of this length it's not really changing enough, at least not yet. There's no doubting the skill of the two musicians though.
2. Depth of prolonged nature: Descending, spiralling down feel to this; reminds me of Jeff Wayne at times. Most of it though is so Vangelis circa
Heaven and Hell it just ain't true. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does sound here like something of a ripoff of the Greek multi-instrumentalist's work to a degree. Does end really nicely.
3. Whispering winds over dusty roads: Bit of a harsher start, given the title, but there are seventeen minutes to go so we'll see how it develops. It's certainly a slow start. We're almost five minutes in before the dark, breathing synth is supplemented by a faster, rippling one and things begin to take shape. It's actually quite Jarre now. Nice kind of trumpety keyboard coming in around the thirteenth minute. Certainly keeps the attention, unlike some other electronic music I've listened to.
4. Echoes from future memories: And a twenty-four minute tune for the closer and title track. That busy synth gets going again, and there are hissing, sliding sounds flying all around the place, some good guitar work.Then in the eighth minute some bells or gongs sound as the main synth slips out, bringing in a sussurating one and something akin to whalesong as the whole piece slows down now, then picks back up as the bubbling synth makes its way back in.
Final result: Really enjoyable album. Hard to review as ever, but definitely something I would listen to again, and not just as background music.
Rating: 