Next up is Tristan's band. Ah. When I click the link I get nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip. “The thing you are looking for is not here”, or something like that. Tristan, new link please, stat!
In the meantime, we'll move on. This is an album recorded by a member who I believe is no longer here, but then that's no reason not to review his music, is it? Does anyone remember Epoch6?
Synaptic Obsolescence – Mindprowler (Epoch6) – 2012
I have no idea of course, but when I look at that cover it just screams electronica or synthwave, and the artiste name he has chosen kind of says the same. Could be neoclassical or hardcore emo, who knows? Well, I'm about to find out as I hit “play”. There's a gradual beginning anyway as the first track, “Doors of perception” slowly makes its way in, and it sounds at first anyway very ambient and esoteric. Getting a bit more coherent now, with wind sounds and what appears to be an organ, percussion slowly coming in now (which reminds me of something but I can't remember what: you probably don't know it. Oh wait: Peter Gabriel?) The tune is changing now, acquiring a darker, more ominous feel and direction, synths rising and falling as the percussion continues. It's a very effective beat I must say. The basic melody doesn't change all that much but it's pretty effective. The title track is up next, and it's got a more kind of organic feel? Sounds of dripping water and murmuring synths Some nice keyboard runs there, a sort of percussion that reminds me of JMJ and oh-oh! Here comes some spoken word stuff. Why do you electronic artistes always want to add in some recorded speech? Don't get it. Yes, sometimes it works but most of the time, to me anyway, it just seems lazy, and often detracts from the music. Oh well, guess I won't get an answer at this point, and to be fair, the music is very good. Verging on excellent here.
Okay, I see now the tags mention drum and bass and electronic house; I don't hear that here, not that I'm very familiar with either genre. But does not drum and bass exclude any other instruments, or am I wrong there? Anyway, it's a short album and there are only two more tracks to go, so the penultimate one is “Complexity impelled” and opens with more talking before a deep dark synth gets going, percussion coming in very unobtrusively, which I imagine is not that easy to do with percussion, and some electronic sound effects being added into the mix. The final track is much slower, almost plodding, with a kind of echoing drumbeat and fizzing synths. It's nice, it's dark and it's very well played and composed, but for me, like much of the album, it will be unmemorable.
Track listing and Ratings
1. Doors of perception
2. Synaptic obsolescence
3. Complexity impelled
4. Nootropics
If Epoch6 should happen to read this, don't take it as a slight on your music. I've said it about other electronic composers here before: often the emphasis seems to be more on how clever and innovative you can be, without worrying about how a listener is going to enjoy it. This isn't quite that, but at the same time I didn't hear anything that I would call catchy on it, and I won't be humming it afterwards. But a very good effort nonetheless.