Rexorcist

PART V

Okay, starting from track 51, Penpen2, this one is a short ambient track with some random vocal samples, a very calming way to start it out. Nicely produced, nothing special. As I expected, we get right into a someone typically dance track on 14u, a pun on "one for you." Once again it has a fairly clever mix of beat and melody in the background that keeps things shifting at a good even pace, but that constant "one for you one for me" sample isn't very interesting. In fact, it's a little annoying. Oval Ratty is a nine-minute track that gets really interesting really quickly. With a deep beat and a rhythm and sound, reminding me of Aquatic Ruin Zone, the ambience and atmosphere soon turn into an extremely complex piece of constant breeziness, although it might be a little TOO complex. It's easy for that melody that the song started out with the get lost in all the activity. Eventually, the abundance tones down, thankfully, and the surrealism and catchiness can continue much more easily, taking care of the overlength issue of the first act. Next is Woolwich Is Trying to Kill Me, which almost instantly impressed me with its two combined melodies. But since this remains the main focus of the five minutes, all the attempts at shifting the backgrounds come second, which means the melodies can easily distract from them. Next is Ambliwans, whatever that means. Tried googling it, I only got Amblin Entertainment. Anyway, this one's less melody-based, but treats its very different, more beat-driven sounds the same way the last one did, putting one instrument up front and shifting the rest in an even fashion overtime. But because any actual melody is drowned out, I didn't really have any fun with this one. There's a faint beat in the background, but it has no real presence when drowned out by everything else. to end this six is the 10-minute Pest Control, and god is this one repetitive. It has a fantastically icy vibe to it, I'll give it that, but it takes a while for things to actually shift around. It doesn't make a strong point of that until halfway through.

As a self-reference, the next track is titled "Hunter Gatherer," which was the name of various EP's with many different tracks released in different places with the same name. The track makes use of squelching before returning to trademark Naked Flames vocal ambiance. A very simple melody switches between foreground and background depending on how much the atmosphere takes over. It largely makes use of a sample of the chorus to Who Can It Be Now by Men at Work by the four-minute point. It remains enjoyable throughout the whole thanks to noticeable changes of pace, but is still way too long. Go On Treat Yourself is less than half the time, but it's a quite simple and somewhat repetitive dub techno track that only has mood going for it. There's a stronger sense of that mood in the next track, Foos With Sweet. but it manages to be even more simple in this respect. Until the halfway point, the only thing going for it is that the strong mood has the same kind of nocturnal vibe you'd get from club jazz. Then some squelching comes in and gives it a kick, even if it detracts from the nocturnal essence.

Track 60 is called "Two Whales in a Car." I hope it's a clown car. Anyway, this nine-minuter is probably the most repetitive so far. It tries to astound with excellent atmospheric production, but forgets to be a song at the same time. Every shift that happens in the song takes too long to actually get there. Track 61, Hackney Marshes Has Me in Tatters, is only four minutes, and its lead rhythm is kinda goofy and simple, which leads me to believe that Naked Flames just quickly threw it together. Thankfully, once the backdrops kick in, things get pretty cool and retro. But once again, it forgets to go anywhere interesting. My last chance for a decent time today would be Catseyes. It's much slower, and actually shows NF bothering to even give consideration to a different type of tempo. This is yet another exercize in atmosphere that doesn't both with melody and try to pretend to be catchy, so there's something admirable about that decision. Out of the twelve, this was easily the most impressive, but then again that's not saying it's a legend or anything.

Okay, so I have one more set of twelve to go. I guess I'll just finish it today.

Knollcrest is nearly five minutes. It starts out with an interesting slow melody that continues throughout, and it's quite nice to listen to. Although the changes in the backdrop are faint and occasional, it at least maintains a charming and almost forest-like presence. Lantern-Joeyboy returns thesmoother vibe and an acoustic beat, displaying a sample that I might've heard on the album before, or maybe on another album? If it wasn't a previous track inspired by Metheny, then I wanna say it WAS Metheny (give me a break, I only heard this album once). It introduces some beautiful atmospheric elements to keep it very strong, so finally I get a great performance again. Soul of Cartrip smacks you with a higher pitch and more energy, despite the atmospheric focus. This is a song that goes for changes of pace, but it's also going for catchiness and fails completely. Soul of Cartrip would be a much more interesting song if it had bothered to make a good enough riff to justify the shifts. And Smarter Dan goes for energy, but with the lack of shifts and any kind of rhythm, it's just so boring in comarison to practically everything else. Donkeywork goes for ryhtm once more, but seems to be more focues on a somewhat cutesy attitude for some reason. The melody once again suffers as it's not so interesting, which is telling me that Naked Flames ran out of ideas for this album specifically because he wanted to fill a seven-hour album.

Next is the second-to-last segue, "No Title," which is a faint windy sound providing background to a couple repeated samples of the phrase... eff off. Worst segue so far. I'm soon proven right about the lost ideas wit Got Milque, which is a total rehash of the filler in every sense of the way. But interestingly enough, the final segue is a beautiful piano melody called Cambridge Piano, which is a big sigh of relief from the tropes, but is also disappointing in the sense that it's only a quick 99 seconds. Next is the short and sweet One Can Only Hope is an ambient track that assaults you more and more overtime, so it was kind of nice. The Loveliest Thing is a very dark and eerie track that repeats its simple rhythm with a collective of creepy atmospheric touches, so while it's formulaic for the album it's also different and still somewhat inventive. Next is the nine-minute Shadwell is Getting Scary, which is halfway made up of repeating a child's rhyme to some basic outsider house and techno production and then going down to absolute minimalism like, as Salieri would say, a rusty squeeze box. And the whole albums ends with another nine minute track, Sink Steps, which kickstarts with a disco sample. Why didn't some of the filler kickstart with disco samples? A few of those would've helped this monster of an album. This one makes a much stronger point of being catchy thanks to its disco sample. Worked out for Crescendolls, after all, but it's also focused on mixing things up and an even basis, so it was a good way to end the album.

Welp, I'm finally done with this seven hour behemoth of an album. It's not the longest album I've ever heard, but even then, the ten-hour one I have heard, a Grateful Dead Fillmore West collection, remained imaginative even when repeating tracks, so this one was easy to see as loaded with both brilliance and filler, so it's only right to givre this about an 8/10.