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| Track list: 1. Energy Failure On The Sibelius 2. The Astrology 3. Sol 4. The Barometric Sea 5. Leaving The Hub 7. The Drop Of Nowhere 8. Euphandemonium 11. Map Of The Pleiades Running time: 55 minutes Released: 2007 |
A return to Deepspace, whose ambient track Another Empty Galaxy I rather enjoyed. This time it is more free tracks from a different album. Not an entire free disc this time, but most of one. I had 5 tracks already, 3 more were free which I have just grabbed, and a final 3 were not. I can guess this will be more ambient material but not at its themes.
Immediate electrics hum and give a deliberate (I would guess) sense of being underwater through an intangible oscillating quality that seems to slow everything down. It is quite an oppressive piece, atmospherically speaking and veers into discord in places. Energy Failure on the Sibelius is not winning me over, but I could see it being decent mood music for a deep-sea or deep-space adventure. There is a part of me that thinks I should be assigning tunes like this some metadata, or maybe just to a playlist, to take advantage of actually listening and building a picture of them because thematic background music is a plus in at least one of my hobbies. I have to say though, I think I will stick with simply deleting it this time.
The Astrology is the first of the longer pieces (there are three around 10 minutes each), and it starts more promisingly but then fails to build on that. A haunting tone is all well and good but it does not play with it enough to create lasting interest. I got really into Another Empty Galaxy but somehow I am not feeling the same draw here. I don't know if the cold outside seeps in a bit with these vast empty sounds - this tune reminds me more of icy wastes than any other kind of land- (or sea-)scape. And as I commit that, something else is added to make it feel a little less empty. A mechanical kind of chugging bass loop. Maybe a caravan of some sort, slogging across the floes. Repetitive as it is, this loop really adds depth to the track and lifts is enough to make it work.
As it ends, I have a moment where everything is borked - I'm listening to one track but it is reporting and recording another; I do not know whether I am coming or going. So I sort it out by deleting the album and re-downloading everything except Sibelius and sort it out, listening to the end of The Astrology again as a result, but that's an acceptable enough price. Only the LastFM scrobbler does it again as Sol starts, recording it as The Astrology again. Some odd things have been happening recently; most Mawkin:Causley tracks were scrobbled twice during that listen a couple of weeks back. I'll put that aside though and go by the on-screen in WMP. Sol then. It is vaguely reminiscent of Vangelis in some respects and I approve.
Yup, every track now seems to be scrobbling as the one before it. Oh well. This is a lonely pursuit at the best of times, albeit one that through its engagement wards of loneliness, but tracks like this really emphasise the feeling. I can see this as being stuck on a rock in the middle of nowhere, looking out over vast swathes of nothingness, a big empty sky above and no landmarks to guide. Bleak, that's the word. And yet there is a warmth of sorts to the music itself that undermines that sense, even as it creates it. Since the opening track, I have fallen in to rather enjoying this again. It does help that I can see other uses for it but there is enough here to be oddly fulfilling in its own right. Leaving the hub is suitably dark, trepidatious mood to it, that you could see it as a fearful step into the unknown. It reminds me a little of prog rock, with long-held chords transitioning from one to another, but this is stripped back not embellished so the comparison quickly falls down.
The tracks have definitely gone a little darker to my ear; The Drop of Nowhere is less interesting as a result. Perhaps my attention has wandered a little, but this track is more of a drone with not enough to lift it or provide gems that sparkle against the black backdrop. Euphandemonium (great title!) lifts things a bit, which is welcome, but only brief. The strains that gave it the lift fade fairly quickly then linger there just in the background a bit in a way that makes the track really not work for me. Then it is over, for this is a short song, and we are on to the final piece, the "bonus track" - this is also shorter and has more obvious instrumentation rather than the strict ambience of prior tracks. The sustained chord is a little wearing though and this will be joining a few of its disc-mates in my recycle bin. For the second time tonight, too!
All in all this was a hit and miss set of tracks with the middle better than either end. Another selection of Deepspace's freely available work, The Barometric Sun is next, unless I fiddle with the order.
Immediate electrics hum and give a deliberate (I would guess) sense of being underwater through an intangible oscillating quality that seems to slow everything down. It is quite an oppressive piece, atmospherically speaking and veers into discord in places. Energy Failure on the Sibelius is not winning me over, but I could see it being decent mood music for a deep-sea or deep-space adventure. There is a part of me that thinks I should be assigning tunes like this some metadata, or maybe just to a playlist, to take advantage of actually listening and building a picture of them because thematic background music is a plus in at least one of my hobbies. I have to say though, I think I will stick with simply deleting it this time.
The Astrology is the first of the longer pieces (there are three around 10 minutes each), and it starts more promisingly but then fails to build on that. A haunting tone is all well and good but it does not play with it enough to create lasting interest. I got really into Another Empty Galaxy but somehow I am not feeling the same draw here. I don't know if the cold outside seeps in a bit with these vast empty sounds - this tune reminds me more of icy wastes than any other kind of land- (or sea-)scape. And as I commit that, something else is added to make it feel a little less empty. A mechanical kind of chugging bass loop. Maybe a caravan of some sort, slogging across the floes. Repetitive as it is, this loop really adds depth to the track and lifts is enough to make it work.
As it ends, I have a moment where everything is borked - I'm listening to one track but it is reporting and recording another; I do not know whether I am coming or going. So I sort it out by deleting the album and re-downloading everything except Sibelius and sort it out, listening to the end of The Astrology again as a result, but that's an acceptable enough price. Only the LastFM scrobbler does it again as Sol starts, recording it as The Astrology again. Some odd things have been happening recently; most Mawkin:Causley tracks were scrobbled twice during that listen a couple of weeks back. I'll put that aside though and go by the on-screen in WMP. Sol then. It is vaguely reminiscent of Vangelis in some respects and I approve.
Yup, every track now seems to be scrobbling as the one before it. Oh well. This is a lonely pursuit at the best of times, albeit one that through its engagement wards of loneliness, but tracks like this really emphasise the feeling. I can see this as being stuck on a rock in the middle of nowhere, looking out over vast swathes of nothingness, a big empty sky above and no landmarks to guide. Bleak, that's the word. And yet there is a warmth of sorts to the music itself that undermines that sense, even as it creates it. Since the opening track, I have fallen in to rather enjoying this again. It does help that I can see other uses for it but there is enough here to be oddly fulfilling in its own right. Leaving the hub is suitably dark, trepidatious mood to it, that you could see it as a fearful step into the unknown. It reminds me a little of prog rock, with long-held chords transitioning from one to another, but this is stripped back not embellished so the comparison quickly falls down.
The tracks have definitely gone a little darker to my ear; The Drop of Nowhere is less interesting as a result. Perhaps my attention has wandered a little, but this track is more of a drone with not enough to lift it or provide gems that sparkle against the black backdrop. Euphandemonium (great title!) lifts things a bit, which is welcome, but only brief. The strains that gave it the lift fade fairly quickly then linger there just in the background a bit in a way that makes the track really not work for me. Then it is over, for this is a short song, and we are on to the final piece, the "bonus track" - this is also shorter and has more obvious instrumentation rather than the strict ambience of prior tracks. The sustained chord is a little wearing though and this will be joining a few of its disc-mates in my recycle bin. For the second time tonight, too!
All in all this was a hit and miss set of tracks with the middle better than either end. Another selection of Deepspace's freely available work, The Barometric Sun is next, unless I fiddle with the order.
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