IAN BODDY & PARALLEL WORLDS: Exit Strategy (CD on DiN)
This release from 2011 offers 52 minutes of icy electronic music.
Boddy plays: analogue modular synths, gliss keyboard and soft synths. Parallel Worlds (aka Bakis Sirros) plays: analogue modular synths, vintage keyboards and software.
An array of inventive electronics produce music that is equally smooth and edgy.
Gritty electronics share the same stage as flowing oscillations, combining in a novel fashion that defies accurate description. The result is tuneage that is haunting yet compelling. Fluidity merges with harnessed ilbience, creating vistas that sparkle with an icy charm.
Atmospheric tones are peppered with chittering diodes. Sultry riffs flow and undulate with futuristic charisma. Layers of esoteric rhythms slide forth, supported by softly shrill synthesized slide guitar (the latter being a resonance that Boddy has excellently perfected and knows how to put to superb use).
E-perc plays a vital role in this tuneage, but the nature of those rhythms is eccentric and highly processed, to the point that the beats are often more pulsation than impacts.
The last track features remarkable quasi-symphonics agitated by entrancing ilbient tempos.
These compositions combine eeriness with modern appeal, drowning any ominous inclinations with a cybernetic sense of optimism. The melodies are extremely engaging, made even more bewitching by their use of uncommon sounds. All this strangeness is amiably applied into tunes of stunning beauty. Drama runs high as each song delves deep into uncharted sonic realms, producing melodies that are rich and highly satisfying.
A glimpse into the next decade of contemporary electronic music.
MEMORY GEIST: Benthos (DDL on DiN)
This release from 2011 features 57 minutes of dreamy electronic music.
Memory Geist is: Steve Law (from Zen Paradox, Starseed Transmission, and Black Cab) (on various analogue synthesizers and software) and Bakis Sirros (aka Parallel Worlds) (on modulars, analogue synths, string machines, tape echoes, and software).
Slick electronics and rhythmics create trancey tuneage of an entrancing character.
The electronics are a combination of traditional synths and glitchy ilbience, each contributing to produce a luscious soundscape of very modern definition. While tonalities establish spacey backdrops, electronic threads are established to generate delicate melodies. These threads often twinkle with fragile substantiality, yet in conjunction adopt a commanding quality that has a tendency to sneak up on the listener. Chilly chords sparkle amid gaseous electronic vapors, creating vistas of shimmering beauty. Gurgling sounds mix with churning pulsations to achieve a highly bewitching state of mesmerization.
Keyboards come into frequent play, generating riffs of crystalline luster which interact nicely with the flowing background ambience and the auxiliary non-keyboard electronics (which play an equal role in the tunes' construction).
About half the songs feature percussives. Although mainly e-perc, the rhythmics generally possess a sparse quality that is enhanced by an ilbient undercurrent, resulting in quite a cybernetic flavor. Even (on one track) when the tempos display a heavier presence, there still exists a buzzing edge to the beats, setting them apart from conventional e-perc.
These compositions exhibit a distinctly relaxing disposition. The melodies are pleasant, yet not sweet, bristling with a sense of subdued tension. The result is a state of alert dreaming, an immersion into a realm of cognizant narcosis.
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