Antimatter "Planetary Confinement" CD
[The End]
While I still find their debut to be their finest offering to date, I'm an enormous Antimatter fan, and this record continues their tradition of somber, chilled out compositions chock full of lush singing and instrumentation. While not a vast departure from past efforts, this is indeed a different type of record on a couple of levels. Perhaps the cessation of the Mick Moss/Duncan Patterson unit (Patterson left the band just after the release of this disc) is hinted at in the fact that neither of the two actually appear on any of these songs together. The tracks are alternately penned by Patterson and Moss alone, with Moss (acoustic guitars, vocals) recording his tracks in England in mid-2004 with a backing band that (rarely) includes a rhythm section and occasional violins; while Patterson (acoustic guitar, bass, piano, and keybaords) recorded in Ireland in late-2004 with a backing band that includes a drummer, additional guitar and keyboards, as well as lead vocals from yet another excellent female vocalist, Amélie Festa - who sounds not so unlike some of contributors the duo has cooperated with in the past. Not that their older work was too heavily "electronic", but this material is of course more organic, with Moss tending to deal largely with stripped down interaction between acoustic guitars and vocals. I wish he had employed more vocal harmonies to add a little more emphasis at times, but I have to say that these songs really allow his vocals to shine. The guy's just got an exceptional voice that works perfectly for this style of music - heartfelt, sincere, emotional... very nice. The keyboards add a certain lushness to Patterson's compositions that work well with Festa's singing, which is doubled or harmonized on occasion, so... there's a little more instrumentation fleshed out, but somehow the general approach doesn't feel too far removed from Moss'. It's true that the tracklist might have been better served to keep the two composers' work grouped together rather than staggered, but the overall flow is pretty effective regardless. As far as slight departures go, the 7+ minute "Legions" sees Moss in a duet with the subtle addition of some female vocals for a little added character; while Patterson and company offer an unexpected cover of Trouble's "Mr. White", not to mention a couple of instrumentals: The rather brief piano/synth drone intro/title track, and the damn near nine-minute "Eternity Part 24", which leads from fingerpicked acoustics into layers of ambient synths that are far more abstract than anticipated. A bit of a dull piece, to be honest, but at least they made it the closing selection. The recording differences are basically unimportant, if not unnoticeable, as the two main directions explored are just contrasting enough to where there's not much of a discrepancy to be noted between the sessions. Everything sounds ultra clear and spacious to me, so I have no complaints there. The packaging also looks not unlike the band's past efforts, with minimal imagery and the lyrics presented over blank black panels. Of course the content is far from cheery, be it Moss imploring, "If you don't learn to leave this thing alone you'll never get to see the sun again," or Patterson penning, "Broken spirits, open fears, darksome shades combine fragility, Frigid smiles across the miles, guilty eyes surmise asymmetry..." Another splendid release overall. Almost too sparse to really hold my interest for nearly 50 minutes, and I'd actually prefer to have heard Moss handle a bit more since I feel a little more of a connection to his writing and vocal performance on this particular outing, but overall this will please the band's past fans. I'll always look forward to hearing more from this project, I just can't imagine ever being disappointed. (7/10)
Running time - 47:10, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: The Weight of the World, Relapse, Legions]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com

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