Narkoleptik "Punisher" CD
[F.I.R.]
Despite an unfortunately somewhat shoddy package that could suggest otherwise, this Romanian dark ambient project is really quite good for most of this third release. Most of the compositions are rather short, three to four minutes or so, revolving around thick, flowing ambient soundscapes with lots of low-end and the occasional flirtation with midrange distortion. Opener "Her Strange Beauty" even makes tasteful use of a few moaning samples, which is an incredibly rare occurrence in my opinion. "Collapse" is somewhat more rhythmic in movement, with a distant sort of reverberation happening, whereas "Anamnesis" takes that farther with some blatant rhythmic surges and a lot more electronic tinges to the foreground textures. The 22-minute "Negative Reactor" is infinitely longer than the other tracks, and again pushes out more blatant rhythms, this time venturing into raw industrial beats that almost have a dance-ish vibe to their structure. It's variations on that theme for over 20 minutes... A very poor decision, to say the least. Most every piece is fairly consistent from start to finish, there aren't really any great variations within tracks, only changes from song to song. I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the guy on the cover is a serial killer or something, because the rest of the imagery is odd and subtly violent in a way, and the titles would sort of suggest some of that as well. Everything's in black and white with pixilated text and no contact information of any kind. Strange. I would've enjoyed this far more were "Anamnesis" and "Negative Reactor" not present as they're weak selections that have nothing in common with the bleak ambience of great numbers like the openly melodic "Patima". This release is limited to 100 copies if you're interested... I'd be curious to hear more, but I certainly think the rhythmic beat elements need to take a back seat. (6/10)
Running time - 43:32, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Her Strange Beauty, Patima]
Narkoleptik - http://www.freewebs.com/narkoleptik/

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