One Inch of Shadow "Bring the Alchemy to School" CD
[Cat Sun]
This Polish act has been around for nearly 10 years, releasing a number of quite limited releases (these live recordings included), and this particular material was recorded live at the Teatr Piesn Kozla (Goat Song Theater) at the second Wroclaw Industrial Festival in late-2003. "Intro/Eyes of My Life" begins with a beautifully hypnotic piano/percussive loop with some whispered vocals and other sparse electronic instrumentation (I think) that creates a very persistent and moving atmosphere for almost 12 minutes. "In Chapels & In Hotels" is a bit more electronic with some blips and drones (along with a similar soft rhythm and whispered vocals), still subtly melodic, and sometimes it almost sounds like manipulated harmonica or something!? Very odd, but still quite nice. "United Artists" is more of the same pulsing rhythm with more repetitive melodies and those softly uttered vocals against whirring foreground sounds that have that lush ring around the edges. Horns come to the fore in the slightly jazzier "Mannequin Song" (jazzier due to the more structured use of horns, as opposed to the similar "Cold"), while glitchier electronic hums and some strange acoustic instrumentation (heavily manipulated) seeps into the curiously sinister "Legionowo". I have to say that for live recordings these songs sound excellent. Were it not for a few faints areas where applause is evident I'd never assume they were recorded in a live setting. Everything is lush with ambience and there's ample clarity to get an idea of what's going on. I really love the depth of the sounds, really helping to carry the repetitious minimalism along. The CD is oddly packaged in a color sleeve with nothing but illustrations and handwriting for artwork, then inside a matte black paper sleeve that's numbered of 90 copies. There's no contact information or mention of the name of the label or anything!? This is a very consistent record that I enjoy quite a bit more than anticipated. The artwork is certainly not representative of the music in my opinion, but I'm highly intrigued by this work. Recommended. (7/10)
Running time - 71:44, Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Intro/Eyes of My Life, United Artists, Legionowo]
One Inch of Shadow - http://terra.pl/oneinchofshadow/

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