After the brief and repetitious lulls of "The Dirt Under My Nails" settle, the 10-minute "Independence" somberly begins to build from a soft drone into a surprisingly moving ambient melody, actually carrying far more emotion with it than most of what's achieved throughout the experimental realm - period. Some lightly distorted sounds start to filter in for added texture, but these do nothing to disrupt the rock solid core of that brooding melody... and things aren't as repetitious as might be expected either. There's certainly a key focus around which the elements progress, but it's not a stagnant piece at all. Unfortunately "Deadlust" brings in a few rather irritating samples of moaning women and such, which makes no sense to me in this context and is far too typical and tired following such an amazing composition as "Independence", especially considering that the restrained beats and melodies are otherwise effective. "Servitude or Longitude" is a much quieter track, taking more then seven minutes to roll through almost inaudible drones and cascading midrange textures that sound almost like softly crashing waves; leading into the succinct "ATFG", which is just under two minutes of glitchier crackling sounds creating a fleeting rhythmic approach. Finally, the 20-minute "Sleep and You Shall Sing" closes and brings back the massively powerful approach of "Independence", complete with flowing synth melodies and a calm arrangement that persists fairly effectively. My copy of the CD-R is defective and has trouble playing this track in its entirety without interruption, and wouldn't play past the midway point on either of the CD players that I tried, so I'm speculating based on the other material that this composition would remain consistent in quality throughout. I have no quarrels with the recording as everything is smooth and resonant. "Servitude or Longitude" could certainly be louder, but I imagine that was an intentional decision since everything else is nice and up front. The layout's quite minimal and uses only blurred photography that's not recognizable but still conveys a sinister sort of tone. Barely any information is included outside of the song titles and whatnot, so... that's about it there. I'm not as impressed by all of this material as I had expected to be early on, but "Independence" is simply an incredible track, so this project will be one to keep an eye on in the future. I'm thrilled with how good that one song truly is.
[Audio Savant]
Running time - 47:12, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Independence, Sleep and You Shall Sing]
Audio Savant - http://www.audiosavant.com
