“This is a light, a fair and an uncomplicated album filled with cosmic scents, evasive melodies and changing rhythms”
1 The Long Night of the Eagle 7:17
2 The Return of the Gods 6:43
3 The Grand Father 5:26
4 Hidden Reality 6:24
5 Dawn of the New Day 8:56
6 The Defeat of Morality 6:53
7 Follow the Wind 5:28
8 The Big Monster 8:32
(DDL 55:00) (V.F.)
(New Berlin SChool, Cosmic Rock)
After a first album that hinted at great possibilities, Alluste doesn't disappoint by making a second opus even more alert and alive. THE BIG MONSTER offers 8 tracks, all elaborate with finesse, in a rich sound fauna where the rhythms strike in all forms and in all directions, leaving plenty of room for romantic melodies. A style always so Italian, so charming with a synth sometimes tinged with sonic ode and sometimes lyrical.
A sweet romantic intro, where flute and chorus wander in a fragrant nothingness, open The Long Night of the Eagle. A fine pulsation draws a slow tempo which is surrounded by unctuous layers and decorated with percussive rattlesnakes. This rhythm is booming and meanders a fluttered universe while slowly it takes a sustained form with pulsations that jump randomly and techno cymbals à la Jean-Michel Jarre. The synth extends its bed of ambiences and harmonies with vaporous voice layers while the keyboard carves its guitar tones. The percussions collide in a tonal tension that fades, leaving a brief atmospheric moment to breathe as the drums open the valves to a hiccupping sequencer and another line sequenced to the hypnotic melody. The Long Night of the Eagle aptly portrays the universe of Alluste and of his second album. The sequences are heavy and at random. The rhythms are winding in as they gravitate New Berlin School structures and are in constant motion, like in The Return of the Gods. This heavy title is built on the resonances of bass sequences that hammer its keys on anvil. The vibrations lead to a variegated atmospheric cloudiness. An isolated sequence ripples while the synth envelops this structure of its hoops with corrosive loops. The rhythm becomes a bit complex with the multiple visions of the sequencer. Not enough, however, to make the album difficult to like since the Italian synthesist is very melodious with a facet for melodrama. Titles like Hidden Reality, Follow the Wind and the title track, which flirts on the strings of an Italian cosmic western before exploding with the hammering of an intensive drum, testify of that. A nice acoustic guitar opens The Grand Father. A creeping and undulating bass line comes to nibble this romance that is linked with the effects of synth voices. The rhythm is frozen in a crossroads of sequences with lines that come and go to add depth rich in diversity that doesn't alter at any moment the melodious vision flowing from a tearful and nostalgic synth. A beautiful title with a striking sweetness, just like Dawn of the New Day which progresses however with more strength. The Defeat of Morality kisses the aromas of a more contemporary Klaus Schulze with a sequence whose jerky chords jump on the breezes of a solitary mermaid. The metallic chords of a cello are grafted onto this structure that embraces different sequenced rhythms before melting on a synth that melts on a finale with sonic axes exchanging lyricism and hypnotism. A headline here!
THE BIG MONSTER is definitely stronger and more refined than Constellation. It's a light, a fair and an uncomplicated album filled with cosmic scents and evasive melodies that blend with the changing movements of the sequencer into a very romantic melodious vision. A nice album of EM.
Sylvain Lupari (July19th, 2009) *****
Available at Alluste Bandcamp