“What a change of cap for AWM! This Kinetic is a must for those of you who are into driven sequencer-based EM”
1 Kinetic 6:02 2 Dark Meridian 5:59 3 Machine Mambo 7:24 4 D.E.I. (Direct Emotion Interface) 12:40 5 Anoraxis 6:48 6 Synergistic Highway 5:33 7 Ecoutez 6:14 8 Metronomy 6:31 HRR160401 (CD/DDL 57:12) (V.F.)
(E-Rock)
After a series of rather quiet albums, Gregory Kyryluk felt the need to explore a more driven EM. Being as much a big music lover as a composer, he admits that the music which he listens to has a direct incidence on the conclusion of his works. He thus turned away from the ambient and esoteric model to deal with a livelier, a heavier and more energic music with artists such as Zombi and Tyco. The idea was to write an EM built on good impulses of sequences and analog flavors, without copied the style of the vintage years. KINETIC is the fruit of this reflection. And we have to go back in the time of Thought Guild or yet Beyond Silence in 2005 to meet a Gregory Kyryluk as dynamic as here with a very good album which is going to amaze more than a nod to the music of YMO, ZOMBI, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream of the Jive years and even Steve Roach.
One of the only esoteric elements of Kinetic, the other one being the synth layers in Metronomy, is this Gong which opens the title-track. Afterward a line of sequences makes skip its keys which rise and fall in the reverberations of a pulsating bass. Pulsations, more in a kind of technoid model, knock out the dance of these keys while synth layers spread a melodious aura a la Tyger. Kinetic becomes a very inviting electronic hymn with a rhythm of lead, which does very ZOMBI's techno style, which supports harmonies of a synth spinning in the form of solos. Dark Meridian is darker. Its intro is sewn by sonic waves which wave on a fauna of organic tones and layers of astral voices. A bass pulsation skips but limps while some fragile keyboards chords draw a line of harmonies a bit celestial. The set is rich with rather discreet airs of flute, electronic effects and arrangements which float on a debit of percussions ready for war, but which stand back, and sequences which fidget without taking also really a guiding line of rhythm. It's a static track with many harmonies in the chords which are a mixture of TD and also of YMO, according to my buddy. Machine Mambo carries its naming marvellously. It's a kind of electronic mambo with beautiful layers in the perfumes of these old organs which livened up the evenings of social dances on a bed of sequences with spasmodic jolts. We remove these sequences and it sounds so vintage that it is simply delicious. A title easy to tame but which abounds in electronic charms. There is some Thought Guild in there, but not as much as in the super and very Jean-Michel Jarre rumba of Ecoutez.
With its almost 13 minutes to the meter, D.E.I. (Direct Emotion Interface) is the most complex piece of music of KINETIC. Its intro is filled with industrial vapors and mists from where extricates itself a beautiful line of sequences which makes oscillate tenderly its keys between some idle coats of synth. A bass line crawls over these elements, while delicate percussions structure a slow tempo, almost morphic. Sequences sparkle like the prisms of rhythms in Tangerine Dream's Underwater Sunlight, but the tempo remains slow until percussions whips it and that sequences are hiccupping in a syncopated way which is loaded of layers of voices and of mists. That sounds very Le Parc, in particular with the electronic percussions pattern. Anoraxis begins with fryings of old vinyl. A line of sequences which jump in a movement a little bit unstable awakens memories of Kraftwerk, while the clouds of mist which sing all over add a dose of onirism. And a kind of sonic serpentine lights the atmospheres and Anoraxis skips cheerfully like a hip-hop of electronic alley, a little kind of YMO, on nice synth harmonies and good electronic effects borrowed as much from the cosmos as these old banks of synthesis sounds of the 80's. Synergistic Highway is a good electronic rock which reminds me Synergy on his very good Games. The lively and very melodious side does not distort at all the creativity, even if sometimes the music is in a danceable mood, with good effects and with good very harmonious solos, the cornerstone of this album I should say, as well as a game of sequences with hyper excited keys. Metronomy brings us to another level with a music which does very Roach in his period Now/Traveller. Two lines of sequences cross their rhythms, one which runs in a loop and the other which is more linear, with rather discreet percussions which drum beneath an avalanche of synth strata with esoteric flavors as cosmic. It's a little as to look at the starry sky of a desert region which parades in accelerated mode.
KINETIC is this kind of album that we didn't expected. To say the least, not from Alpha Wave Movement! The reference with ZOMBI, a duet of Pittsburgh whom Gregory Kyryluk likes particularly, is very relevant here with a heavy, dynamic, melodious EM and especially very creative which could well make roast a crowd in an electronic party. A surprise and a must for those who enjoy this so driven sequencer-based EM!
Sylvain Lupari (May 2nd, 2016) ****½*
Available at Harmonic Resonance Recordings Bandcamp