“Tales of the Uninformed Part I establishes this unbreakable link that Binar has stitched between Berlin School, England School and Psybient”
1 Bose-Einstein Condensation 12:16 2 Reflected Glory 6:22 3 A Finger, The Moon 9:01 4 The Lost Decades 12:19 5 Skyway 9:01 6 B-boner E-bola 12:07 Binar Music
(DDL 61:06) (V.F.) (Berlin and England School tied to Psybient's roots)
Ah … The universe of Binar! Performed and recorded during the Lea Hall Summer Bawl, in Staffordshire on August 2016, Tales of the Uninformed lets shine the very particular character of two exterminators of ethereal ambiences who refute all protocols while being as much delicious as original. Andy Pickford and Paul Nagle are shining in an always satiric context with 2 downloadable albums and 3 videos available on You Tube. Binar gets back to us in very good shape with a music always so unique which makes an irrefutable link between the Berlin and the England Schools and the Psybient style in this duology that we listen our senses as well awake than drowsy by a doubtful substance such as a golden superficial grass.
Effects of distorted sounds which configure the roarings of machines gather themselves on a disturbing bass line where nest voices and effects deserving of sowing the psychosis to those who are not still sure to have the gene. These effects of voices similar to those which obsess us through the fogs of our nightmares, these chthonian choirs which mumble the incoherence and these sound effects always very unique to the Binar signature will be the bed of increasing rhythms and of mislaid melodies that will flabbergast our senses for these 2 parts of this event where Psybient was king of the evening. Jingles of cymbals fly like butterflies all around the introduction of Bose-Einstein Condensation where the cosmos and the darkness connect their frontiers. A line of sequences scatters keys which wind up and then disappear to reappear under another shape in a structure of rhythm which takes a little more its shape with deaf knockings. This techno for passive Zombies remains suspended to its effects while the synth lines float and release a morphic perfume. But nothing goes easy in the universe of Binar. Whereas these synth lines, perfumed now of the apocalypse such as seen by Vangelis, try to tame our phase of falling asleep, the rhythmic embryo wakes up to force a more fluid and steady approach where the harmonious synth layers drink of the universe Tangerine Dream. Lively, this phase of 6 minutes fades out in the secret of keyboard chords that will awaken in some of us a taste to listen to some good old Pink Floyd. Psybient, Berlin School and essences of the England progressive music Bose-Einstein Condensation is a wonderful prelude to the Binar universe. Each title is linked in a psychedelic mosaic of 60 minutes. The structure of Reflected Glory wakes up to the sounds of manual percussions effects. The rhythm, as indomitable as a mustang, gives its kicks in parallel with effects of harmonies which cannot resist to the severe bludgeoning of the percussions. This ambient and noisy rhythm is naturally coated by effects of Gothic voices and by a swarm of tones which would be too long to describe. One moves then to the other track.
Detaching itself from cosmic effects which decorate its intro, A Finger, The Moon throws at us a solid and contagious rhythm with synth solos which wind like centipedes comfortably stoned on a bed of sequences in continual movement. Infectious, this structure amplifies its extravagance by challenging its minutes to the counter before going out in the arms of an unrecognizable Morpheus. The play of sequences and percussions is as much contagious here than those superb synth solos. Binar at its best! Like it or not, the influences of Tangerine Dream is always in the front-scene of an EM carried by rhythms sculptured in the undulations of dark and sneaky sequences. This is the way that takes place The Lost Decades and its soft rhythm which oscillates in a context of a Psybient discreet as the skeleton of its rhythm. The synth layers and their effects inhale the Green Desert era with good aerial soloes which overfly a rhythmic region shaken by another adjacent line of rhythm towards the 6th minute. Delicious, these sequences skip with a wooden tone in a seraphic atmosphere of the 70’s. There’s another solid title which lays a soothing dose to the Binardesque madness. A calm that Skyway tears to shred with a rhythm as lively as A Finger, The Moon but where the electronic rock phase gets lost in splendid and unexpected Electronica and even in a fiery movement of Trance and Dance always identified with the Binar effects. Outstanding! B-boner E-bola ends this first part of Tales of the Uninformed with a long ambient, but not at all meditative, passage with snores and mooing of machinery possessed by a hideous and cataplectic substance which eventually cuts down the pleasure of the listening. A little bit long title which doesn’t cut in half at all this delicious album of Binar. Let's dive in Tales of the Uninformed Part II now!
Sylvain Lupari (December 8th, 2016) *****
Available at Andy Pickford Bandcamp