“Dark cosmic and psychedelic vibes versus short and sometimes wild rhythms”
1 The Obsidian Eye (Live Studio 24.11.08) 38:30
2 Closer Than You Think 24:30
3 Slave To The Groove (A Sequencer Workout) 11:46
Independant Music
(CD-r 74:46) (V.F.)
(Ambient, Improvised, Cosmic, prog England School)
Create has a knack for taking the listener on a journey through the meandering time and cosmic sound elements that make up his musical fauna as diverse as his influences. From dark cosmic and psychedelic ambience to ephemeral and sometimes wild rhythms, WORDS JUST GET IN THE WAY is a confusing amalgam of electronic music (EM) that still has great phases to explore. Phases that Stephen Humphries does not hesitate to take on with the determination of the first explorers.
The Obsidian Eye is the first of 3 long tracks that furnish the sound universe of this 9th album of the musician from England where fragmented rhythms are isolated in slow cosmic and morphic approaches. Played live in studio and recorded in one take, this long track approaching 40 minutes starts with a warm synth that pierces the galactic stammering of its intro to waltz tenderly in a cosmos with multiple sound signals. Percussions get grafted to it and candidly drum a rhythmic ride visited by heavy chords with brief sinister harmonies. Slow strata of an ethereal mellotron surround this first portion animated by a fragmented rhythm, plunging The Obsidian Eye in a long musical carousel where everything is in suspension. The sequencer's rhythm lines, as isolated as its split rhythms, abound in an asymmetrical alternation among long atmospheric passages surrounded by a cosmic-sounding synth and a tender mellotron with wispy layers and chthonic choirs. But when the cadences are born, they are sometimes violent and sometimes deliciously hypnotic. They explode in a universe besieged by the corrosive breezes of a sometimes apocalyptic synth and its solos unique to the Create universe. Closer Than You Think offers a soft atmospheric intro where slow morphic strata are bitten with sharpness by the very Floydian guitar of Mike Daniel (Hashtronaut). Sinuous lines of reverberations fed by noise-whites surround this oneiric vision where the rhythm is drawn through a mellotron silk that waltzes on the growing pulsations, while the synth draws splendid loops that roll with a bewitching echo. Hypnotic and minimalist, the cadenced pulsations evolve slowly, under the weight of a synth and a guitar that exchange solos and rhythmic chords on a structure that crosses at the end of the track a superb sequence with limpid tinkling before concluding in the atmospheric layers of its introduction. A very good track and the presence of Hashtronaut is for something. Slave To The Groove (A Sequencer Workout) starts slowly. Slow resonant and twisted strata soak a musical nothingness that quietly takes shape on pulsations that advance stealthily under these filiform synth lines that fit quite well with the coming of the mystical mist of the mellotron. The pulsating rhythm is accentuated with an adjacent movement that is more fluid, while the synth mystifies the ears with these solos with corroding timbres. The sequencer, deploying another rhythmic line, blows more speed to this rhythm that goes with sharp jerks. The haze thickens the mystery of its twisted solos that flow and coo over this rhythmic structure ideal for letting our imagination float. Let's take this as a little gift from Create. Not essential but nice!
WORDS JUST GET IN THE WAY crosses multiple musical galaxies in order to offer a good album of an EM that moves away from the usual Berlin School paths. Still influenced by the atmospheric improvisations of Air Sculpture, Create continues to develop a musical world of its own. A world not always easy to tame and where musical creativity evolves through a vision that is quite unique to Stephen Humphries.
Sylvain Lupari (October 12th, 2010) *****