“Good solid E-Rock in too much variable structures, Kaleidoscape is on the other hand the best from Digital Horizons that I've heard”
1 The Infinity Mirror (First Parallel) 7:37 2 kaleidoscape1 8:24 3 kaleidoscape2 5:17 4 kaleidoscape3 4:54 5 The Infinity Mirror (Second Parallel) 9:29 Digital Horizons Music
(DDL 35:41) (Berlin School, E-Rock)
Passed in a gust of wind between Pegasus (30 Years of Digital Horizons) and Polarize, KALEIDOSCOPE offers another great collection of titles that should expand Justin Ludford's fan base again. And by ricochet the one of Digital Horizons. The music is very energizing and offers contagious rhythms, even in these multiple mutations that require a greater tolerance in the listener. It's some good electronic rock mounted on nervous sequences and lurking in a sound fauna where Tangerine Dream of the late Virgin years and Jean-Michel Jarre, Revolutions' era, chew our ears dumbfounded by some solid electronic rock ... more than once.
The Infinity Mirror (First Parallel) initiates this tonal bloom with a line woven in twists which gurgles a dialect full of sleet. Chords and other sequences adorn this dance of sound slugs, while a strange musical veil fills a décor whose borders between the organic and the inorganic gets melt with wonder up until a line of bass makes its sensuality undulate. When the percussion falls, the structure is endowed with a line of sequences that loses its stroboscopic vision in the pecking of wooden castanets dancing on this rhythm where Groove and Funk move away from a solid electronic rock. In constant excitement, the 7:37 minutes of The Infinity Mirror (First Parallel) lug its music between Berlin School, Funk, Groove and electronic rock. It's a bit much for 7 minutes, but it's the world of Justin Ludford and our ears will appreciate the musicality behind his structures. It's however very different with the 3 parts of the title-track. Each part is independent and offers its electronic rock structure which plots in the bosom of Berlin School. The first half of kaleidoscape1 is in ambient mode in a lush setting that is quite close to the Tangerine Dream genre of the Jive years. Covered with frost, sequences shiver while others perform tap dance before dragging the structure into a good electronic rock a la TD style. kaleidoscape2 plunges us all into a world of rhythm drawn by the waves of oscillations which undulate beneath the layers of a seraphic choir. There are good percussive effects quite attractive on this title. kaleidoscape3 is a big electronic rock scented with influences from a heavy and incisive Jarre. This is the catchiest title of KALEIDOSCOPE. The long title of this E.P., The Infinity Mirror (Second Parallel) suffers a little of the same problem of disparity within its permutation phases. Everything changes too fast in relation to time, but there are very good moments, in fact the first 8 minutes… Its introduction is pushed by the cries of alarm from a synth in mode alert, and an amalgam of undulating sequences grafted of percussive effects and clatters of a skeleton on drugs. A fat rubbery sequence gobbles up this timorous pace attempt, pushing these elements into a heavy, boosted electronic rock with a tonal flora as seductive as softening for the few wax deposits in the ears. It's very catchy and it's also a pity that the final stretches into din spasms which are taken away a small part of its charms. But in the end, KALEIDOSCOPE is without a doubt the best from Digital Horizons that I've heard.
Sylvain Lupari (October 22nd, 2018) *****
Available at Digital Horizons' Bandcamp