“Cosmic Nights 2018 is filled of good EM with slightly psychedelic cosmic hues, the seal of the Belgium School”
1 Photons Colliding 12:36
(Galactic Underground) 2 Flowmotion (Ron Boots) 16:34 3 Der Anfang ist das Ende und das Ende ist der Anfang (Part 1) 4:13
(Galactic Underground) 4 1961's most secret mission 20:16
(RHEA) GROOVE | GR-250
(CD/DDL 53:40) (V.F.) (Belgium School)
Ron Boots is one of the most generous characters in EM. Generous of his person, generous and protective of his art! The founder and father of EM in the Netherlands is of all events, or almost. Recently, he was among the invited artists at Cosmic Nights. This EM festival, which brings Belgian artists to the fore, included the presences of Galactic Underground, RHEA and Ron Boots. The free event was held at the Brussels Planetarium on May 19th, 2018. And as is often the case with Groove's founder, a CD was offered free of charge to the spectators. Entitled soberly COSMIC NIGHTS 2018, it's another great initiative by Ron Boots to promote EM.
The album opens with the superb Photons Colliding from Galactic Underground, a project of Johan Geens aka Venja. We find this energetic title with its lively structure that beats a heavy and hyper-catchy rhythm in the GU album that was released in spring 2018. It's Steve Roach and Robert Rich combined in a Berlin School approach. Very good! I invite you to read the file review here. It's in an ambience of thoughts frozen in a cold night that Flowmotion settles between our ears. The movement of the sequencer forges a structure which goes back and forth in an ambient mode with slight clinking chimes which adorn a magnetizing procession that only Ron Boots knows how to do so well. Layers with seraphic clarion tones get grafted while quietly this ascensionnal rhythm gets jerkier. A decor painted in intensity is enveloping Flowmotion which makes me think of the ascent of a seraphic being that angels protect of their shields from these possible bites of the synth and of its sonic rays. A good piece signed Ron Boots! After the very dark and ambient Der Anfang is Ende und das Ende ist der Anfang (Part 1), I meet RHEA's music for the first time with 1961's most secret mission. This Belgian artist, whose real name is Mark De Wit and who already has 5 albums of made, is known for making cosmic music. This long title of about 20 minutes begins with sequenced arpeggios which make giant steps on a ground where stars and distortions sing at the Moon. The structure is ambio-cosmic with a resonant sequencer of its heavy and uncertain steps. The sound envelope is as dense as in a sci-fi movie's sound effects. This gives this opening a particular character that we want to hear again. The movement exhausts its march in a cosmos where emptiness has never had such beautiful colors or tonalities. The breezes of emptiness move in impulses, awakening bells which ring in a heavy atmosphere where various noises and murmurs reach our hearing. The sequencer emerges from this cosmic silence around the seventh minute, tracing a circular approach as threatening as it is seductive. Percussive effects and synth streaks adorn this cosmic soundscape which becomes like a ball of rhythm in a trap which is tightening more and more. The intensity is cut to a knife in this 1961's most secret mission which will experience two other changes of sound and rhythmic skins before reaching a final closer to the cosmic orientations of a night under stars overgrown with sound mist.
I liked this first contact with RHEA and all the set of COSMIC NIGHTS 2018 which is filled with good electronic music in slightly psychedelic cosmic hues, the seal of the Belgium School. The album is still available, there are still some copies left, or it's possible to download it on the Groove NL website. And at the asking price, we have the opportunity to be initiated to another movement that seduces more and more …
Sylvain Lupari (February 4th, 2019) *****
Available at Groove NL