“The kind of CD to initiate the shy ones to the wonderful world of EM”
1 Fields Full of Poppies (Live 05) 6:52
2 707 7:07
3 Brown 5:17
4 One Room Flat (Live 05) 6:16
5 Without You I Would Have no one to Leave 2:20
6 Hawfrost 5:11
7 Christmas in Jonestown 7:07
8 Unknown Substance 6:09
9 Sweet Smell of Cloves (Macondo Mix) 3:54
10 Everyday I Die for Your Body (Live 05) 9:34
11 Fields Full of Poppies (Original Version) 3:37
(DDL 63:31) (V.F.)
(Electronic, Ambient, Synth-Pop)
NOW WE ARE SIX is The Glimmer Room's third CD, a project by English musician Andy Condon. It's a compilation of tracks released on various compilations as well as excerpts from concerts presented at the Awakenings Festival in 2005 and 2006. The chiming intro of Fields Full of Poppies, recorded during the 2005 festival, captures the attention. The sonic prisms wander at a hushed pace through a dense synthesized mass before melting into the light rhythm that is chipped off by the vaporous essences of the synth. The approach is harmonious, and the synths blow a soft and enveloping melody supported by an increasingly constant rhythm. Like a soundtrack, the synth injects a melancholic romantic mood over the subtle pounding of the rhythm before melting into the mellotron orchestrations of a melodious synth. A very good title which opens an opus full of good surprises, like 707 and the echo of its light tinklings in a universe of metallic percussions. A sequence is delicately lodged on a rhythm as languorous as its voices while the synth chords roll in loops and flutter in a rotating axis, like in a sidereal dream. A track of harmonious sweetness that spreads its flames on Brown, where a wave of minimalist sweetness reigns. A wave slightly jerky, but strangely sensual. The sequences, whose echo draws a wave of reverberations, snake this hesitant and slower rhythm than that of 707. Muddy chords and samples of female voices plunge us into the surrealism of One Room Flat, a slow track where the sounds of a solitary accordion plunge us into a dark and gloomy universe. After the tenebrous rhythm of Without you I Would Have no one to Leave, which seems to borrow the paths of a Jean-Michel Jarre new genre, Hawfrost comes back to look for us with good heavy and juicy sequences on the shadows of a retained tenderness of the synth. Talking about tenderness, Christmas in Jonestown is the melodious jewel of this opus with nice synth arrangements on a choir with furtive murmurs where the melodious passages split to different modulations. A real wonder that is worth listening to! This is one of the most beautiful tracks I heard this year.
Unknown Substance changes the tangent of NOW WE ARE SIX, bringing a fiery rhythm with a jerky sequencer and a good whistling synth. The syncopated spin is catchy and takes us straight to the dance floors. Heavier and more hammered, Sweet Smell of Cloves is a track sung with percussions and eclectic sound effects over a lascivious beat. The kind of track that would have had its turn on MTV! Huge static pulses inspire a metallic intro to Everyday I Die for Your Body. Gradually, the rhythm takes shape on a more homogeneous cadence with a quite unexpected orchestral twist, where meander nice melodious lines. A track with violin mellotrons where the light guitar riffs breathe a breeze of disco remodeled by percussions and hard techno passages. A brilliant 9 minutes where The Glimmer Room cogitates with ingenuity on styles with body expressions to more random structures. The original version of Fields Full of Poppies is definitely more ambient and closes a superb collection of the most eclectic and refreshing musical ideas.
The more I think about it, the more NOW WE ARE SIX defines itself as the ideal opus to initiate the shy ones to the wonderful world of EM. Not too ambient and very melodic, it is a superb musical journey where electronic sounds, synthesized flights and sequenced modulations merge perfectly with soft techno approaches, giving a surprisingly fresh result.
Sylvain Lupari (October 19th, 2007) ***½**
Available at The Glimmer Room Bandcamp