“This is an outstanding album which must be on the 2010 Top 10 and in your record collection”
1 Open Your Eyes 33:30
2 Floating in an Ocean of Discords 23:45
3 This wasn't meant to Happen 22:19
(CD/DDL 79:32) (V.F.)
(Berlin School)
Berlin School will always have new followers who will renew and will perpetuate the genre, years after years. Who didn't hear about the Roswell affair? This supposed crash of an UFO near Roswell in New Mexico aroused the curiosity of Americans and many others curious around the world since 1947. It's part of the myths and contemporary legends. Well … There is also another Roswell affair and the Crash origins this time from Belgium, with as aliens the Buytaert brothers. Composed of 3 long tracks drawn from the influences of Berlin School, The Roswell Incident's THE CRASH is a splendid album moulded in the creative imprints of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. An album which has passed totally unnoticed in 2010, like what there isn't only the O.V.N.I. that we don't see!
Powerful mellotron layers draw a slow and dark morphic movement to shape a gorgeous pre-apocalyptic atmosphere and open Open Your Eyes. They float and dance with an oniric slowness, perturbed by scattered percussions and pulsations as well as sequences which zigzag in a puzzling way. A synth sings and chants a hardly audible dialogue, where we can hear the phrase Open Your Eyes, in a synth and mellotron symbiosis which reaches its peak towards the 10th minute. There, a heavy and low pulsation skips with velocity creating a sequential movement with nervous chords which are splitting up with ferocity, supported by percussions with a hammering and galloping flow. The percussions/pulsations resound beneath the winds of a synth which spit threatening streaks on an intense pulsating rhythm. A fine sequence, sharply more crystal clear, distances itself and waves over this rhythm with hits and eclectic tones. We approach the 15th minute point and Open Your Eyes undergoes another rhythmic transformation with a crystalline sequential approach which waves awkwardly, such as a multiplication of loops with slightly imperfect twists and turns. Twisted and juicy synth solos fly over this stunning hypnotic sequential path, adding a superb melodious approach to a sequential structure which parades with a disconcerting suppleness. Koen and Jan Buytaert offer us a brief and lightning sequence solo before that Open Your Eyes dives into the cosmic mysticism with waves and layers of synth as spectral as spatial which float and hoot among syncretic sound effects. And this wonderful sequential movement to discreet arrhythmic modulations goes out gradually, realizing a subtle musical journey towards the return of its harmonies and chords to fall asleep within the blackness of its introduction.
Floating in an Ocean of Discords is a long cosmic bolero which starts in an intense maelstrom of synthesized layers and waves which become entangled in a very nice symbiosis with syncretic tones weaved right from Klaus Schulze's intergalactic dialogues. In spite of the eclectic impetus' fury, there is an infinite tenderness in this fusion of synth waves where the absence of rhythms is compensated by nice modulations (where one believes to hear the magical Farfisa) which waltz in those delicate implosive passion of the philharmonic arrangements. It guides us towards a fine storm to echoing pulsations from where a fine sequence emerges and undertakes a solemn march in this static whirlwind. This movement draws a difficult cosmic progression, such as a caravan of astral pilgrims, dragging the weight of the synth modulations and iridescent reverberations which are linked to it. This long hypnotic sequential bolero challenges time and stars in a universe filled of subtle variations that affect the transparency of its movement beneath the immensity of the metallic synth layers and black winds which roar and moo in a tetanised atmosphere, leaving crystalline imprints of a cosmic world fill the astral space. This wasn't meant to Happen is a slow sequential spiral beginning with a series of 5 chords which sound as notes of a Kyoto guitar that we pinch curtly. A circle forms, reflecting the sequences' echo which hiccup among dark winds, hybrid lamentations and scattered pulsating implosions. Gradually the movement accelerates the pace to be transformed into an enormous sequential spiral with heavy and resounding sequences which criss-cross in a powerful ritornellos where they alternate among synth winds and voices. This wasn't meant to Happen evolves with an unheard-of power where sequence hits form a stunning oval race with variable tones and forms which roam in this dance to jerky movements. Sequences which are unfolding and criss-crossing in a circular rhythm increasing constantly its power, such as a sequential hurricane gobbling up everything on its passage and a little after the 13th minute, this powerful rhythm splits up and offers a surprising sequenced dance. An immense spiral which swirls of a powerful swiftness in a movement bending under the weight of its resonances, whereas synths shape beautiful harmonies with short acuteness solos whistling in this vast sequential madness pounded constantly of a heavy and insistent tempo. And This wasn't meant to Happen turns and turns, as a musical tornado which cannot maintain any further all of its chords in the grooves of its swarms, dragging this last track of THE CRASH towards the twilights of a tranquility which hiccups of its last sequences to finally lead in a calm after a real sequenced tornado.
Wow! This last track of THE CRASH shakes the walls and rips out the tapestry out of them. It also depicts all the power that we find behind these 3 compositions which float between the post- apocalyptic psychedelico-electro music and the hypnotic rhythms of Berlin School which furnish this The Roswell Incident's first opus. I adored this album which is mainly centred on sequences. Sequences which swirl in powerful atmospheres reminding me of Redshift and [´ramp] but which, especially, let glimpse an immense potential behind this rather discreet duet of Belgium. This is an outstanding album which must be on the 2010 Top 10 and in your record collection.
Sylvain Lupari (September 9th, 2011) ****½*
Available at The Roswell Incident Bandcamp