“Ambient, implosive rhythms and wandering melodies, this is a pure EM work where Volt shows again all the genius within it”
1 Lepton 17:40
2 Fermion 17:23
3 Boson 24:33
(CD/DDL 59:42) (V.F.)
(Ambient Beats, Berlin School)
Concept album about the microscopic universe of particles, PARTICLES finds itself in the list of the best EM releases so far of 2013. Molded on the same precepts as Circuits, this last album of Volt proposes 3 long tracks of which the structures of sequences propose ambient rhythms sometimes a bit heavy and lively. But mainly evolutionary rhythms with sequences which sparkle with a stationary effervescence in electronic envelopes with divine harmonies weavers of earworms. An album where EM shines of its thousand fires, of its Berlin School influences, both vintage and modern, and of a perfect complicity between the styles and approaches of Steve Smith and Michael Shipway, this is a wonderful journey in what EM has of more beautiful to offer.
Hits of sticks on extraterrestrial's vocal cord make jump some sizzling keys on an extremely tightened silk thread. Lepton begins this last opus with hoarse pulsations of which the undisciplined jumps bounce in synth layers which float with a mixture of seraphic voices. Honeyed and sibylline, the synth draws lines, as ethereal as threatening, which sweep an intro eaten away by weak electric explosions. And we fall over into the universe of Volt where the reminiscences of the vintage years caress our ears with synths to the slightly nasal twisted solos which remind the cabalistic approaches of the Dream. After a rather ambiospherical intro, the rhythm settles down with shyness a little after the 6th minute. Soft sequences espouse the movement of the crisscrossed pulsations, shaping so an oscillatory rhythm which increases its weight with more black sequences. The mist of Mellotron installs a dark atmosphere while it waltzes of its beautiful strata to the smells of bitter violins on a rhythm which will never look back. The magic of synths operates with lines as much musical as ethereal. Allying Arabian breezes to breaths of oracles on a carpet of opal mist, they let pass soft solos which coo in an ambient and floating texture that sequences in the mathematical intertwining are rocking of delicate jolts. Beneath this meshing of synth lines and layers is drew a slow rhythmic crescendo which reaches its peak when Lepton opens its skeleton to offer its sequences, become more incisive, to the percussions which plough a rhythm became blazing, drawing an upward ride which gallops heavily under solos shouting like a guitar that we torture. This is great Volt here which nails us to our seat, the ears on the alert on a finale buzzing of a harmonious aggressiveness.
Quieter in its broth of lines and translucent breezes, Fermion proposes rather a darker structure with chthonian choruses which hum on a rhythm to soft ambient inclinations. Without being aggressive, the sequences skip in their shadow such as snips of scissors in an icy water and divide their harmonies beneath the aegis of synths with dreamy soft solos. Boson imposes a heavy intro with some stormy synth breezes which moan in the most black of the black holes. These breezes get wind up like breaths lost in a heavy wind, forging a symphony about oblivion where roam choruses in search of light. Intense and black, the intro plunges the listener into an intense morphic 5 minutes before that some heavy pulsations are shaking the inertia. It's the genesis of a very beautiful structure of rhythm that settles down. Fluttering sequences are grafted to these pulsations, molding a sedentary flight which buzzes of a mass of hundreds of wings while the synths divide a harmonious approach in two lines, among which a very discreet one, shaping so a splendid melody à la David Wright reverie in Walking with Ghosts. The rhythm gets loose. Skipping in solitary into the iridescent mists, it pounds with a weak pace under electronic chirpings and solos with a delicate acuteness which floats like a smell of regrets. Beautiful of its ambient and melodious rhythm, Boson tries a 3rd rhythmic breakaway at around the 14th minute. Quite soft, this phase will go growing. Fed by percussions, it bangs and bangs under the bites of solos to the steams of a guitar with a zest of ambient heavy-metal. This is awesome! One would say that the music here is a mixture of David Wright, Code Indigo and Volt.
Ambient, implosive rhythms and wandering melodies on 3 long tracks to the slow minimalist evolutions, PARTICLES is a pure EM work where Volt takes all its time to deepen the subjects of its covetousness. A little as particles in the LHC; the reminiscences of the analog and contemporary era as well as meshing of the Berlin School and England School genres merge marvellously to reach a small musical Big Bang where the cosmic rhythms and the oneiric melodies enchant ears constantly on the alert.
Sylvain Lupari (July 6th, 2013) ****½*
Available at Groove NL