This is the work of one V-Khaoz, known to me primarily through the truly excellent Druaden Forest which is why I leapt on it in the review basket. It is, however not his usual black metal meets dungeon synth or straight black metal (depending in which of his many projects we’re talking about) but deeply atmospheric electronic ambient exploring a dystopian future.
Straight away with ‘Sunrise In The Urban Desert’ he lays out his dark and elegant stall. This is a soundscape heavy with a feel of the future but also with an eerie, lights in the mist stillness to it all.
An air of depression lays over this work, an almost constant sound of what might be rain in the background. Perhaps static of the machine failing. Perhaps both. But as the title of the album suggests there is a strange beauty here as well. Drizzle and neon, the feeling of few being outside and many hiding inside their badly lit apartments.
Throughout the five passages we are somehow given a different view of the place. ‘Synthetic Hanging Gardens’ has a lightness of notes, artificial stars twinkling in the grey and blue and concrete haze of keyboards. ‘Breathing Glass Towers’ observes a slow, elegant spiral up and around great icicles of light and glass and steel. A lonely saxophone describing the city they tower over. A hint of Japan in the melodic flow? Maybe. ‘Frozen Dawn’ bubbles coldly and the music contemplates a bleak landscape, featureless as though extending around the city as an attempt at daybreak fails to entirely push through the cold mist. But again there is an eerie quiet if monolithic beauty here. ‘Flowers Of Subterranean Summer’ is perhaps the one filled with not just beauty, but hope and peace, a gentle close to an enthralling work.
Of course the images that it brought to me are unlikely to be yours. But what I saw in my mind came through so strongly, so clearly that you have to bow to the creation. At times, in parts it reminded my of Cities Last Broadcast ‘The Cancelled Earth’ album, with influences from Tangerine Dream and Vangelis and both Blade Runner soundtracks. Tiny sprinklings of John Carpenter and Goblin just to flavour. It would be a fine accompaniment to the exploration passages of the cancerous planet city in Tsutomu Nihei’s extraordinary manga BLAME!
This is all woven into an extraordinary work that subtly, gently stills your headlong rush into your life and gives you time to breath and to think. Beautifully constructed and performed, sumptuous production and just a slow ride through a strange, beautiful but bleak world.
Borderline brilliance.
(9/10 Gizmo)
Leave a Reply