'Zero Cliff'
(Self-released)
MARK: 83/100
Therefore these almost completely instrumental 18 tracks making this fifth album of this (probably) duo are weird and heteregoneus enough that I meet difficulties in describing to those who have never listened to anything off this project what it's like.
The opening lies on the shoulders of "All Who Wander Are Not Lost", melancholic, atmospherical and recurring to Tibetan percussions, spoken words on keys akin to Ozric Tentacles'.
"Divide the Throne" begins in a menacious manner close to Aphex Twin and MZ 412, while later sinister keys attack alongside of obsessive singing. Then the keyboards and noises dilate the song in the instrumental parts and there's even a sustained guitar stroke afterward.
"Xenotime" is a horrorific intermezzo becoming similar to The Hungry Ghost, whereas "A Series of Tangent Arcs" is just electronica-ruled.
Icy and blood-curdling till the entry of percussions and piano, "Union" also delivers baroque touches, Twin Peaks-like moments and in the end African percussions leading with no interruptions to "No Final Revolution", based on robotic vocals and programmed beating.
Fancy an underground trip in bad company and you'll have an idea of what the beginning of "Hard Times" is like; guitar loops, clipped effected beats together with distorted final noises complete the picture in a danceable way.
"Leeward in Stride" sounds like a ship orchestra at a party trying to put a remedy to a malfunctioning switch-board in vain; there's also an axe solo in the background, with the piano and the percussions covering most of the rest; an underwater break follows, then heavy beats bring back the initial theme, with a theremin adding itself to the powerful rhythmic section soon after.
The corrosive intermezzo named "Get it" shows the best vocals you can encounter in "Zero Cliff" and some Rock guitars, preceding the frantic "General Formula".
The nightmarish "Static" flings us lost into a black hole, whilst recurs to invading and rich-in-mids keyboard lines, reminding life blooming again in spring, thru the summer cliamx and the fall withering, as if it were the soundtrack of a National Geographic documentary. Really astonishing is the keyboards work here!
Fiery guitars, deep rocky bass sounds, whispered vocals and repetitive keys characterize the torrid "Would Anyone Want it?"
Also "Mutiny Within the Palace of Eyes" is musically and vocally reminiscent of The Hungry Ghost, gifted with spooky electric tremors making you feel you're teaming on a ghost hunting mission in a hanuted house.
"The Sysyphus Achievement" is machine-like again, yet not threatening; it seems out of the 80s, from the unreleased tracks of Kraftwerk and the likes, until robotic vocals and slow pulsations darken the mood for half a minute and a sitar closes the composition.
Shady, cold and anguishing, "A Wild Frontier" contains a serial killer's effected voice calling you in order to not be recognized. Dissonances and noises on a layer of 70s space keys and trumpets in the end conclude the song.
The title track starts relaxed with sounds not distant to Ace Of Base (!); notwithstanding the vocals are again fucking robotic; simply adorable are the sampled sounds of percussions and loud, harsh mid-bass, with the keyboardist playing and lurking us from a dark hide-out. This piece causes multiple mental orgasms and represents the highest composed structure of the 72 minutes of music here included.
The long "Home, at Last" closes the full-length leading us where we started from; thunder, high-pitched noises, a deep pulsating bass, an acoustic guitar, gurgling noises, other noises and assorted sounds, along with penetrating keys and a Nipponese finalé are the whims composing it.
A mysterious record from a not less secret outfit brought a wind of freshness to my ears, again hungry for Metal and Rock, still pleased by this unusual offering. Subtly teasing, Neuron Dreamtime do not require efforts to be understood and followed throughout their sonic developments, but at the same time remain a formation destined to a niche of the already restricted fanbase appreciating Dark/Ambient and Electronica, too.
Line-up on this record:
Matt Pachol
Lewis Morris
Contacts:
Independence, WV - USA
E-mail: neurondreamtime@gmail.com
Official site:
http://neurondreamtime.com/
Demo-/Disco-graphy:
-I Am My Own Mushroom (CD - 2007)
-Re:Collective Presence (Myspace EP - 2008)
-Re:Collective Absence (Myspace EP - 2008)
-The Caduceus Saga (LP - 2010)
-Brief Encounters (LP - 2010)
-Live the Dream (LP - 2010)
-The Ledge Beyond the Edge (secretly released CD)
-Zero Cliff (CD - 2013)
