Put Cashmore Back In The Game, Coach!
Philippe Landry | Louisiana | 06/15/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"With all the financial and creative contributions that went into this release it should have been titled Aleph At Participatory Mountain. Get it? In some places it feels a little like Lucifer Over London and in other places it feels like a warm up before practice. This album sounds really aimless and whatever cathartic and tumultuous exclamation point this was supposed to be it just never happens; all the brief stoner rock is nice but it's not sustained. What IS awesome about this album is that through all this directionless haze you can detect hints of Bobby Beausoleil's spirit from Lucifer Rising. Moreover Tibet's lyrics are forever appreciated in any context so even if the music isn't happening the words are picking up the slack.
They really shouldn't have hyped this album as much as they did: It is not an epic. I was expecting to experience a symphonic orgy of Coptic goodness and instead I got some splashes of overdrive/crunch/fuzz guitars, sometimes-drumming and dashes of resonant noise. Every track feels like something wonderful is going to happen...and...it never does. "Not Because the Fox Barks" is the only exception and it is a powerful and sustained effort all the way through. Maybe if all the other guitars were actually distorted to the point of Slayer or Cannibal Corpse the picture would be complete, but the distortion is just pleasant like cheap digital distortion. Everyone keeps saying this is the noisiest C93 album since their early tape loop stuff but really it isn't. The absence of Michael Cashmore really makes a difference, too. In some spots the guitars sound like *gasp* modern rock radio: Cashmore's inventive neo-folk will be missed until his next collaboration with David. Sadly, it's a tame effort for what looked like a promising line-up. I was pulling for this one!
In the end it feels like a red velvet cake I once made: decadent, sloppy, luxurious, falling apart, messy, formless, etc. Five stars for Tibet's lyrics, three for the music. Would have worked better as an EP."
Excellent as always
Jonathon M. Rose | 05/31/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've only been listening to C93 for about a year, so this is their first new release for me to buy, well pre-ordered actually. I've found their music very beautiful, soft and meditative with occasional bursts of noise with great power and passion. Tibet's voice is very unique to say the least and his vocal delivery is a bit unusual but highly effective, this album I think is his most melodic "singing" yet also his most intense. This is not a mellow folk album, if you were hoping for another "Soft Black Stars" type disk you'll probably be disappointed. If you thought that "Black Ships Ate The Sky" was too noisy, you probably will not like this album. It is essentially a metal album, and I love it. Apparently, early C93 where all quite noisy disks, but they're hard to find, and obscenely expensive so I haven't gotten any of them. So I guess this is in a way a return. I was a little nervous when I saw the large amount of guests on the disk, thinking it would be similar to the guest vocals on "Black Ships" which while some were good I thought there were too many of them and will sometimes skip ahead to the next Tibet vocal track. That was not the case this time around, the guests are in the background and saved mostly for the last track in a chorus like piece. The album is generally pretty heavy and being accustomed to Tibet's vocals with soft music (As on Of Ruine or Some Blazing Stare) I was greatly impressed on how well his vocal work matched the more intense music, very passionate, very intense. Actually I saw a review in a metal mag of the album (Revolver I think) and the author noted that it was one of the best vocal performances of the year and proof that you don't have to scream to be effective. The lyrics are typically cryptic and dreamlike. Very good, as always. It is refreshing to see a Christian artist who can write. This album is highly recommended for any C93 fan, people who enjoy experimental and heavy music. Not a bad place to start from either, though an earlier disk might be more representative of their music. This one however is excellent, buy it."
