Red Hat Review – Page 2 – Red Hat Reviews

June 9, 2019June 8, 2019

Celldweller – Celldweller Part 2 (2013 bonus tracks)

Album Links:

Bandcamp (original album and bonus tracks only): https://celldweller.bandcamp.com/album/celldweller-10-year-anniversary-deluxe-edition

Soundcloud (original album and bonus tracks only): https://soundcloud.com/celldweller/sets/celldweller-10-year-2

Spotify (full album): https://open.spotify.com/album/1gStSHuxB1XHGBzPDQHU9w?si=-zbQHTIATBy5VEUPoeVCGw

Youtube (original album and bonus tracks only): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnUoeQ45vgmtIWyb40DiweCdge84Y282Y

Introduction: I spent plenty of time introducing Celldweller and the rest of Klayton’s aliases last week, though most of them aren’t relevant for this review. Well, Celldweller is relevant because it’s his album, and it could also be argued that the Klayton’s Alias makes an appearance as there’s a good handful of songs here saying they’re remixed by Klayton (which is just a fancy way of saying it’s a VIP or rework). Besides, these Klayton remixes don’t quite match the modern purpose of that particular moniker.

That being said, I do believe that this review will be slightly shorter than the last as there are indeed some remixes (meaning no lyrical analysis required) as well as some “demos” (which are a bit more bare-boned).

More in depth explanations of what’s going on in this album will come in due time.

Celldweller & Tom Salta – Ghosts (7): Welcome…

To a new beginning…

Let’s begin this bonus content extravaganza with Ghosts, Celldweller teams up with another artist to create a new combination of rock, electronic AND orchestral. That last bit is likely thanks to Tom Salta an artist that has released on Klayton’s FiXT label under the name Atlas Plug. Oh, and I think he might have made the soundtrack for a video game franchise called Hola or something. I don’t know, it has a lot of guns or something. I’m a music lover, not a gamer.

I do feel that there’s a bit of overlap between the Tom Salta & Celldweller styles, so it’s rather difficult to parse exactly what other elements he’s responsible for other than the assumption that Celldweller doesn’t usually dip into the orchestral stuff like this. The breakbeat bassline sections are a bit more his style. I had guessed for a second that he might have been responsible for the clean vocals on the song, but I think that was just my bias of seeing a feat. Rather than an & and expecting an extra vocalist (I always change feat. to & in my reviews so I guess that confusion doesn’t translate well here and just makes you even more confused). The vocals do sound a little bit different, but that could be my mind playing tricks on me. I don’t believe that Tom is really the singing type from what I know though, but I could be wrong. It’s kind of hard to uncover this information. Perhaps I should just go with the assumption that there is no information not uncover.

Well, I’ve talked about Tom long enough and I think I’ve summed up the music well enough with the little bits I’ve scattered through the Tom discussion so perhaps I can speak of some lyrics now. The lynchpin to discovering what this song is about is clearly the identity of these ghosts. I’ve taken some time looking to see if I can scrounge up some meaning other than the enjoyment of talking edgily about dead things, but it’s proven difficult to come up with a definitive answer that feels like it tightly fits those lyrics. I want to say the song has to do with facing ones past regrets that threaten to haunt us, but I really feel like I’m reaching for that one and when I feel like I’m reaching, then maybe there’s nothing there to begin with.

Until one of you reads this and it easily dawns on you what the meaning is and then you message me on Twitter or something to tell me how blind I have been to the message that these ghosts are presenting. Don’t get mad at me. Ghosts are invisible. How am I supposed to see?

Celldweller – Uncrowned (6.75): Drum. And. Bass. One of the fastest subgenres of EDM and this song clocks in at about 190 BPM which is an exceptionally speedy tempo, even for DnB. The basslines and guitar riffs do a pretty good job of keeping up with the energy. There could be a bit more variety as much of the song feels rather similar with the same basslines and guitar riffs over and over again, but I think the overall speed of the track (plus the occasional slower portion) makes up for that lack of variety.

As for the lyrics, well, they’re a bit iffy. Remember Under My Feet and how the last line of that song was incredibly spiteful wishing for another’s downfall. Yeah that spiteful ending encompasses the entirety of this song. Whether or not this makes the lyrics worse or better than Under my Feet is debatable, as more focus on the disliked lyrics is logically worse, but I feel part of what made Under My Feet’s ending so bad is its context. The entirety of the song before that point had been about Celldweller rising out of the pit he’s in and so the spiteful ending was incredibly unfitting to the mood. This song has no such context and so the entire message of the song is pride goeth before the fall and you and your legacy will inevitably fade away from eternity. And while I think I’d prefer something a bit more inspiring, I think I’m still able to enjoy the edgy side of these lyrics on their own.

Celldweller – Tragedy (6.25): So, sometime in the years approaching 2013, Klayton (the man behind Celldweller in case you forgot), was listening to some music back from the late 70s and as he listened to Bee Gees, he thought to himself “huh, this song is good, but you know what it needs? Some gritty guitar riffs with a darker tone.”

And you know what? It turned out to be a pretty good idea. It’s not top notch Celldweller. I’d say it’s actually rather par for the course when it comes to this album: mostly rock, with the occasional hint of electronic. There are some parts that stand out such as the rising and falling of the arpeggiated chord progression as the bridge transitions between the last two choruses. An ok melody there too. But for the most part, this song just sounds like Klayton just wanted to have a little fun creating a simple Celldweller spin on a song he enjoyed.

As for the lyrics, they do run the uncomfortable route that is a break-up song. I mean, it’s a better theme than the toxic relationship, perhaps even the correct course of action to follow a toxic relationship, but I still rarely find the theme to be really all that enjoyable to listen to and discuss. The best a break-up song can do is rise above the rest and actually be mature instead of the childish whining and complaining I see in many break-up songs. This one is roughly in the middle for me. Oh, Celldweller is definitely showing some bitterness towards the deteriorating relationship, but it’s all internal turmoil. There is no fault placed in the other’s hands. It’s all him and his bleak depression that’s creating this world of tragedy. It’s not ideal, but it’s realistic and certainly not an annoying line of reasoning. Would be nice if Celldweller could find a way to overcome this tragedy that is taking over his life, but sometimes tragedy is all we see…

And by Celldweller I mean the Bee Gees because they were the ones who originally wrote this song. It sounded a little bit different back then.

Celldweller & Styles of Beyond – Shapeshifter (6): Of all the bonus track I’m reviewing today, this one is the most popular. In fact, it might be the only one of these tracks to even hold a candle to Switchback and Frozen. But that’s the consensus of the general public (which I more often than not disagree with). But regardless of how much love I think Own Little World deserves more attention, where does Shapeshifter stand in relation to the two powerhouses I mentioned? Somewhere in between…

The first thing you might notice about Shapeshifter is how different the vocals are from the rest of Celldweller’s work. Well, the obvious explanation for this is found right in the credits of the song: Celldweller AND Styles of Beyond. Now, I’m not very well versed (not versed at all actually) on this artist’s discography beyond Shapeshifter, but I believe it’s a safe bet to say that he’s the rapper that gives this Celldweller track a unique twist. But is it a twist I like? I am quite picky with my rap after all as lyrical content is more important than ever with such a genre.

So hey, that will work as the perfect segue to trying to decipher these lyrics… It’s ‘bout cars. There’s nothing deep to this. 500 words over three and a half minutes, and it’s all about outracing the cops while racing other sweet rides (not sure what this has to do with shapeshifting, but I’m just going to roll with it). Not exactly what I’m looking for, but I don’t really dislike it either. Really, it just feels like the type of rap you’d slap on top of a beat with above average intensity. And seeing as the intense beats are quite common for Celldweller, it seems that this rap fits perfectly.

Speaking of the intensity of Celldweller, now may be a good time to appreciate the striking guitar riffs and the few subtle electronic elements in the verses. I really enjoy these subtleties the best as they provided that perfect extra touch to give the verses a tiny boost of variety. There’s also the overload of guitar in the chorus, but I’m not as much of a fan of those parts of the song. Same goes for the brudge to a lesser extent.

In the end, I’m feeling rather neutral about this one. Nothing about it is bad, but there’s not much here that’s really great either.

One last thing I forgot to mention when talking about the vocals would be Celldweller’s screaming in the chorus and the bridge. Not my favorite side of his vocal style but it does suit the song. But the real reason I want to mention it is because I want to introduce one common reoccurring issue I have with certain lyrics. Oh, it’s not any fault of the song. It’s all about my own mishearing the lyrics that is causing this odd and perhaps concerning issue. Until I reviewed the song today, I did not realize that the chorus was just repeating the name of the song. No, apparently my violent brain decided that Celldweller was screaming “DIE… JUST DIE!” From here on out, Shapeshifter Syndrome will refer to moments where I mishear lyrics and interpret them, to be much more disturbingly violent than they really are (though considering the tone of those vocals can you really blame me in this case?).

Celldweller – Goodbye (Klayton Remix) (7.25): Ok, so this is quite odd. Here we are about the quarter of the way into the bonus tracks. And we’ve come across this Klayton remix of a Celldweller song we haven’t heard before. First off, I find it weird that the remix appears first while the original version of the song isn’t played until the end of the album (excluding the demos which I shall also be reviewing. So, I’m reviewing the remix before the original, which I find rather uncomfortable to be honest

Also, Klayton is the same person as Celldweller so I’m not sure who exactly he’s trying to fool here as he does this several times on the album. The song is just a bit more electronic than it was before… later…

Ok, you know what, this whole nonlinear thing is really messing me up. Celldweller broke the rules by putting this song earlier I the track listing so I’m going to break the rules and head on over to the last song on the album before coming back here to review the remix. I’ll be right back.

Ok, I’m back. Let’s take a look at the remix of Goodbye after reviewing the original. I shan’t be long because I’ve already done the little analysis this song has to offer over there so I’ll just skip that, so you’ll have to wait for it (or read ahead since this whole thing is out of order now). But now that we’re here, we can talk about the more electronic version of Goodbye, my preferred version.

Sure it drones on a bit at the beginning, with only a bit of chopped up vocals and some drumbeats, but once the song gets past the first minute of that droning, Celldwelller’s scream allows the song to go up a notch with the fast-paced DnB that dominates much of this song. Complete with some bleeps and bloops here and there, a few great basslines and of course some chopped up vocals of the titular line of the song. There’s some full lyrics starting midway through the song, but they’re really a footnote in this experience of Celldweller’s strength of combining electronic basslines and guitar riffs.

This song has the same existential strengths as the original but ends up being one of the best bonus tracks of this album due to the incredible improvements on the instrumentation and tone. I’d talk about those existential strengths here but I’m going to talk about them later in this review (or had talked about them earlier today as I am writing this. Time travel is confusing.).

Celldweller – The Last Firstborn (Klayton remix) (7.75): Another occurrence of Klayton remixing a song that he’d originally produced? We’re going to see a good few of these today. Like with the remix of Goodbye, Klayton fully embraces the more electronic side of the song. From the very beginning he uses the same arp that dominated the more electronically focused parts of the song. Except without the strong drumbeat, the entire mood has been changed from its original energetic intensity to a developing sense of mystery accentuated by the use of distorted vocals.

About halfway through the song the guitar finally breaks through, bringing its song to its energetic glory. Everything here gets more powerful. The drums are no longer distant. The bassline has a harsher more prominent vibe. The arp has gone from subtle and mysterious to a much brighter sound filled with the energy that the original song had. Overall, this song has some great development in its mood as it transforms from its mysterious cryptic style to a briefly more energetic focus.

The lyrics are thankfully sparser and many of the more violent lyrics have been removed from this version of the song. We still have the description of a possible murder scene, but without the bleak and depressing context, the scene feels no bloodier than some of the edgier songs I’ve reviewed.

So yes, definitely a massive improvement. Though I think the original would still have been better if the lyrics were absent… Man, wouldn’t it be nice if that were possible.

Celldweller – Frozen (Copy Paste Repeat remix) (8): Oh wow. This is a mess, but it’s the good kind. Copy Paste Repeat completely tears apart the song and reorganizes it into a completely different chaotic mess of patterneless drumbeats, harsh basslines and vocals chopped beyond anything else on this album. There is a small portion in the middle that allows the original chorus of the song to play without any interruptions, but the chaos is always lurking in the background, ready to strike as soon as the chorus ends, taking the chaos to new levels unheard of. And while I shouldn’t expect anything clean from thsi sound, the ending of this song is so glitchy and rough that I still thought my headphones broke when I first listened to it.

Oh, and once again, like the last song, the vocals I like less (the overly sexual ones in this case) are eliminated from this version, leaving only the feeling of being frozen in time, and since I like time shenanigans, this one’s going to get a good solid rating from me.

There is no good way to review this song, but I’m perfectly content just sitting back and letting the perfect chaos that is this track fill my ears.

Celldweller – Switchback (Klayton remix) (7.25): And welcome back to Switchback. There may just be the one Klayton remix this time around (unless I’m forgetting something, which according to this addendum from my future self, I am) but trust me. We’re going to see a lot of Switchback in the future. Not any time soon likely, but I promise it will happen.

This Switchback remix starts out quite similar to that Copy Paste Repeat song from last time what with the glitching around and distortion of the vocals, but Celldweller hasn’t truly caught the Copy Paste Repeat Chaos, it’s just for the first three seconds of the song (though there are a fair amount of vocal chops), the rest is an entirely electronic version of the iconic Switchback. There’s still a good influence from the original with its bassline, but it’s been distorted into something new with much of the rest of the song focusing on adding a few new electronic elements, foregoing the rock entirely (ok maybe a guitar riff here and there, but that’s almost completely covered up in the background, I almost didn’t notice it until at least the third time around this song today).

However, while I do appreciate the consistent electronic enjoyment, I will admit that this song only just barely gets by with having enough variety. The drumbeat has a couple of switchups but for the most part it’s constant (which isn’t bad, but it’s teasing me with those syncopated portions). There are a few different basslines in there, but they don’t go through them and interchange them nearly fast enough. I now I’m probably being too picky, but a 7-minute song must do its best to capture the attention of the listener with such a variety to justify its length, and if it weren’t for the section where the first verse gets a spotlight, I’m not sure if I’d have found this song interesting enough to consider to be on par with the original.

I’m probably being too harsh, this song is still quite enjoyable (as all Switchback songs are), and I think it’s a fun spin on the original. I’m not quite certain which one I prefer as this song is more consistent but doesn’t quite measure up to the high points of the original. But both are fun tracks, and both deserve a good rating.

Celldweller – Atmospheric Light (Demo Redux (6.75): Hmmmm… a demo. These are often slightly lower quality than the normal tracks as they’re essentially discarded tracks that either weren’t good enough or didn’t quite fit with the albums they were produced for, and so they got relegated to this collection of bonus tracks.

As the title of this song establishes, the music of this song has a bit of an atmospheric feel to it, fading in at the beginning to reveal the main melody of the song and then later fading out with the same exact melody. This melody is present throughout the entirety of the song in between, only interrupted by the occasional guitar riff and drumbeat (and those drums are really just there to accentuate the guitar. This is definitely the most minimalistic song on the album, only giving music that’s absolutely necessary for the song to progress.

I feel that the lyrics are somewhat simple as well. The focus of this song is the same focus as many of the songs on the original album, breaking ties until one is completely alone and isolated and facing one’s regrets. Not a great feeling as I’ve explained several times in the first part of this review. This one adds in something a bit different alluding to Celldweller’s mother and his hope that she will accept him as he returns to his roots, something new for now, albeit I believe this theme becomes a bit more common in later albums.

Celldweller – Own Little World (Blue Stahli remix) (9.25): It’s no secret that I love Own Little World (and if you didn’t know that then you clearly didn’t read part one of this review which begs the question of why you’re here), I don’t believe I need to go into what I believe to be the most positive isolation on Celldweller’s debut album. I explained plenty of that this week. What I have to do this week is figure out how this Blue Stahli remix compares to the original.

Blue Stahli is an artist from the early days of Celldweller’s own label, FiXT. This band that also specializes on the electronic rock fusions, though I believe Blue Stahli falls more onto the electronic side, this time especially. It begins with a half time varied rock verse accompanying Celldweller’s chopped up vocals (more chopped than in the Switchback remix but not quite as chopped as the nearly unintelligible Copy Past Repeat remix). The bassline here is absolutely exceptional.

The song constantly changes from that point onwards though, getting better with each change. The first two choruses focuses on a more upbeat syncopated vibe accompanying my favorite lyrics on the album. And while the second verse is quite similar to the first, after this first formulaic half of the song, everything changes.

First off, we have to return to those vocal chops with some great electro bassline stabs. Which quickly transforms into a new more melodic portion as the song sounds like it’s about to come to a conclusion.

But Blue Stahli isn’t done yet. He aims to “Break it down” with a build-up from nothing, an element which has up to this point, been completely absent from the album. Taking a step back with an acoustic guitar and a soft drumbeat that I want to describe as crunchy, the song rises up, drops out and then immediately returns with van upbeat version of everything we’ve heard so far. It’s here that the song truly reaches for its conclusion, leaving me wanting more of this fantastic remix.

And so, I’ll listen to it again.

Celldweller – Shapeshifter (Klayton remix) (7.25): Klayton asked a question: What if Shapeshifter was even more aggressive and intense? And so, he decided to answer his own question and make Shapeshifter just that in his now commonplace Klayton remix (despite the redundancy of the idea). The rap and screaming chorus have retained the same energy as they’d had before, but all the music surrounding them have been kicked up several notches. Much of this is thanks to his increased blending of electronic elements into this version. Much of the verses are filled with small subtleties, especially in the verses. Actually, throughout the song there’s an extra rapid bassline shoved in the background that gives an extra drive to the verses along with some good ol’ syncopation. This eventually develops into a more high-pitched synth that stands out a bit more, but it still has the exact same effect. Take what’s there and make faster. Make it more intense. Make this race from the cops along with other sweet rides the most intense race ever rapped about.

Really, that’s all there is to say.

Celldweller – Goodbye (6.25): Ok, so I’ve just come over here from the middle of reviewing the remix of this song because the whole order of things bothers me so I’m going to be doing this as nonlinearly as Celldweller. Except I’m going to make sense and review the original Goodbye first.

Goodbye, on the surface level, seems to have an intense focus on the rock side of Celldweller. However, upon listening to the song a few more times, I’ve begun to notice that there’s a bit more electronic elements than I’d originally accounted for. In fact, other than the guitar that starts about twenty-five seconds in (and then proceeds to make appearances throughout the rest of the song), there really isn’t much here that isn’t electronic except for maybe some of the drums, and even then, there’s some more upbeat drum patterns in there that seem more organized by a computer rather than played organically. I’m not sure why exactly I found the main bassline to sound less electronic than normal, but now that I listen to it more and more, the less it sounds like a guitar and the more it sounds like a more like it was generated on a computer (which to my tastes, is preferable anyway).

The song has some decent development, following the typical journey of calmness in the beginning to full throttle intensity at the end (I just reviewed Shapeshifter so the car metaphors seem to be sticking with me). This one bounces back and forth a bit more, becoming immediately more intense in the vocal portions, though even with its wavering up and down in intensity, I feel that overall, the song does still climb steadily towards the maximum potential this song has to offer.

As for the lyrics, Goodbye is about the never-ending passage of time and how every single moment in our life is consistently bidding us farewell as the next moment comes into our life. Other than that, there really isn’t much to say about these lyrics. There are some implications that the current moment of clarity may be the key to trying to figure out one’s purpose, which is interesting, but I’m probably self-projecting so maybe I should just leave it at that.

Alright, I’m heading back to the remix now.

Celldweller – Waiting (Unreleased Demo 2005) (6.25): And so, after saying Goodbye, you’d think we’re done with this part of the review. You’d be wrong. We still have 5 demos and a remix to finish up. Here’s another demo that I quite enjoy as far as the music goes. you likely know me well enough to determine that “as far as the music goes” means I find the lyrics questionable, but we’ll wait on those lyrics for a bit. First let’s enjoy what the music has for us.

The lyrics may be questionable, but the music is definitely one of the faster paced demos we’re going to go over. Really, that faster pace is half of the reason I’m enjoying this song (notice the slight bit of syncopation as well, you know I love that combination). Now, along with this quicker pace, there isn’t so much to go over as much of it is the same combinations of a bassline and a bunch of guitar riffs. At least for most of the song. Celldweller, has a tendency to relegate a good chunk of the fantastic variety to the bridge, this one including some nice strings (also in the outro), an acoustic guitar (also in the intro), and a dash of the most intense of the heavier distorted guitar (also present for pretty much the entirety of the rest of the song).

Alright now to the vocals and the lyrics they bring to the table. First off, before we get into any of the words sung in this song, I really want to mention the odd feeling that I don’t quite recognize the vocalist. I know there’s at least a 98.6% chance it’s Klayton (otherwise someone else would be credited), but it just sounds… different. I’m probably just slowly losing it as I have been for the past two decades or so.

The lyrics are a much simpler issue. Much of the song is just Celldweller reminding us that he’s still waiting. For what? Well, the rest of the lyrics suggest that it’s for another person who is taking the path of least resistance (for themselves) and letting Celldweller down in the process. Though he is simultaneously begging for more time to answer a question. So that’s just a confusing mess of who’s waiting on who. Maybe it’s a conversational song, but that isn’t made very clear.

Still, despite the lyrical confusion, I do find myself enjoying the song. Just not as much as I could if it had better (or no) lyrics. I’d like for there to be an instrumental version of this, but I’m afraid I can’t do the joke that I’ve done with The Last Firstborn and Frozen. There is no instrumental version of this.

Celldweller – 06-06-06 (Unreleased Demo 2006) (5): Ah yes, the day everyone panicked because the devil and tons of people from every artform aimed to release creepy demonic edgy stuff on that day because of the mark of the beast. Or you could put Elvis lyrics in there?

Ok, to the song’s credit there are still some non-Elvis stuff in there. There’s also a few violent lyrics about how Celldweller is going to beat you to a fleshy pulp. So, I’m not sure how that all fits with the theme of Satan. At least I can put lyrical analysis off the table for this one. How’s the music?

It’s alright, but I never really felt there was much notable for most of the song, especially in the choruses. At least there was a little bit of variety in the verses with the bassline, but the rest of the song doesn’t really matter all that much to me.

I’m thinking this song is truly average.

Celldweller – Waiting for so Long (Unreleased Demo 2006) (5.75): Interestingly despite the fact that he’s waiting for so long, this song is a third of the length of Waiting. In fact, if it weren’t for the Cell songs, this would be the shortest song on the album. And a simple one at that. One drumbeat. One bassline. One melody. One line of lyrics (ok two actually but still). This song is so simplistic I have absolutely nothing to say. Thankfully it’s short so the repetition isn’t too bothersome.

The song is a bit above average, but it doesn’t bring much to the table.

Celldweller – Blood from the Stone (Unreleased Demo 2005) (4.25): This song is about a doomed relationship. Yay. Celldweller reveals to his soon to be ex that they aren’t compatible and they never will be because Celldweller is doomed to an empty life with no relationship to speak of. Well, geez stop whining about such a bleak outlook. Not to mention you went into this relationship with pessimistic expectations (Which could be the self-fulfilling prophecy that causes your problems). You’ve clearly got some personal issues you need to work out before you embark on a relationship, because it will never work if you go about it that way.

Ok, enough on that. The music outside of the lyrics is actually good. Starting out with a beautiful combination of piano and acoustic guitar is a lovely beginning. It eventually builds up into a heavily rock focused chorus with some decent melodies. Nothing stellar but decent. It does have a good progression to it and the dynamic between the piano and the harsher guitars (especially noticeable in the second verse) is definitely my favorite part of the song. Overall the music in this one is pretty good.

But then again, there’s the lyrics which make him such a whiny brat that I have to give this song a lower rating than the nonexistant instrumental of it deserves.

Celldweller – IRIA (Unreleased Demo 2005) (7.75): Out of all the demos, this song sounds the most like the Celldweller I know. Some heavy rock to match some nice electronic influences. This actually feels like a Celldweller song, though it is admittedly quite close to instrumental. It has an occasional shout that makes me think he hasn’t quite figured out where this song is going (I could swear he’s saying “Words”) And then there’s the line “I remember it all” (or IRIA if you’d like to use an acronym), which serves no meaning without any context. But that’s fine. That just means the instrumentation has to hold up the track.

And boy does everything this song is make up for the lack of lyrics. This song truly fuses the electronic wonder at the beginning of the song with some great guitar riffs and solos, not to mention that lovely bassline that serves as the main electronic focus. The way it distorts as it moves between notes in the track is quite enjoyable. My favorite part of the song has to be the vocal portion. While not meaningful those vocals definitely add some extra energy when they’re present, or maybe it’s just because the guitar solos are giving their best work to back those vocals up. Either way, this demo definitely stands above the rest.

Celldweller – Switchback (No I’m Not remix) (8): Another Switchback remix? In my review? It’s more likely than I think. But this isn’t your ordinary Switchback remix. No, this remix is gloriously orchestral, accompanied by a choir of strings that progressively gets more intense as Celldweller sings on about how he can’t change the past moments he regrets. There are a few additional lyrics added into this version. Actually, if I remember correctly, those lyrics were originally subtracted from a previous version of Switchback that was made before Klayton polished the track and released his Celldweller debut. Well, they don’t really change the theme of the song or give any new revelations, so I guess it’s just a slight divergence from the norm (as if going orchestral didn’t diverge enough).

There really isn’t much particular to say about the music, as orchestral tracks are often good but really need to do something exceptional to stand out and make themselves worth talking about. I will admit that there’s a bit more of an emotional impact for these lyrics with the orchestral context, but that’s still not out of the ordinary. This song is simply a beautiful conclusion to today’s review.

Conclusion: The bonus tracks of this debut album are a mixed bunch, ranging from a few decent originals, a healthy number of great remixes. And some average demos. Is it a worthwhile addition? I’m going to have to go with a yes. There are very few bad songs here and there, but there also plenty of worthwhile additions, including a better version of my favorite song from the first third.

One more Celldweller review left before I give Klayton an extensive break.

We’ll see what words I have to say when Celldweller has none.

Final Score for Bonus Tracks: (6.75/10)

Final Score for Album so Far: (6.75/10)

122.75/18

118.5

June 2, 2019June 4, 2019

Celldweller – Celldweller (2003 album) Part 1 (original album)

Album links

Bandcamp (original album and bonus tracks only): https://celldweller.bandcamp.com/album/celldweller-10-year-anniversary-deluxe-edition

Soundcloud (original album and bonus tracks only): https://soundcloud.com/celldweller/sets/celldweller-10-year-2

Spotify (full album): https://open.spotify.com/album/1gStSHuxB1XHGBzPDQHU9w?si=-zbQHTIATBy5VEUPoeVCGw

Youtube (original album and bonus tracks only): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnUoeQ45vgmtIWyb40DiweCdge84Y282Y

Introduction: I was contemplating perhaps reviewing this 65-song album in one week just to make up for my inconsistent posting over the past month or two. However, like with Converting Vegetarians, that goal is just not feasible to do in one week. So I’ll be dividing this Deluxe album into three parts, one for the original release, another for the bonus tracks, and one final review for all the instrumentals. So, I hope you like Celldweller, because he’s taking over this site for the next three weeks.

And I haven’t even introduced him yet. Celldweller is one of the many aliases of Klayton, this one focused on a fusion of rock and electronic music. Other aliases include Circle of Dust (the band he started in, though the moniker was recently revived despite him releasing form it as a solo act), Scandroid (an entirely synthwave alias), Feqgen (I am the least familiar with this one, but it’s focused entirely on the electronics from my understanding), and Klayton (self-named alias that focuses on music resembling cinematic trailers).

But today, I’m focused solely on the Celldweller alias, which is my favorite of the five. I’ll probably branch out into the others eventually, but that won’t happen until quite far in the future. For now, let’s take a look at the solo debut of the Celldweller project.

That being said, this review is going to be a bit difficult. Like Ashbury Heights’ Three Cheers for the Newlydeads back in January, this debut album is a bit beyond edgy brushing very close on the line to topics such as suicide and self-harm. Again, these themes aren’t handled quite the best (though it is a bit better this time as there’s not as much glorification of the harmful behavior and thought patterns), so I want to make sure that I take care to handle them well while discussing these songs.

Celldweller – Cell #1 (6.25): Alright so we’re starting out with a short little introductory maybe storytelling track. Well, I know Klayton’s discography does have some vague story going throughout his discography but it’s nowhere near as immersive as my musical storytelling obsession: Mind.in.a.box. I’ll comment on it here and there, but most of the songs can be taken without any story.

And besides if there’s any story here, there’s no information given in the thirty seconds of its duration. There’s some ambience of a heavy duty door being locked tight and heavy breathing that keeps in tempo as the music transitions into the next song (Switchback). Who is this person breathing in beat? This person who seems resigned to dwell in a jail cell?

Oh… I get it…

Celldweller – Switchback (7.25): So if Cell #1’s main purpose is to transition from silence to Switchback, then how does Switchback stand up? Does it deserve the extra thirty second introduction to the song? Well, it is arguably Celldweller’s most popular songs though perhaps some of that has to do with it being the first thing people hear from him on the debut album. I can see why it stuck in people’s heads more easily than some of my preferred songs from Celldweller (not to mention it’s his most remixed song and has appeared in popular media countless times).

The vocals in Switchback are definitely its strength. I don’t often listen to much rock and so I rarely find songs with a rock-oriented vibe to be exceptionally catchy, but Switchback seems to be an exception. Perhaps because there’s a variety of vocal sections within them songs, most of them simple enough to worm their way into my head. And because they can associate together as one song, the individual melodic memories are strengthened by a bond of continuity within the song. They won’t leave my brain and I don’t quite mind. Though I will admit this has resulted in a joke between my brother and I involving singing the lyrics to this song at random points in completely different songs (usually Celldweller instrumentals). This has made the song a bit more difficult to take seriously, though I’ll try to do my best.

So, what do these ridiculously catchy vocals convey? Well despite how enjoyably fun this tune is overall, the lyrics are actually quite brooding, filled with regret. Well, they don’t really go in depth with the inner turmoil, but really, the entirety of the song can be summed up by the first line that doesn’t call out the title: “I made a choice that I regret.” Oh, and also the fact that this choice can’t be changed or altered. After all, there’s no way to Switchback.

Other than the vocals, most of Switchback’s music is less remarkable. Oh, it definitely has a good rock vibe, but outside of the bridge, none of it is exceptionally interesting. That sentence seems to imply that the bridge is exceptional. And it is, for it is in the bridge that the musical variety begins to match up with the vocal variety (only took half of the entire song to get to the eerie ambient section in which Klayton’s vocals are rerecorded to make him sound more like a broken man. And to make up for lost energy, this calmer chorus is immediately followed by a solid electronic drumbeat and a bit of screaming. And after that, to make up for lost rock, there’s the most intense guitar riffs on the song along with the most fast-paced vocals on the song before we finish with another iteration of the chorus (as well as a syncopated DnB paced finale but eh I’ve said enough here).

Celldweller – Stay with Me (Unlikely) (7.5): Stay with Me is a little less familiar than Switchback. So, it doesn’t have super catchy lyrics to help. Also, this one focuses almost completely on the rock elements, which I usually enjoy most when fused with his electronic influences as it more of my main genre (everything electronic). There are a few synths here and there that

Also, the lyrics are a bit unfortunate to follow one of the pitfalls that hampered my opinion on Three Cheers for the Newlydeads (an odd album I find myself comparing this one to but that’s what happens when two of my favorite artists have edgy debuts). Thankfully, Celldweller doesn’t glorify the darkest depths of Ashbury Heights (for the most part, there’s a certain song I want t but instead opts to focus on a slightly toxic relationship. The paradoxical contrast between Celldweller begging the listener to stay with him in the chorus and only ten seconds later he declared he’s rather the listener go away in the edgy screaming bridge. It’s possible that this is more representative of the confliction that Celldweller has as his mind seems to be torn apart by his own mental enemies distorting his mind into a nihilistic depression… Maybe that deserves some focus as well before I go and decide that). this song is toxic

In addition to the external conflict of whether or not Celldweller needs company through his inner turmoil, this song also takes a look at the inner turmoil itself in the blinkandyou’llmissit verses. The first half of these verses seem to resemble some form of tripped out rap as Celldweller is in distress over the intrusive thoughts that push him down into the darkest depths. The thoughts aren’t permanent, but when they’re there, they trap him in a socially destructive state. He pushes those close to him away and is left alone with the existential thoughts that tear down his soul as he observes the never-ending passage of time (which, I’ll remind you, cannot be switched back).

…Ah shoot, I’m beginning to think I was jumping the gun there with that first bit of lyrical analysis. The paradox makes all the more sense as this vulnerable state of existentialism is simultaneously lonely (A desire to keep others close in order to feel human again) and volatile (a desire to keep others at a distance so they don’t infect others with their negativity). It’s still a toxic line of thinking and that it would be best to go immediately for the first choice if you can, because the second choice will only make you feel more empty…

That got deeper than I expected. Well played Klayton.

Celldweller – The Last Firstborn (6): The Last Firstborn is another one of the more popular Celldweller songs. Not as big as Switchback or Frozen (review that in a bit, but definitely on the upper half of popularity when it comes to songs on this album. I’m quite mixed on it. On one hand, the music in here is fantastic, making it one of the best instrumentals the Deluxe album has to offer. On the other hand, well, there’s a reason I hold the instrumental so much more highly above the original, but I’ll get to talking about what the instrumental doesn’t have in a second.

For now, let me just take a second to appreciate the outstanding music in this one. I feel like this song does one of the best jobs on the original album of integrating both the rock and the electronic elements on the album. Hard to decide if it’s this or a certain other song (which happens to be this album’s highlight) that does better at using both sides of Celldweller, but this is great regardless. The song constantly bounces back and forth between rock with underlying electronic and electronic with underlying rock. Neither genre fully takes hold at any point in the song, but they also each get their own moments to shine, be it the intense guitar riffs fused with a rumbling distorted bassline to the upbeat techno progression that dominates during the chorus (though the same guitar riffs are still present if you listen for them).

This song is fantastic when it comes to its music.

The lyrics on the other hand, are pushing for maximum edginess for Celldweller. This song is what pushed me over the edge to decide that this deserved the same warning as Three Cheers for the Newlydeads (though there’s a later song that takes this to true maximum edgieness). The entire song, the lyrics are playing on the edge between life and death and there are several points in the song that really go over the edge. There’s explicit mentions of playing with razor blades and knocking on death’s door as well as implicit statements saying “This isn’t worth it” and “I wish it didn’t end this way.” These ideas paired with the violent imagery with the fast-paced vocals of the chorus makes for what I believe to be one of Celldweller’s darkest songs. It still gets an above average rating as the darkness isn’t enough to truly overcome the exceptional instrumental. I can’t help think of how much better the song would have been if it the lyrics were eliminated. Gee, I sure wish that were possible… Well, I’ll talk about that again in two weeks

Celldweller – Under My Feet (5.5): Alright, time to explore a side of Celldweller we haven’t seen quite yet. Well, we have seen his rock side overall, but this song is a bit softer than the other songs on this album so far. The more heavily distorted guitar takes a backseat to something more acoustic for the first half of this song. And it’s a refreshing gasp of fresh air that allows the song to build back into the more intense rock as the song progresses. Yeah that build in intensity does prevent the song from fully abandoning the intensity of Celldweller, but it still remains rather calm in comparison to the majority of his discography. The tone of the guitar is the spotlighted development in this track but there are several other pieces of the puzzle that help the guitar on its journey. The drums for example start out quite soft and experimental at the beginning of the song before being overtaken by a more prominent and steadier drumbeat. The background vocals also get more intense over time, starting as a distant whisper in the beginning to some louder melodic chanting alongside the main vocals. Really, this entire song, outside for the final few lines where the song drops out to its starting state, i just one big build-up. And it works.

Too bad some of the lyrics hold it back. As far as the lyrics go, Under My Feet is a song of brooding. The song starts out contemplating suffering and loneliness similar to the feelings expressed two songs ago in Stay with Me (Unlikely). This song goes even further into the inner turmoil, focusing on the despair that he feels at the bottom of that pit the mental enemies have pushed him into. Even when he tries to get himself out, he finds that saying he must get out isn’t going to guarantee him an escape (which is true, you have to work for it). He envies those who have found more reason to live than he. He desires to be more like them…

And then the whole message falls apart at the end. Trying to mirror the first stanza of the song, Celldweller seems to spitefully wish for the downfall of those he envies. He never finds his way out of the pit. He just wishes everyone he knows to come down with him, and while I agree that in one way or another, everybody gets depressed, that doesn’t mean those that are already down emotionally should strive to bring those around them to the same level. Wouldn’t the more sensible thing to do be to strive to enjoy your own life? I guess it’s just easier to spread negativity than to take the tumultuous road that will eventually lead to living peace.

Again, this song suffers from good music and bad lyrics. Though it’s not as strong on either end (Last Firstborn had better music and worse lyrics). The end result is the same.

Celldweller – I Believe You (6): Alright. Back to the electronic rock fusion. It’s still mostly rock but, there are a few parts of the song that are definitely more electronic. There’s a great break from the rock at the minute mark that has a singular groovy bassline and some strings accompanying those sick syncopated drums. There’s also a bit of electronic texture added to the bridge at the 2-minute mark. Other than that, the song only takes a break from the rock portions for a quick moment before the chorus (harkening back to the chiller emotion at the beginning of the last song). Without the electronic elements, the song is pretty ok. It doesn’t have too much to offer for most of the song. The short melody played right before the chorus is understandably involved in the chorus but other than that the song is just alright.

The lyrics are a bit more cryptic than usual. The main theme is certainly blind faith, but whether or not the faith is a good thing is somewhat uncertain. He keeps saying it’s alright, but he might be somewhat of an unreliable narrator, manipulated by the one he trusts…

That sounds like something Celldweller would do. He can be a bit toxic sometimes, especially in his early days.

Celldweller – Frozen (5.75): Frozen is another powersong in Celldweller’s debut. Not quite as popular as Switchback, but still quite iconic to his discography. Not only is it not as well-liked with the general public, it’s not quite as well-liked by myselg. While Switchback had some great dynamic portions near the end, Frozen is pretty much the same throughout. Now the sameness of Frozen is better than the lowest in Switchback I’ll admit it. The slower syncopated tempo works quite well and there’s some decent simple electronic melodies that are present throughout. There is a bit of variation at the bridge again like there was in Switchback, but it isn’t unique enough to capture my attention like the woman in this song captures Celldweller’s attention.

The lyrics are… weird. The more I listen to it the more sexual it gets. The whole tone of this song with the little side female vocals (let’s go) to more obvious declarations of open legs. I think I was just distracted the first time in this song by the “frozen point in time” line (I love weird time shenanigans), that I didn’t realize the true seductive nature of this song… I kind of prefer time shenanigans. Sex is a much less interesting topic in my opinion. Plus, there’s a weird darker vibe to the song, that makes the whole scene fee lifeless, cold, frozen. And I’m pretty sure that’s not quite the mood you want to set for possibly reproductive activities.

Celldweller – Symbiont (5.75): It’s funny how some of the best musical songs have the most uncomfortable lyrics. This isn’t quite to the level of The Last Firstborn (which was the perfect fusion of the pillars of Celldweller’s style) but there’s still several great parts of the song. This song, while almost entirely rock-focused consistently bounces back and forth between the quicker syncopated tempos in the introductions and the slower half-time section in the verses and chorus of “dancing on a thin line.” Not to mention the guitar in the first prechorus, which while not complex perfectly matches the energy that Celldweller commits to for a good portion of the song.

Unfortunately, these lyrics are rather disappointing. We’re back to the toxic relationship themes. Never really understood why this is such a popular theme. If you hate the person, you’re romantically involved with then such a relationship should be ended, not glorified. If Celldweller wants to go, then he doesn’t have to stay. Really, the entire idea of staying in a toxic relationship is a bad trend in lyrics that needs to phase out, but it seems to be a theme we’re stuck with.

Unless of course we take the route I took with Stay with Me and transform this toxic relationship into a much more interesting struggle. A struggle of self. Oh, it’s still a toxic dynamic, but at least the resistance of leaving is a bit more understandable. It’s increasingly difficult to separate the core of one’s self from the toxic pieces of our identity that we’d rather be rid of. How can you stop feeding the symbiont of your soul when it’s constantly sucking the life out of the more beneficial (or at least benign) parts of your soul.

Of course, I’m probably reading too deep into the internal struggle side of things and partaking in a confirmation bias to appreciate the song more than I would otherwise.

Celldweller – Afraid this Time (8): Back to the chiller side of Celldweller. This song begins with a rather trippy intro but soon develops into some of highest quality chill this album has to offer. My guess is that the combination of the acoustic guitar and the piano has something to do with my enjoyment. Plus, a bit of electronic bass to give it a slight bit more energy without overbearing the calmer mood that the rest of the song demonstrates (at least for the first half). There’s also a rather enjoyable glitchy effect on the vocals that gives the song the perfect amount of unsettling for a song about fear.

The song does get a bit more intense in the second half as the tempo increases a bit and the wobbly bass does eventually take the spotlight, but it doesn’t necessarily feel intrusive. And the bridge definitely gives a great spotlight on the harder side of the guitar to contrast with the acoustic melodies from earlier. While I think I do enjoy the first half of the song a bit better, the second half does work just as well.

As for the lyrics, it’s a bit more cryptic than the usual adapting a vague message if any. But that might work for the song. It seems that there are some references to a dichotomy between struggling to overcome one’s fears and realizing that no matter what you do, the fears will continue to linger. The singer repeatedly mentions that he’s afraid, but he also makes sure to make it clear that his undefined opponent (be it person, problem or idea) can no longer touch him. Honestly this is a great balanced message admitting that fear isn’t easily eliminated but it doesn’t have to rule one’s life.

Celldweller – Fadeaway (8.5): Now this song has an interesting variety to it. My favorite songs on this album either switch back and forth between either electronic and rock vibes or between the calmer acoustic sound and the harsher distorted guitar sections. This song, for the most part relies on the latter though there a few very welcome electronic instruments added in there (as that’s my preferred genre). I think I’ll go more in depth on the variety when I review the instrumentals of this album (there’s a DnB portion so you know I like it), but for now, I feel it is necessary to mention the relationship between the vocals and the music in the first section of this song.

The most evident relationship between these two is the way the song switches back in forth in intensity depending on which mood the verses at the beginning are displaying at any given moment. If we’re looking at the cleaner vocals, the song takes a step back and focuses just on the underlying bassline. But when the song switches back and forth to the more intense distorted vocals, the music follows suit adding some great guitar solos into the mix. This is once again reflected in the song’s coda as the first three lines focus on some gritty vocals with a rock backing to back it, but that last cleaner line begins just as everything else ends. Making a satisfying conclusion to the song.

Also, worth mentioning are the two stylistic bridges that give a quick break form the rest of the song. The first concentrating on the quickest electronic syncopated tempo of the song (you know I like DnB) and the second focusing on an acoustic section that resembles many of the other calmer songs this album has to offer. You could actually consider said bridge to be a build-up from nothing thought it doesn’t seem to reach the same intense heights as the rest of the album contains. It’s worth noting that again the intense bridge contains lyrics of a more intense gritty variety , while the second bridge focuses a lot more of the calmer cleaner vocals

But enough of talking about vocals and their relationships with the rest of the song, what message are these lyrics explaining. Well, fadeaway sounds rather defeatist which is a slight bit of a shame as any moment in the song that doesn’t focus on the nihilism connected to ones flaws, there’s a very humble bit of inspiration there. First, there’s the admittance of the flaws are there and they present the duality of isolating ones self to hide ones flaws (only friend) and getting caught in ones flaws until they overwhelm one’s life (worst enemy). While the balance of this song does tip towards the negativity, there does seem to be a humble bit of positivity in there that allows for a nontoxic self-reflection.

But you know what sometimes, that’s just the way the mind acts. Sure, it isn’t healthy to assume that life is over and done as soon as you realize your flaws. But definitely is a relatable feeling. Just don’t stay there forever.

Celldweller – Cell #2 (6.25): Another short Cell song. This one being an intermission rather than an introduction. There’s much less visual ambience in this one as it just focuses on being overly creepy while giving a bit of narration on feeling lost and trapped within this cell that serves as the main theme of this album. One’s sense of self and memories of the past can become distorted when one traps themselves in negativity. Had joy ever existed? Will it ever exist again? The hope is that the answer to that last question is yes

Celldweller – So Sorry to Say (8): What makes So Sorry to Say unique within the Celldweller discography (or at least within this album) is definitely its incorporation of strings. From the very beginning of the song the strings hog the spotlight whenever they’re present. There’s some points where it holds equal ground with a piano, but other than that, any instrument that attempts to stand out while the strings are in place will merely be pushed back into the background by the superior instrument.

However, the strings don’t stay relevant for the entire song. For example, there’s a few points in the song (1 minute mark, 2.5 minute mark and 4 minute mark respectively), that have an incredible focus on the more electronic side of Celldweller. Seeing that electronic is my preference and that these sections also include some syncopation, it’s clear that I find these parts of the song to be rather enjoyable. During these sections the song switches back and forth between using a wobbly bassline and giving some silence (for lyrics in the former two sections). However, it’s just that wobbly electronic bassline that goes silent. There’s also a bass guitar that picks up the slack, present throughout each section in its entirety.

There are also a few rock portions intermittent throughout the song in between those favorite upbeat syncopation sections. Most strikingly is the intensity that this song decides to use as we build up for that final syncopated section. I don’t have especially much to say about this short little rock section. Just wanted to highlight its greatness that the rock has for a grand finale (before the song takes a step back into the minimalism with just the drums, strings and pianos backing up the vocals (no basslines of any sort, guitar or otherwise).

So that’s plenty of focus on the music, what do I feel about these lyrics. This song seems to follow some of the main themes of this album, depression and isolation, especially that last one. Throughout the song, Celldweller questions why he pushes away those he cares about, especially during his most desperate times. It’s a paradox that’s highlighted quite well Ii this song’s chorus as Celldweller constantly switches back and forth between begging the person in question to leave him before his depression infects their mood, while also begging them to stay as he needs them for support. A paradox that plagues many depressed moments.

Yeah, both this and Stay with Me (Unlikely had the same theme, but there’s no reason that there can’t be two songs about this conflict of emotions. And I think I like this one better anyways thanks to musical enjoyment.

Celldweller – Own Little World (9): There’s always one song on an album that just sticks out above the rest, and when it comes to Celldweller’s self-titled debut album, this is clearly that song. It has great quick -paced DnB vibes as far as the tempo goes, as well as a decent fusion of electronic and rock (though rock clearly takes the forefront this time). And while that’s not my main genre, it’s still well executed, and the electronic influences give it enough flavor to stand out among many of the other mostly rock tracks on the album.

Plus, there’s some things in this song that are quite unique. The vocal manipulation provide for a great variety compared to the simple dichotomy between clean and gritty most songs have. Now there’s simple distortion as well as robotic distortion. And there’s also two levels of gritty vocals, so that makes for at least five different vocal accents within the song. I say at least, because there’ possibly one or two more I missed, I think there’s some whispers in the second half of the chorus, but I’m not certain.

Ah well, it doesn’t matter exactly how the vocals are presented (though again, the variety is appreciated). What truly matters to me is the message the vocals present. And this one follows the theme of isolation in a much more confident manner, with no hint of negativity within its chorus and only minimal struggles within the verses, though those mostly serve as a drive to creating one’s own little world, a state of mind that one can use to escape the chaos that plagues life as long as you let it take a hold. But slipping into a world of peace and attempting to let it become one’s reality can provide a chance to improve one’s life greatly. Of course, use of one’s own little world must be used as a rest more than a permanent escape (stagnancy is not a healthy way to escape the chaos), but there’s still something quite invigorating about finding an escape from the chaos (my personal escape is music and writing, which is somewhat why I created this blog in the first place).

Celldweller – Unlikely (Stay With Me) (7): Huh. The title of this song seems oddly familiar. As does the guitar riff at the beginning, though I think that those two familiarities are for entirely different reasons. Well, within context of this album review the title situation is quite obvious. About half the album ago, there was another song titled Stay with Me (Unlikely). So, don’t get them confused. Stay with Me (Unlikely and Unlikely (Stay With Me) are two entirely different songs

As for the guitar riff at the beginning of the song, I can’t help but feel like the familiarity has to do with the similarities between this riff and the one at the beginning of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Am I going crazy? I had this same issue with Ashbury Heights’ Penance and Megalovania a while back, though at least this similarity makes sense as the famous song in question (Smells Like Teen Spirit) was released over a decade before the song in my review (Unlikely (Stay with Me)). Still, it feels weird to notice this connection.

Anyway, onto reviewing the actual song, the title does indicate that this song is somewhat of a twisted reprise of Stay with Me (Unlikely). I can see somewhat of a resemblance. There are some similar themes with the paradox of desiring company and also desiring time alone. And I believe this version rips its lyrics directly from the chorus of the former. The only thing is it omits a good chunk of those lyrics and twists what’s left around before resinging them. So while this song is certainly connected to Stay with Me (Unlikely), it feels like a completely different song.

But this different song is certainly a good one, complete with a good simple, apparently Nirvana-esque guitar riff (both of a rock and acoustic variety), a few vocal chops here and there, and a decent section near the end involving some heavier guitar riffs and a simple electronic synth melody, painting a simple picture of the line between rock and electronic that Celldweller strides upon.

No lyrical analysis here, just go back to Stay With Me (Unlikely) as I’d just repeat myself if I took a shot here.

Celldweller – One Good Reason (1.5): Alright, it looks like it’s time for some extreme rock with some screaming vocals. Nothing clean and clear here. How do I feel about that? Well, if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m not a fan and it does hurt this song a slight bit more than it would if the song was a bit cleaner. Don’t get me wrong, the high tempo and the overall incredibly intense tone does have its upsides. It’s just a little bit too much here.

And the lyrics? Well, this is the edgiest most suicidal song on the album, and I am not at all a fan of that theme. Gets straight to the point. The singer can’t think of one good reason to continue living. I’m really not sure what else to say about the song itself. It’s a toxic mindset and it refuses to budge from that. I think I’ve made my stance against suicide clear in previous reviews (several times in Three Cheers for the Newlydeads. There’s always potential in the future, regardless of the lot one’s given in the present. That’s my reason. And I believe it’s a rather good one.

Celldweller – The Stars of Orion (7): The Stars of Orion is… a different song. Not saying it’s bad. I actually quite enjoy it, but it really doesn’t fit at all within this album, perhaps even within Celldweller’s entire discography. Now, I feel the main factor that separates this from most of Celldweller’s works is how instrumental it is. I’m of course not counting all of the Instrumentals Celldweller places on his Deluxe albums. Those are an entirely different story and even this song has an instrumental version later on, as there are some minimal lyrics but they blend in a bit with the creepy atmosphere this song provides.

Lyrics aside, this song is entirely about the atmosphere it creates anyway. Two unique lines of lyrics aren’t going to change anything. Here let me quickly wrap them up: this song is about going far away… that’s it. Congratulations. You now understand what this son is about. You might not know of the ambient environment this song creates as the vocals set in. You might not know of the edgy DnB drumbeat that overtakes the song soon after it starts. You might not know of the guitar riff that continuously brings the drums in and out of focus. You might not know of the song’s conclusion resembling atmospheric bookend to match the song’s introduction

But at least you know that this song is about going far away do there’s that.

Celldweller – Cell #3 (6.5): The Cell door opens.

Our Celldweller awakens from torturous slumber

Forever wounded, voice distorted to a state of inhuman lack of emotion

The end is near.

Celldweller – Welcome to the End (6.75): The end is here.

Welcome to The End slows down for its ending, making it the only song that’s truly calming the entire way through. Kind of strange to hear Celldweller without all of the heavy energetic guitars and basslines, but then again, that’s what the entirety of his Offworld album is like (which contains one of my favorite songs of all time, but we’ll talk about that one far into the future). This song takes on an almost entirely ambient vibe with what I believe are the sounds of whales accompanying the simple drumbeat and occasional guitar melody. It’s quite an interesting and refreshing vibe compared to the rest of the album.

Continuing off of the desire to “go someplace far away from here” from Stars of Orion, this song is a song of leaving. A song that continues that desire to leave the present behind and look to the future. This song ads a few more lyrics to surround that idea, albeit those lyrics are a little bit cryptic in their connection to going far from here. So, I wouldn’t say this one goes more in depth. More like it attaches a strange love story plotline in which one lover welcomes the other home before they embark on a journey, leaving their home behind. Their destination is unclear, though it sounds like the destination isn’t the purpose.

The purpose is to escape.

Because there is a voice. A small whisper. But even the smallest whisper can hold all the destruction required to break a man.

“Welcome to the End”

Conclusion: Or that would be the end, if the deluxe album didn’t have 18 more songs and a couple dozen instrumentals to go through. But I think this is a good place to stop for now. Celldweller is a divisive album for me, maybe not to the level as Three Cheers cor the Newlydeads (overdone comparison is overdone), but it does have a mixture of some fantastic songs and some songs that suffer greatly from their lyrics. But most of the album resides in the middle of that range between 5 and 7.

Anyways, join me next time as I tear into a few bonus songs added into the deluxe version of the album (released ten years later), as well as some remixes of the most iconic songs and a few demos of tracks that hadn’t quite made it into the public prior.

Final Score: (6.5/10)

May 19, 2019May 18, 2019

THYX – Below The City

Album links

Bandcamp: n/a

Soundcloud: n/a

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7jwiiOaHaRDQsQCGhAEo9a?si=OIc15JgSSPa9T_cA8EfgPA

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nGsYb4-1vHXJdUS5DVl-wjviN9Xva9GVU

Introduction: Let us continue with the Mind.in.a.box side project known as THYX. In a Mind.in.a.box review, I’d skip the whole introduction thing and go straight for a summary, but THYX is different. As far as I can tell (I could always be missing something), the THYX discography has no overarching story of its own and it certainly isn’t connected to the Mind.in.a.box universe (at least not directly. Maybe there are some obscure connections I don’t realize). Narrative or no narrative, Poiss always delivers when it comes to great music, even on THYX albums such as this one.

THYX – Searching (8): First song on the album and we’re already off to a good start. Searching brings a good amount of energy to the table with its significant drive and significant focus on the basslines. Considering the fact, that Poiss is typically the master of arps, this song stands out a bit among much of the rest of the Mind.in.a.box and THYX discographies. Not saying it’s the best song (Redefined already took that spot with its 10/10), but it’s definitely different with its energetic approach to a variety of basslines.

Other than its focus on the bassline, Searching has several other elements to offer: a couple of simple melodies dot the track here and there. It’d nothing to write home about but it does add a slight bit of melodic flavor to an otherwise non-melodic song. There’s also some great variety near the end of the song as the song explores a new chord progression in comparison to the rest of the song (which was slightly growing repetitive at that point, so the variety is very much welcome). There’s also some grittily distorted vocals in there. Speaking of which…

The search that this song centers on is an introspective search for life’s meaning, an enigma that has drowned minds across humanity for endless generations. We spend so much tine digging down into the depths of our minds trying to conjure up some meaning as day after day leads us closer to our end. We search our past and expected future for any trace of an answer. We desire a safe place where we can feel complete. But such a place isn’t something one can just happen upon. I believe you must make such a place for yourself.

My personal introspections and worldviews aside, this song wouldn’t be that out of place thematically in Black’s cyberpunk noir journey, though I can see how Poiss decided it wouldn’t quite tell the story he wanted, which is why it likely got retooled to become a THYX song, and a very good one at that.

THYX – The Endless Journey (8.5): Taking a step back from the energy of Searching we have, the slightly slower- paced Endless Journey. Not that the song suffers from this decrease in tempo and intensity, it merely excels in a different flavor of Poiss’ expertise. I think I do prefer Searching as this song does’t have quite the same variety as the introductory song. There’s a bit more highlight on a slow arp and a decent guitar solo near the end, but the former isn’t exactly exceptional for Mind.in.a.box/THYX standards and the latter is quickly overpowered by the arp so it doesn’t truly get a chance to shine like it could have.

However, this song does have an overwhelming strength that Searching can never measure up to. What’s better than a song focusing on the search for life’s meaning? A song that actually attempts to decipher the significance of this endless journey we call life. Well, there is an end, but sometimes it’s easy (and preferable) to forget about that little complication we call death… Until then, let’s explore all the intricacies in Poiss’ emotionally driven lyrics of The Endless Journey

There is almost too much to go over when it comes to this song’s lyrics. That doesn’t hamper the song’s quality at all as I quite enjoy the rapid-fire variety of ideas thrown in my ears’ direction. It’s just difficult to write about all that in a review. So, let me just give a quick rundown of some of the many themes this song includes. There’s the balance of ignorance and bliss and how to receive the latter without relying on the former. There’s the struggle to upkeep the happiness and contentment that has a tendency to fade as we grow older. There’s mention of the constraints of general every day living that make it difficult to break free and follow one’s own individual goals. And then there’s a general fear of the future and the unknown and how we must overcome it. My short synopsis doesn’t do this song justice. Listen to it for yourself.

THYX – Network of Light (7.5): Network of Light is a fantastically interesting song. It’s a bit more cryptic in comparison to some of the other songs on the album but crypticism works quite well for the THYX style so there are no single complaints. This song masters that cryptic nature by beginning the song with an almost threateningly deep voice demanding you to survive. Yeah, I was planning on surviving and I think I’m still going to go through with that plan, but I could do without this particular flavor of reinforcement. Ah, who am I kidding, I love the creepier edgy side of music. Bring the darkness on!

And that’s the odd thing about this song. Despite having the world “Light” in the title, this song, at least tonally, is awfully dark. This is especially noticeable in the beginning with the threat of not dying and the distant smooth bass soon overwhelmed by the slightly harsher (and much more prominent) bassline that accompanies the threatening vocals I have been repeatedly mentioning. And while the rest of the song (excluding reprises of those specific vocals that I’ve been repeatedly mentioning) doesn’t really contribute much to the darkness, it doesn’t really do much to provide much light to the song either. The chorus does have some calmer pads, but these sections are only light in comparison to that vibe the song starts with.

Am I complaining that a song that falsely advertises itself as light? Oh no, not at all, I quite enjoy this song despite its darkness. In fact, I could argue that I enjoy the song because of its darkness. I’m not the most happy-go-lucky guy after all. A bit of edge is quite pleasing in my opinion. That’s what this song has for the musical portion of this review. The lyrical portion, however, is a bit more cryptic. It sounds as if this song is being sung by a personified network of light, an AI that’s attempting to reach out to an unknown person. If this were canon to the Mind.in.a.box story, I’d say it was Black due to mentions of erased memories, but even if there is no narrative connection (and I’m pretty sure there isn’t), this song is simply enjoyable to take in for its instrumentation alone.

THYX – The Street (7.25): Continuing on with the personification then, we have The Street. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We need to take a moment to appreciate the nonlyrical elements of this song too. This song has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to its more instrumental sections. The weakness? Well it doesn’t really have as prominent of a mood as some of the other songs, especially the introductory energy of Searching and the surprisingly ominous mood of Network of Light. Tonally, it’s more on par with The Endless Journey which only got its high rating due to its lyrical content. Ok, perhaps it’s a bit better than that. After all, this song does have a few sections that allow it to stand above an instrumental version of The Endless Journey (not that that exists, just trying to take lyrics out of the equation for a brief minute).

First off, let’s take a look at two of the continuous elements that are prominent throughout the entirety of this song’s stay. First off, there’s the echoing pair of drums that are introduced at the very beginning of the song. This percussive duo gives the song a slightly cinematic flavor, allowing for the rest of the song to feel a bit more powerful than it would without. Secondly, there’s the bassline that plays funky pairs of notes underlying the rest of the track, giving the song a slight groove to compliment the cinematics of the drumbeat.

One other part of the song, I’d like to highlight is only there for a small section of the song leading into the second verse. It’s the piano. Really, the main reason the piano stands out is because you only get the occasional Poiss song with the piano so it comes in as a treat that differs a bit from the songs that are almost completely technological. This melody just does a great job of climbing up and down in pitch that makes it stand out even more prominently among even the other piano tracks.

As for the lyrics on this personified street… Well, I pretty much summed up a good overview of the lyrics right there, didn’t I? But can we go even more in depth to who this street is. Well it seems to be a very supportive personified roadway, which is good, because I’d hate for the street to collapse under my weight. That’d mighty inconvenient. It’s also worth noting that there’s a huge emphasis on how the target of this song (hey let’s just assume it’s Black again, why don’t we? I don’t care if its canon or not) finds themselves in a safe place on this street. Kind of interesting how this calls back to Searching. It seems that the safe place has been found. It’s out on this conscious street.

THYX – Hate (8.25): Hate is a strong word. At least that’s what I was always told as a child. Of course, now that my vocabulary has grown, I’ve learned that there are even stronger words than hate such as despise, loath and abhor. But there’s something about hate, that’s so simple and pure. Well, as pure as such a negative emotion can get. Because when you boil right down to it, hatred is hatred regardless of how strong.

I’m getting distracted. I love pulling apart the smallest things sometimes, but my opinion of this song isn’t going to be defined by the definition of hate. Instead, I think it would be best to judge the song based on the actual musical and lyrical content. Thankfully, for Hate, I quite enjoy a lot of what this song has to offer, and I consider it to be one of the best songs on the album. And I can’t just attribute my enjoyment to just the music or just the lyrics. This is a very well-rounded song in which everything contributes to its excellence.

The beginning of this song serves as an important introduction to the dark mood that emanates through much of its duration. Unlike Network of Light, the darkness actually fits this song’s title (again nothing wrong with Network of Light, THYX’s surprisingly common false advertising is forgivable at least 75% of the time). Not only does this song have a stronger thematic connection to darkness, but even if you take the music out of context form the lyrics and song title, the song sounds simultaneously vibrant and ominous. The bassline is the mastermind behind this all, underlying every moment of the song from the very beginning, especially in the beginning, as it’s nearly the only rumbling sound present for the first half a minute or so (some soft drums in there too, but not the song’s main drive).

The song’s main drive comes in around a minute in, allowing for the bassline to spread its flavor quickly through the track, transforming itself into both an arpeggiated bassline as well as some longer notes that give the bass a more clearly defined progression. And later in the song, there’s some harsher stabs from the bass as well, rounding out the variety of the bassline to create much of the atmosphere of this track. There are some other melodic instruments in there too that contribute greatly to the vibrance I’d mentioned earlier, but most of the attention is focused on the bass.

Except when it’s focused on the vocals. Hate has the best vocals on the album. They’re not the best lyrically (though the message still tickles my mind out of the box). However, as for how the lyrics are sung, there’s more passion here than anywhere else on the album. During the chorus it seems as if nothing else matters except Poiss being overcome with the titular emotion of the song as it took over his mind.

Yeah, this song’s bleakness in its musical tone does fit with the lyrics. According to these lyrics, hate wins. It overwhelms the soul and casts out all other emotions and any purity that somehow survived up to that point. That’s only if you let it win though. Take this song as a warning.

Don’t let hate win.

THYX – Survival Instinct (8.5): I feel like, out of all the songs on this album, this song feels closest to his mind.in.a.box work. I’m not sure exactly how to describe it, but I have noticed that a lot of THYX’s songs have a slightly different feel from the stuff off of the mind.in.a.box albums. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, but there’s definitely a combination of arps basslines, melodies and vocals that many of the upbeat mind.in.a.box songs roughly follow. And this is the closest I’ve heard a THYX song to fit that rough outline. Can I put it into words? Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can, which really brings into question why I’m reviewing in the first place, but right now all I have to go off of is this odd feeling of familiarity despite this being the first time I’m delving into the THYX side of the discography.

Well, I’ll try and at least explain what this music makes me feel, maybe it will be clearer how to make the comparison between the to aliases if I take a step back and look at this song as a standalone. The introduction for this song is quite amazing. A lot of songs on this album focus on starting with a subtle rumbling bassline, but this song might just be the best at using it. It just gives the right sense of unease to contrast with the more relaxing midnight jazzy vibe the sax and piano bring to the table. And the heavy breathing that transitions into the drive capitalizes on this unease quite well. This song definitely puts its best foot forward, and while I may have complained about some songs doing this in the past, the difference is that there’s plenty of great stuff to follow.

First off, those jazzy vibes from the piano do return in the song quite often enough to keep the introductory mood alive. Yet, it doesn’t necessarily linger on this mood, but transforms it by using the piano in tandem with the arps that steal the show for the majority of the song. That’s probably the secret to how I can even more easily associate this song with Mind.in.a.box in comparison to other songs on the album. Outside of the storytelling, Mind.in.a.box’s greatest strength was always the arps and Poiss made absolutely certain to showcase that strength in this one. Even the melody in the chorus (which is fantastic by the way) sounds similar to his arps, which I feel is what pushes the song over the line to sounding like a full on Mind.in.a.box song.

The vocals in the verses are admittedly a slight bit different from the Mind.in.a.box norm, going for a grittier vibe, not computerized in any way, just a different gritty flavor. It works because the lyrical content of Survival Instinct is edgy to match. Society is crumbling around us. Life deteriorates into entropy. All things, good or bad, eventually disappear. It all boils down to a choice: Will you stand and fight against the darkness that suffocates us or hide from it, waiting it out until mortality takes you?

One of these choices is easier. The other one is right.

THYX – Alien Love (7.25): And now for a calmer, more simplistic track. Everything else we’ve heard so far has been incredibly dense with lyrics either thought provoking in the existential sense or thought provoking in a way that makes me scratch my head at why we’re personifying a road. This song, though strangely titled, is about much simpler ideas. Therefore, it shouldn’t take as long to tear into… Right?

I mean, not only are the lyrics relatively simple (half of the lines in this song are “It came to me”), the music itself is quite laid out nice and simple. The song starts out by solidifying itself as one of the calmer tracks, using only a piano (and maybe a slight bit of ambience) for the first minute. Eventually, the song does begin to incorporate a few basslines into the song, as well as an acoustic guitar (which I didn’t here the first time I listened through, but now it’s my favorite part. Add a few drums and a few synths and the song begins to slowly intensify from its initial calming beauty to its eventual glorious majesty.

The vocals undergo a similar journey. They start out slow and somber, perhaps filled with sorrow. But by the end of the journey, the Poiss sings with an unrelenting passion, as he switches onto the second part of the lyrics. But perhaps I should analyze that first part of the lyrics before I move on to the second part. Sequential order is quite preferable in most cases, this being one of them.

Something came to him. He was all alone, blind to the world around him and then something came to him, surrounding him. What was it? An alien? That’s the song’s title, but I’m kind of partial to the idea that it’s a thought or an epiphany that came his way. Something about the way he says it reminds me of more of cognitive arrival rather than a physical arrival.

Perhaps the second half of the song can help decipher these thoughts. They speak of all he wanted, all he needed. And they talk of “you”: the person of interest this song is directed at. Taking a quick glance at these lyrics, I can figure out what’s going on here pretty quickly. The singer, out of a desire for emotional healing, fell in love. But because he’s held himself at a distance, the love was unrequited, an alien concept.

Huh, guess I did spend a decent chunk of time analyzing these lyrics after all.

Anyways, this is a beautiful song and all, but it just doesn’t truly capture me musically overall and the lyrics, while fun to analyze, aren’t my preference.

THYX – Roses (8.75): You may think that a song called Roses would be a love song. Roses are a quite romantic flower after all And Alien Love was most certainly a love song, so it would fit thematically in this area of the album. But nah, Alien Love was the odd one out. The only point where this song mentions Roses is one line in the outro that I’m having some slight difficulty deciphering. And I have no qualms about this switch from love song to existentialism. Likely because songs like this are a bit closer to my preference anyway. These themes are part of the reason THYX holds its own against Mind.in.a.box even without the narrative.

Plus, the music of THYX, while slightly different, is quite great too. This song goes all out for the funkiest Poiss tune I’ve ever heard. Usually the bassline is quite arp-focused though there are some exceptions. Usually those exceptions are longer distorted notes giving a sense of unease and tension. This exception is an exception to that pattern, for it instead goes for a groovy bassline that helps drive the song forward along with some syncopated drums (and I’ve established in previous reviews that I quite love me some syncopation).

And if that funky groove wasn’t enough to please my intrigued ear drums, there’s some great electric guitar for the last third of the song. Really brings the song to another new level as the funky bassline also switches up to a more dynamic level as the guitar moves from lengthy soaring notes to a quick melodic solo before the song fades out. I really love this combination and feel it wraps up the song nicely.

But not only is this song musically exceptional, there’s also some great lyrics here. Perhaps not as great as The Endless Journey, but it’s close enough in quality that the superior music is able to push this song over the edge to become the best on the album. Instead of going over every single aspect and question of life (man, the Endless Journey was dense), Roses focuses on a singular topic: the impossibility of perfection.

There is an overwhelming pressure and desire for perfection in modern society. Flaws are the enemy and just one mistake can ruin everything. And while a detrimental mistake could very well have a drastic effect on one’s life, most of the time, we worry about matters that can be a bit more trivial. Perfection is impossible, and yet, despite our worry of living an imperfect life, we’re still here, still standing, still living. Even when all plans seem to fail, that doesn’t mean its’s over. Get up, shake off the dust and rubble from the collapsing ideals and take on a new day.

If you base your happiness on perfection, then contentment will elude you forever.

THYX – Below the City (6.5): For our titular track, we start out with an acoustic guitar and a bassline. Typical relaxing intro for this album, though I do feel that the guitar does make this one stand out above the rest as it’s not just a bassline softly building up before the drive starts. The guitar plays its own melody providing a unique flavor to the song as the only other time an acoustic guitar is used is within Alien Love, and even then, that one was covered up by the piano with a singular melody. This guitar has a much more dynamic feel to it, not following any true pattern, but still naturally flowing with the rest of the song. It’s especially noticeable in the beginning but it makes a few other appearances throughout the rest of the track as well.

That guitar is definitely the show stealer of the track. Everything else is kind of run of the mill regular for this album, maybe a bit below average (which is above average overall but still). The bassline is a bit subtler than usual, allowing for an insanely smooth feel compared to some of the harsher tracks of the album. Whether or not this is a good thing is debatable, as it does mean that the bassline blends a bit much with the higher pitched arps and any semblance of ambience the song has. The guitar still stands out thankfully, but that’s about it.

The lyrics of Below the City are probably the most cryptic yet. It seems to be said from the point of view of some sort of artificial intelligence that longs to have a more human experience. And that’s an interesting concept, but it doesn’t really do much with it. At least nothing that really gives me anything not talk about other than that quick summary. Unless there’s some kind of cryptic message behind obsolete ladders that would change everything that this song represents. But as it is, I have no idea what that line means, and the rest of the song is unchanged because of it.

Honestly, this song is just kind of bland compared to much of Poiss’ stuff. The guitar does help, but there is so little substance here that the titular track honestly is the worst lyrical song of the album.

THYX – Timeless (5.75): And then there’s this one. For our last track of the album, we have Timeless (not to be confused with Timelessness, a Mind.in.a.box song that shan’t be reviewed until at least 2 months from now, maybe more depending on if I change my priorities). Timeless, unlike the rest of the album, has no lyrics. Or at least I think it doesn’t. It has vocals, but I can’t make out a single word, so lyrical analysis will be absent from this particular section of the review. It’s all about the music this time.

And what does this song have to offer? Unfortunately, not much. There’s some decent arps introduced at the beginning, though they do get somewhat covered up by the repetitive bassline as the song progresses. The vocals do help save this song a bit as they add some much-needed variety and melodic influence, but other than that, this is a very bland ending to an otherwise great album.

Conclusion: Poiss definitely picked up some momentum on this sophomore album for the THYX alias (though he already has 4 other Mind.in.a.box albums under his belt, but we’re not focusing on those right now). There were several songs on this album. Half of the songs on this album received 8/10s and higher. I’m a bit surprised as I expected that the lack of narrative would cause this to be a little lesser tha the albums off the main alias, but the songs here are so intensely introspective that it doesn’t even matter that the conflict between the Sleepwalkers and the Agency is currently swept to the sidelines. I still thoroughly enjoy this album.

Unfortunately, the album does dip a little bit in quality towards the end, with a couple of songs that pale in comparison to everything previously, somewhat hampering my experience. It would have been a little better if the album ended at Roses, but I’m not going to let the ending ruin my enjoyment of the other 8 songs on the album.

Final Score: (7.5/10)

May 5, 2019May 18, 2019

Aviators – Aeterno (2013 album)

Album links

Bandcamp: https://soundoftheaviators.bandcamp.com/album/aeterno

Soundcloud: n/a

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0tVYhReBmzpA81JproDO3W?si=uOELovmKRD2KTz-Sj93NLA

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuJ82PHklZE7xwcGeobnlHLLgnzAjyBbu

Introduction: Aviators is a bit of an interesting artist to review. The fact of the matter is that he’s developed his sound in such a way that what he produces now has absolutely nothing in common with where he started. Well, technically, this album isn’t his true beginning, but I’ve opted to skip the first bit of his discography for now as Aviators would probably disown them. I may look at those eventually, but I think time would be spent better going over the albums that actually matter at first.

Still, Aeterno is a bit of an odd place to begin the Aviators journey, as it’s an entirely unique concept album that shares little to no similarities with the other albums he’s released prior or since. The album is based on a vague story of sorts, much vaguer than Mind.in.a.box of course (the inevitable comparison I shall always make when introducing a narrative), but still involves some extremely subtle worldbuilding centering upon a post apocalyptic world. Unfortunately, there’s not too much to go off of thanks to 14 out of the 15 songs being instrumental. But I’m the master of digging deep even when there’s nowhere to dig so let’s get into that deep digging why don’t we?

Aviators – Aeterno (7.5): A time long forgotten or perhaps a time that is yet to come…

Any time is reachable now that we’ve arrived here…

And so, we begin…

The album starts out with its titular track, a calming mysterious piece that sets the tone for the rest of the album (as an intro song should). This song is a simple combination of a few bone chilling instruments including some deep contrabass strings, a distant choir and the melodic star of the show, bells. There’s only a handful of melodies in here, none of them reaching more than a handful of notes. But the simplicity does work. It draws more attention to the feelings the instruments create rather than the melody itself. Done well, it can be quite immersive, and this is definitely done well.

These bells, choir and strings work together to bring an image to life in my mind. Albeit, this image isn’t the liveliest. Perhaps, it’s the album art’s fault as it depicts a decrepit city that looks to have a higher population of overgrown plants rather than human beings. Then again, seeing as the album art is a deliberate choice, that was probably the intention. The very description of this album is post- apocalyptic. Perhaps time travel too? I believe there was a more in-depth description on this album’s story once, but the description has disappeared somehow, lost in time…

It makes sense that time travel would be involved as when I tried to find the definition of Aeterno, I found the phrase “ab aeterno” instead, meaning “from an infinitely remote point of time in the past.” And if you’re in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Going to an infinitely remote point of time in the past sounds like a good way to escape the horrors of the present…

Aviators – Escaping Darkness (7.25): As the world falls apart, darkness will surround and suffocate you…

Unless you escape…

Escaping Darkness begins with a very mysterious calm similar to Aeterno. However, this time the mysterious darkness chooses not to hide behind the beauty of bells. No, the ambience from the beginning, complete with broken glass, makes it clear that the darkness is settling in. And as the blasting horns overpower the song for that first minutes, they send a message that the darkness is here to stay.

The rest of the song tries to escape it anyway.

While the song doesn’t really have a regular tempo, it still has a great drive to it, a great sense of trying to run and escape the darkness that seeps across the land (or perhaps within the soul). There are drums in there, but they seem to be a of the more cinematic variety rather than the typical drive. Instead of displaying the BPM of running down dark alleys of a forgotten city, this drumbeat attempts to capture the emotional stress of it all. And matched with the first electronic melody of the album (with some underlying bells), the attempt is successful.

While there may be a short break from the darkness midway through, the chase can’t last forever. It seems that, for now, the darkness has won. There is no escape…

Aviators – Broken Planet (7): The planet is broken…

Can it be fixed?

Broken Planet is one of the shorter songs on the album, not even hitting the three-minute mark. Still, it uses its time well. This song is about on par with Escaping Darkness, better in some ways, but in the end, it’s just not quite as good. In the beginning, it hits a lot of the same emotions, but it does so in an ever better spine-chilling fashion. During the first and last minute of the song, there’s no audible instruments other than a very simple piano melody. However, the sound design of this piano is distorted ever so slightly that it allows for some really unsettling ambiance. In this album, Aviators seems obsessed with taking simple melodies and using them to the best of their ability. This part of the song allows for some quiet reflection, ears filled with something familiar, yet distorted to a point that’s almost unsettling.

The middle of the song takes a different approach to display this broken world. It’s a lot less subtle. The cinematic drumbeats here are quite similar to those used in Escaping Darkness, but there’s very little else to distract from the drums this time around. This results in a bit of a mixed bag. Out of context, the drum just doesn’t really hold the song on its own, making it one of the less interesting parts on the album. But it does provide a good rush to the middle of the song, giving it a slight bit of edge of your seat variety. I just can’t help but wonder if this track would have been better if it had fully committed to the creepy piano the whole way through. Still a good one, but I can’t help but feel it has missing potential.

Aviators – Labyrinthine (5.75): When all is lost…

It can be hard to find one’s way…

Labyrinthine differs heavily from what we’ve been presented with so far. The past three songs used a small number of simple instruments to provide a cinematic feeling that feels as if it belongs in a movie. Labyrinthine is DnB. Which is completely different from most of the songs on the album. But I’m perfectly ok with that. DnB used to be my favorite subgenre of EDM and it still remains to be up there, though perhaps various forms of trance have overtaken it since then. Plus, if you count futurepop, there’s that too. So yeah, DnB isn’t going to be my focus on this site too much. Still, I’m a huge fan of syncopation (staple characteristic of DnB) and high tempo energy (other staple characteristic of DnB) so most DnB tracks are an instant win for me.

This song seems to try and walk the thin line between an extreme high energy DnB song and the bell melodies played throughout the album so far. During the calmer sections and the build-ups, I feel this works alright, giving a nice balance of energies. But it doesn’t tickle my imagination like the rest of the songs so far and the drops aren’t exactly the most inspired. While I do automatically like DnB because of its tempo and syncopation, this song feels pretty below average for the genre. Making it only a bit above average as a song.

Having this be the first DnB song I review (again, surprising it’s taken this long), isn’t exactly the most glaring recommendation of the genre. It’s good but pales in comparison to some of the DnB masterpieces. It also pales in comparison to the next DnB song I plan on reviewing… later in this album. There’s another one but we’ll talk about that in a bit.

Aviators – Haunted (6.5): As the darkness creeps in…

As the broken past is revealed…

It haunts us…

Haunted is a return to the general calmer more introspective side of the album, which is incredibly refreshing after subpar DnB. And the strings and the arp at the beginning really sell the song quite well from the beginning. They develop quite nicely with the arp and a simple integrated melody taking the forefront for much of the song. Though there are a couple of moments where some other neat elements are introduced, such as the subtle whisper of vocals in the clam in the middle, which serves as my favorite part of the song, really bringing the entire song together for a driving haunted feel (fitting considering the title) And… uh… there’s the other melodic instrument.

Yeah, I sure hope you like that synth, because Aviators uses it a lot in his early works. Sometimes it works well, giving a song a bit of flavor. But the flavor doesn’t quite work or fit in here unfortunately and so I find myself ever so slightly irked by its existence. It’s not bad and it thankfully has a decent amount of variation to it so it’s in no way repetitive, but I just can’t help but feel the song would have been a bit stronger without it. Maybe shave off a couple minutes too so that missing variation doesn’t make the song tedious. Am I being nitpicky? Yeah. Probably. It is a decent song, but it could be a lot better.

Aviators – Find Me (7.5): A distance voice calls out…

Find her…

This calmer track is completely piano focused, taking the simplicity of early Aviators to an entire new level. There are some subtleties in there such as a bells and drums that almost blends in perfectly with the piano melody and a stringed section that adds another layer of beauty to the song. But nothing gets as much focus as the piano.

And seeing as the piano is a wonderfully beautiful instrument, the song is gorgeous. You’ve got some arpeggiated notes on the lower end of the piano that play throughout the song, serving as the gentle backbone of the track and those are paired with the melodies on the higher end of the piano. Not to mention the section in the middle and end of the track that focuses on bouncing back and forth between strikingly powerful chords and the calmer piano melodies as a contrast. All of the other instruments do get stronger as the song progresses, but they only serve to heighten the emotion of the piano, not overpower it. Such a simple track but also one of the best.

Aviators – Kill Switch (7.75): Reset what once was…

Kill the past…

Kill the future…

And begin anew…

Alright, back to the slightly harsher stuff. Not that much of this album has been very harsh at all for the most part. I guess perhaps Labyrinthine has some slightly harsher parts and the next track is quite intense as well, but that just makes this song stand out all the more as one of the most energetic songs on the album. It hits a great sweet spot in energy that differs greatly from previous calmer songs like Aeterno and Haunted, but it doesn’t quite reach the same levels of intensity as the DnB tracks of the album, Labyrinthine and Iron Horizon (I’ll get to that one shortly, give me a second). This fantastic balance makes it one of the best songs on the album.

So what does Kill Switch have to offer? Well, first off it has a solid drive, which is more than I can say for many of the other songs on the album. Not saying that (most of) those songs are bad because of their lack of solid drive. Some of the ones without that drive turn out to be the most beautiful (See Aeterno and Find Me). This one does have a nice outro that’s a bit more relaxing, but that’s not its strong point.

Its strong point is pushing forward with a handful of electronic synths. (wacky basslines, some stabbing melodies, you get the gist). There’s also some bells because it wouldn’t be a song on Aeterno if it didn’t have bells. These bells do a much better job at integrating themselves into a more intense song that Labyrinthine did, but I think the most interesting part of this song has to be the electric guitar, or at least the synth that simulates the electric guitar. I guess I’m just a sucker for a good guitar melody… or a good guitar riff… or a good guitar solo… You know what, I just like good guitar and good guitar is something that this song has.

Aviators – Iron Horizon (8): The City looms over the horizon…

Save it before it breaks…

Kill Switch was definitely intense compared to most of this album. Most. Because there is one song that takes the mantle of the most intense energetic song of them all. And that song is Iron Horizon, the second DnB song of the album and the first song off of Aeterno that I heard. And while I didn’t really appreciate Labyrinthine, I do find Iron Horizon to be a much better introduction to my love for DnB. Sure, it’s not the first DnB song I’m reviewing, but it is the first DnB song I love.

Already talked about the high tempo and syncopation back in Labyrinthine. Those go without saying so I’m going to try and focus on the more unique elements of the song. After a few seconds of deceptively calming bell melodies that high tempo syncopation I keep talking about comes in and sets the song into full force (Ok, I guess I am talking about the high tempo syncopation. So sue me). Or at least that would be full force, but the song is once again deceptive as the build-up approaches with rapid drumbeats, some subtle guitar work in the background and the heaviest bass this album has to offer.

After that there’s the drop. And I have both everything and nothing to say about this drop. The basslines here are exceptionally impressive and intense compared to what was seen in labyrinthine. The melodies are exceptionally and enjoyably energetic which matches the upbeat vibe a lot better than most of the bell melodies in Labyrinthine. And the second half of the drop? The part where it’s constantly bouncing back and forth between half of that energetic melody and a showcase of some great bassy DnB patterns? Absolutely fantastic.

Honestly, I’m pretty sure the main difference between this and Labyrinthine is that Labyrinthine just didn’t fully commit to the DnB madness. It was still trying to hold on to tightly to the calmer vibes that appear throughout a huge portion of this album. Iron Horizon still has bells and all, but there is nothing calm and relaxing about it. Perhaps the beginning and end are a bit calmer, but that’s a total of about 20 seconds of calmness compared to over 3 and a half minutes of high energy DnB. It’s just some bookends that serve as a reminder that this is still Aeterno.

Aviators – I’ll Find You (5): She holds the key…

The key to change the past…

The key to change the future…

Find her…

I have to presume, based on title, that this is a sequel to Find Me. An answer to the call of the search. It would have been rather neat to see if the two songs shared any similarities, but unfortunately, it sounds to be nothing more than the next chapter in this incredibly vague story about time travel. There used to be more information out there on the story behind the EP, but I can’t seem to find it currently, or maybe it just never existed, and my brother and I are both remembering something that doesn’t exist. Doesn’t seem likely but my imagination continues telling me it’s a possibility so I’m going to keep that in mind.

Narrative aside, this song feels incredibly relaxing compared to the Iron Horizon that preceded it. Slower melodies, no prominent bassline, a long progression that takes its time going anywhere. Unfortunately, the problem with that last one is that the song doesn’t go anywhere. Sure there’s a few new elements introduced here and there, but many of them are too subtle to take note of and any significant addition is too far apart from the rest. It’s a bit faster in the beginning as it introduces the one of main melodies and a drumbeat (which still takes 2 minutes to come in, excessively long for a song of this stature), but after that, it just feels like the song takes forever to move from one point to the next. There are some other important melodies that come in here and there (the main theme of the song at 3:30 and a reiteration of the first melody with an all too obvious synthesizer that tries to sound like a guitar pluck but just fails at it spectacularly), but it seems Aviators is determined to prevent any significant changes from occurring within one minute of each other. It certainly does not meet the standards of variety for such a long 8-minute track

And as if the song wasn’t long enough, there’s a Part 2

Aviators & Vortex – I’ll Find You Part 2 (7): …

…

Find her…

I am actually quite glad that this track got divided up into 2 parts. Because Part 2 takes all the melodies that made the first part good and plays a few different spins on them with different instrumentation and tone. Plus, there’s a few entirely new melodies inserted in there as well. It may be two minutes shorter, but there’s plenty more variety to be offer. There are some obvious directions this song decides to go. Plenty of reiterations of the past song’s melodies of course. And also, Aviators has to use that iconic synth from his early works in here (plenty of melodic variety whenever they’re playing. There’s also an interesting bassline in the middle that interrupts the song in the middle with a harsher vibe similar to some moments in Kill Switch.

I’m not entirely familiar with Vortex and his work so I’m sure some part of this final product can be accredited to him. I’m going to guess that bassier portion has his name on it, but I’m not certain. Like I said, I’m not familiar with his work.

Honestly if you cut the first part down to three minutes and made a good transition into this second part, I think I would have liked the combination of these two songs all the better because of it. But as is, Part 2 definitely serves to be the better of the two.

Aviators – Cloud Ocean (5): Dive into the depths below…

Rise into the sky above…

Either direction leads to the unknown…

But must you only choose one?

Cloud Ocean is the happiest song this album has to offer. That also makes it perhaps the most boring along with I’ll Find You and one other track which I haven’t gotten to quite yet. Maybe, it’s just because I’m a sucker for the edgier stuff. Takes a bit more interesting elements to make a happier song like this one… well… interesting. And for the most part, I’m afraid this one fails to do so. Much of the song concentrates on the least adventurous strings possible and a tropical melody that falls flat. There are some guitar sections that make up a bit for the blandness, but those are still subtle, and they certainly don’t save the song from its curse of averageness.

Aviators – His Arrival (7.25): He has found you…

The one responsible for it all…

Change him…

Change the world…

Perhaps one of the simplest songs on the album but also perhaps one of the most chilling as well. But that’s simply what a music box does. There’s something unsettling about placing such a simple pretty melody within the dark ambiance that this track contains. The two overlapping melodies that come from this music box overlap each other quite beautifully. This song isn’t just a music box though. I didn’t notice it at first, but in the second half of the track there’s some great ambience added in. It’s very subtle at first, but it does become a bit more prominent over time, especially at the 1.5-minute mark when the strings take over. It also sounds like there’s a didgeridoo in there which really gives a unique vibe to the song. Overall, I feel this song works great as the creepiest song of the album despite its simplicity. Maybe because of its simplicity.

Aviators – The Ticketmaster’s Waltz (4.25): …

I’m not going to even bother trying to connect this one to the story. I mean, I’ve been trying to do my best to give a slight taste of what the concept of the album is about, even if it’s a bit of a stretch sometimes (see the last song), but hey, the concept is slightly vague so I’ll be slightly vague too. Except here. I have no idea how the Ticketmaster and his Waltz fit into all of this and I’m not sure if even my stretchy imagination can figure out a connection. It just feels out of place.

And I’m not really interested in the music either. Like His Arrival, this one devotes itself to an instrumental theme. But His Arrival had the advantage of using a creepy music box, an aesthetic I highly enjoy. This song is a creepy carnival, an aesthetic that I don’t really care about. Besides, the ghostly voices are much less creepy than the music box, so this song just comparatively falls flat. This album would have been a bit better off if this song was skipped over.

That’s all I have to say. Really. There’s nothing else.

Aviators – The Path Home (7.75): Change is inevitable…

Embrace it…

Move forward…

Find peace…

Find home…

This song definitely stands out as the only lyrical song of the album. And because of that, the song feels the most dated of the bunch of the album. Aviators’ voice has developed and improved over time, which is good because in a modern album the song without vocals would be the outlier (plus I like some of his modern vocal tracks. A good amount of them have great lyrics, not all of them but a good lot of them).

But that’s the future in comparison to this album. A time that had been yet to come in perspective of the past. But hey, the connection to past and future is what this album is all about anyway. That’s obviously not Aviators’ intention for including a vocal track this time around, but I’m mentioning it anyway.

The music here is a bit simple compared to most of the album, though not quite as simple as the last two. It’s fine because this is a lyrical track and the vocals carry the slack from the instrumental. Thank goodness, because the instrumental simply wouldn’t hold this song on its own. The minimalism worked fantastically for His Arrival, but this song is an entirely different animal. Where, His Arrival was instrumentally minimal, The Path Home is melodically minimal. Sure, there are a couple simple melodies at the beginning, end, and any other point where Aviators is silent. But they don’t provide much power compared to the chords throughout the rest of the song (heard almost exclusively during the vocal portions, especially the chorus). There are a few other melodies here and there using Aviators’ favorite synth or a slightly textural bass, but nothing too remarkable. It’s an adequate song, but nothing spectacular.

Thankfully, there’s lyrics. Don’t really think there’s too much here for me to analyze, but there is still a good message here about moving forward through the chaos. The first verse explores the paralysis one feels when viewing the chaos in this world. The easy path of numbly walking with the path of least resistance. But by the end of the second verse, it’s clear that the path of least resistance doesn’t necessarily end in peace. Sometimes you have to rise up and change your path, taking a risk to venture onto the rugged path.

The path home.

Aviators – Absolution (7.75): Everything must come to an end…

This is ours…

The final song of Aviators’ album is the most orchestral of the bunch, a fitting conclusion. What makes this song so great is the use of so many instruments that have been used throughout this album. The strings immediately give the signal that something grand is coming, be it grand in a victorious way or grand in a horrifying way is unclear. The song does seem to continue shifting back and forth between those moods as the strings dip down at certain points while also climbing to new heights at other points.

The drums, important to most songs (though His Arrival did quite well without them), aren’t necessarily unique, but they do have that irregular tempo that appeared in many of the earlier songs of the album so they’re worth mentioning.

The bells, Aviators favorite instrument for this album (not of this time period. The Aviators synth is strangely absent here, but that’s ok, I’m not sure it would fit) also make an appearance. They chime along with the song’s suspenseful tempo, painting a picture of the world changing as intended.

There’s also some piano, which was mostly prominent in Find Me. The piano once again provides a variety of melodies while it is present in the song, adding a healthy amount of variation in its stay, interesting seeing as the introduction of the piano was a service to variation already. It definitely steals the show in its beautiful sections (in an already beautiful song, so you know it’s exceptional).

Equally as beautiful is the choir that first made an appearance in the titular song at the beginning of the album. Here, the voices are stronger than ever, providing an extra layer of beauty to the track.

Altogether, Absolution wraps up this collection of songs quite wonderfully. And yet… I can’t help but feel there’s something more. This song builds towards an event undiscovered. The story continues on beyond what we see here. What happens next is unknown. The future is unknown. The story never ends. Just the chapters we can see.

For now, Absolution is the culmination of everything we’ve heard so far. Absolution is the end.

For now…

Conclusion: Overall, Aeterno is an interesting concept album with a great variety of songs ranging from simplistic music boxes to suspenseful cinematic pieces to some great intense DnB. Not every son is a winner, but many of them are at least well above average, meaning that my rating is well above average.

One thing that I want to mention is the possible future this album might hold. I know that I’m basically becoming a third hand source, but my brother told me that Aviators mentioned on a livestream that he’d like to remake this album. So whether or not I’m displaying reliable intel is possibly questionable but I’ve got some solid confidence in my brother so I’m going to believe it’s true. The question is when.

Final Score: (6.75/10)

April 20, 2019April 21, 2019

THYX – The Way Home (2011 album)

Album links

Bandcamp: n/a

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thyxmusic/sets/the-way-home-5

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0jqzq1zmNqeqgp5EPAetfF?si=bwrhPyAXSaG-t-WPMDv2Rw

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUzWpLoCPvTdb8vHEcrnwQh9LFcsmJJjo

Í̶̢̮͇̟͕̫̹̹̔͑̍̿͑n̷̡̜̘̮̠͚̺̫̭̼͉̓͌̓͑̓̉̕t̸̨̢̬͈͍̗͕̥̟͓̅̉̀̽̂͌̊͂͘̕͝r̵̨͙̟͖̜̪͖͖̿͑̾̈͌͗͑̍̒̿͆͛ó̸̺̖̠̱̀͛̒̿̕͠d̴̬̦̀u̷̢̨̫̠͍̜̯͎̯̠̽͌͐́͜ͅc̸̛̯̋̿̎̀̈́͆̒͊̀̚͝t̵͉͓̳̅į̴̛̹̱͎̪͎͕͉͓̲͚̥͎̱̅̏̀͗̕͝ò̷̢̮͖͓̻̈́͆́́̈͒͒̆̈́͊͝͠n̸̗̼͓̦͕̱̳̾:̶̧͉̳̪̟̝̳͚̯̅̀͌̕ͅ

L̸a̷s̶t̴ ̸t̸i̵m̸e̸ ̴o̸n̶ ̷T̴h̴y̶x̶:̵ Ẁ̷͙ả̵̠i̸̳͌ṱ̷́ ̵͓̦̍͝a̴̖̋͠ ̴̝̀s̴͔̀̓e̷͕͔̐c̵̨͗̄o̸̼̪̒n̶̙̈̓d̷̮̿ ̷͕̓w̶̺͕͒̽h̶̜͂y̶̤̗͊̍ ̴̦̌͗a̴͕͒̔m̶͉̑ ̵̘̈̈́Ï̸̛͚ ̷̛̭͔͘d̶͎͌̀o̶̻̍͘ȋ̸̧͓n̸̠̂̆g̷͇͋ͅ ̷̞͚́̄t̶̜̿͊h̸̨̪̔̀ĩ̵̘̘s̷̤̪͑?̶͇̆̈́ ̷͖̐͛ I̵̝̝̳͙̒͊̕͘ ̸̑̃ͅh̷͙̩̊à̶̜̜̱̲̀v̶̘̙͗e̵͉̥͇̳͝n̴̝͌’̵̯̺̩͕́̚t̴͉͈̀̒̓̓ ̷̱̎ṛ̶̤̦͆̂̚e̶̖̾͝v̵͕͍͚͈͘ǐ̶̺̈̏̕e̴̙̎͝w̶͉͉̌e̵̺̲̖̘͑̇d̶̘̩̥͌͝ ̶̞͙͉́Ț̶̪̮̘͘̚h̵̲̪͐̀̐͗y̴̧͗̕ẋ̵̢̞̤͂̆ ̷͖͉̖̒̌͗̕b̷͇̲̜̆e̷͙̤̓͘f̴̢͓̮͂̍́ͅo̶̖̫͕͕̓͂́͠r̶̢̬̞̫͑̒̕ḛ̶̀̔̌…̶̟̻͎̓̂ ̴͔̺̦́͒͘ t̸̲͕̖̪̰̳͒̏͌̄̀͋ḧ̴̪̹̝̌̎͑̊ḙ̵̠̈́̂͘r̷̨̫͉̙̮̰̓̊͂̓͠e̸̪̝͇̼̥͋͂̉ ̵̧̻̬̺͐ǐ̶̹͔̏̑͛ṡ̶̭͗ ̴̝͙̪͒̽͆̐͛͑ǹ̷͉̫̦̮͚̄͜ó̴̲̋̿̃̈́̈́ ̶̹̟̜̙̤̺̐̆̈́̀͘l̸̡͈̘̥̲͒̓̈́̓̀̚͜ä̴́̈́̀͜s̷̲̾͘̚ţ̷̡̡̤̣͔̈́̉̆ ̷̢͕̥̱͋͐͊͑̄t̸̜̗̟̺̟͋̔ì̶̡̬̖̠̦͇̉m̵̨̦̥̱̓͝ė̷̢͈͈̟͖̜̈́͑̀̾̚…̴̟̟̘̠̦̫̚

Introduction: THYX isn’t a new artist. The name is new yes. You’ve never seen it on this site before. But I started reviewing the man behind this name all the way back in early January. Perhaps the whole introduction/last time/introduction bait and switch at the beginning of this review has keyed you in on exactly where this alternate alias comes from. It’s Mind.in.a.box, the artist behind the narrative of Black getting caught in the struggle between White’s Stalkers and The Friend’s Sleepwalkers.

But as established in the last Mind.in.a.box review, Stefan Poiss hasn’t devoted all of his time to the Mind.in.a.box narrative. After the singular non-canon album that is R.E.T.R.O., Poiss decided to create an entirely new alias for the songs that don’t quite fit into the story. Boasting four albums so far, the THYX discography is a neat little side project that I really haven’t spent enough time listening to.

Of course, since reviewing these albums requires me to listen to many of these song on loop for a extended periods of time, that may be about to change.

THYX – Spoil (7): Now then, I’m not going to avoid comparing this to Mind.in.a.box. Such comparisons would be inevitable and it’s only right to highlight a few nuanced differences between the two sides of Poiss. There is a lot of overlap seeing as their source is the same. The vocals are no different from what I’d expect from Black’s story. Perhaps a bit cleaner in tone, but it’s clear that the man behind the mic is still Stefan and he still expresses many of the same existential themes in his lyrics (more on that later). The music also still has a huge focus on arps that reflect a technological soundscape. This song in particular has some great guitar riffs that are in no way foreign to Mind.in.a.box. Just take a look at Machine Run and every song related to it by using the same riff pattern.

Unfortunately, from a reviewing standpoint, any differences between the two aliases are a bit too subtle for me to be sure how to describe them. The sound is, from what I can tell, a slight bit cleaner than most of the Mind.in.a.box songs. Oh yeah, there’s still some grit there. The drumbeat is actually above average grit for Mind.in.a.box despite the rest of the song being a bit on the chiller side. And there’s a bit more variety in that drumbeat as well, constantly switching between half-time, four on four and syncopation not keep anyone listening on their toes. Other than that, it’s just the usual fantastic technological soundscape I love.

The lyrics in this one are a bit tricky. There’s the chant of either “Get to me” or Come to me” for starters. I’m not sure which one it is, but I’m pretty sure there’s very little difference from the meaning of the end result so it works. The rest of the lyrics, however, speak of spoiling… something. Someone somewhere screwed up and brought another person to fall. There’s some implied regret in there, but honestly, it’s kind of tricky to visualize the scene that’s painted here.

Song still sounds good though so there’s that.

THYX – My Own Little World (8.5): I must say that as far as the music goes, this reminds me more of R.E.T.R.O. than canon Mind.in.a.box. There’s no connection to any Commodore 64 games and an entirely modern tone to it, but the bassline seems to remind me more of R.E.T.R.O. than the other 6 albums in the Mind.in.a.box discography. The bassline is especially responsible. Mind.in.a.box seems to tend towards incredibly fast arps for its bass or slower smoother basslines for its calmer tracks. This one appears halfway between, somewhat similarly to all of the video game covers from R.E.T.R.O. Either way, the bassline is only really relevant near the beginning of the song. I barely notice it later on as it takes a backseat to everything else.

Everything else has some decent development to it as every instrument intensifies as it goes on. The drumbeat starts off rather calmly with a few beats here and there, but by the end of the song, it has a strong prominent syncopated pattern. Not overwhelmingly energetic but still stronger than where it began. Also, the main melodic instrument of this song, I mistook for a simple ambient element, but by the end of the song, it morphs into a full-on guitar solo (less energetic than most, but still much more powerful). Even the vocals start with a whisper and end in a passionate cry.

And those vocals tell a fantastically relatable story. Not an overwhelming narrative story as in the other alias, but instead focuses more on the themes of Black’s journey without delving into the specifics of the Agency and the Sleepwalkers and everything else my favorite artist throws at us. Think of this song as an accompaniment to the themes of Machine Run and Redefined, though not nearly as powerful as the connection between those two greatly heighten my enjoyment. Plus, it’s focused more on the isolated sense of self one has in a crowd full of people. In my experience, the overwhelming pressures of society often cause me to keel under my own suffocated desires and isolate myself into any form of escapism I can. It’s the easy way out, but it’s not the healthy way out.

I too desire to renounce my habit of isolation that only poisons me slowly as I shut out even the projects I value (like this blog I find myself procrastinating on too often). I too, desire to change.

THYX – The Way Home (6.25): Titular track! Let’s take a look…

The last two songs had rather harsh beginnings. Gritty drums. Strong basslines. This song however opts for something calmer. One echoing simple melody. A mysterious way to start this song for the first 15 seconds before getting that bassline (and technological arp of course) introduced. Unfortunately, from there, the song doesn’t go through too many changes. It definitely sounds good, but instead of morphing over the impressive seven-minute duration, the song is really just easily divided into two sections. The first half being the upbeat 4 on 4 section (which I already just described) and the second half being a slower paced calmer vibe where the vocals serve as the main highlight. The second half is an appreciated change in pace, but it isn’t especially musically remarkable, and it doesn’t provide quite enough variety to justify the seven minutes.

The lyrics that those vocals present to us though, are incredibly cryptic and all too difficult decipher. I really wanted to try and scrounge up a meaning, but it all seems to be some sort of hallucination or dream (web?). There are some mentions of destiny and the world passing by which are neat concepts that are explored better elsewhere. But there’s no real narrative or message between them here so I guess we’ll move on.

THYX – Underdive (8.5): Kicking the album back into overdrive, we have the song titled Underdrive (don’t ask questions, just go with it).

Underdrive marks one of our peak for upbeat on this album. There are a few others that are fantastically upbeat too, but there’s only one that comes even close (which I’ll obviously talk about later. but this one does serve as one of the most energetic outings of THYX’s debut. There’s an incredibly solid kicking pulsing from beginning to end without a break. It doesn’t really tire though as the rest of the song provides plenty of variety (including a snare to keep the drumbeat bit more interesting). Plus, Poiss adds some signature arps which only increases that drive to new levels thanks to the rapid progressions. There’s also a bassline in there that’s a bit interesting, but it doesn’t really contribute to the drive of Underdrive so I’m going to pretend it’s irrelevant (my excuse for not having much to say about it other than it’s interesting).

So, the music is nice and simple. Easy to sum up and yet quite solid. Are the lyrics equally simple? Well they certainly aren’t as cryptic as The Way Home, so they’re at least simpler to look through. However, that does mean I actually have more to talk about seeing as there’s some actual meaning to this one. This soul-baring track is all about delving deep into one’s own soul. Trying to make sense of the inner workings of one’s mind while also making sure to keep a hold on the outside world. You can dive deep into the unknown soul for some time but you must always come up for air by finding what’s real. The journey of self-discover never truly ends and it’s important to keep a level head throughout.

Oh and one last odd thing to mention is how sometimes when Poiss sings “Back on track” it sounds like he’s bleating like a sheep. This doesn’t really affect my rating of the song in the way. I just find it to be amusing.

THYX – Black Hole (7.5): Following the incredibly driving song known as Underdrive, we have a song named after the enigmatic black hole, an area in space that bends reality to a point where its gravitational force sucks in everything around it, including light itself. Obviously, such an intense unrelenting object from beyond the stars would be one of the most intense song on the album, right?

Well, as Underdrive has shown, titles can be deceiving. Black Hole is actually one of the slowest and least energetic songs of the album. Compared to the last song, every melody and drumbeat here is progressing at a crawling speed. Looking at the arp alone, you can easily hear the beginning and end of each note. But that still doesn’t prevent the chord progression from moving smoothly from chord to chord. This arp takes the brunt of the music in this song alongside some soothing pads and a drumbeat that joins the song halfway through. These drums do give the song a slight bit more of a drive, but it’s still incredibly slow paced compared to the rest of the album.

However, while the tempo doesn’t fit the title Black Hole, the song isn’t fully false advertising. A Black hole isn’t just defined by a dead star that bends reality with its own gravity. It’s also a void of complete and utter darkness. And these lyrics are the bleakest this album has to offer. Even the vocals themselves sound as if the singer (almost said Black but had to remind myself this isn’t in any way canon to that auditory universe) has completely given up hope. And the lyrics? Even bleaker. Black Hole is about regret and the inevitability of failure. It declares life to be dark, cold and hopeless. And yet, somehow as the song closes, there’s one last bit of false advertising. “Together we will find another place… I will bring us home.” Hope may seem lost at certain points in life, but sometimes one just needs to move forward to find a new place to find peace. There is always hope.

THYX – Awesome (6.5): Continuing with the trend of false advertising, we have Awesome. Awesome isn’t awesome. Oh, it’s not a bad song, but it doesn’t really stand out in the slightest. Really just run of the mill for the album. Solid drumbeat. Good bassline to accompany that drive. And a melody to add a little bit of flavor to the rest. Overall, the song is pretty groovy. Not much variation, but the song is short enough that it doesn’t matter. Plus, it has some great robotic vocals that allow it to stand out among the other songs (which mostly use cleaner vocals).

The lyrics are a bit odd though. Poiss keeps on switching between three different vocal sections. The first is a conversation two robots have between themselves on how awesome the song is. I personally find awesome to be a stronger adjective than necessary, but these robots don’t think it’s strong enough, so they make sure to strengthen that adjective with some choice intensifiers that cause this song to be labeled explicit. Probably the most amusing of the three lyrical sections.

The second vocal section I hesitate to call lyrical, because it sounds like it’s made entirely of chopped up vocals so that they can be used as more of an instrument rather than a vehicle for words. Or maybe there are lyrics in this part too… I can’t make them out… and no matter where I search, I can’t find any sources that give me a hint of what could possibly be said.

The cleaner vocal section is a bit clearer though it really just sounds like the singer just wants to be told whatever it is that he wants to hear. Apparently what he wants to hear is endless ramblings on how this song is awesome. Oh… and he also wants poison… ok…

This song is not awesome but it’s good enough

THYX – Snow in July (8.25): Ok, not false advertising really, but it doesn’t snow in July. Or at least it shouldn’t. But it snows in April up here in Wisconsin so hey it’s a possibility. An unwanted possibility but a possibility, nonetheless. As far as I can tell, snow in July is an inconsequential concept to this song other than in title so hey maybe it is false advertising in a way. Not sure what it was advertising, but I don’t think we got it.

Snow in July is one of the most enjoyable songs to listen to on this album. It’s got plenty to offer and plenty to love. The variety in this song stems from how it becomes more powerful over time. It’s not quite as dynamic as My Own Little World, but still notable. The intro probably has the most rapid change as it starts out quite completely calm with the bass and the vocals echoing in the distance. But as time goes one, the drumbeat draws the vocals and bass closer together, reaching a passionate high as the singer (again, not Black, old habits die hard) declares he’s not better than the rest. From there, the song continues to build more as it introduced more melodies, more syncopated drum patterns and the most technological vibe in the album (or at least I find it to be the closest to the usual Mind.in.a.box style)

Oh and before I go on to the lyrics, I wanted to make sure I mentioned how much I adore the way the Poiss pushes the upper limits of his vocal range. I think I’d mentioned this in a previous review but a sudden increase in pitch in male vocals makes a song incredibly enjoyable to sign along to. They’re challenging their vocal range, so perhaps I shall too.

While the music is definitely enjoyable, I find the lyrics to be a bit iffy. Oddly, when I was first listening to this song while preparing for this review, I had the impression that this song was about finding your place in society as you reach your goals, making this one of the more inspiring songs of the album. I was partly right. Yes, there are glimpses of the inspiring aspects I mentioned (which was probably what threw me off), but there is an unfulfilled tone to it all. Yes, goals have been reached, but immediately after he claims that nothing has improved and nothing matters. He’s just another face in the crowd no better than anyone else. You know. Typical existential despair.

THYX – In the Past (7.25): Really not going to spend too long talking about the music this time. It’s a rather simple song with medium tempo and a nice groovy arp and the occasional guitar riff. Plus, it has a decent melody at the end that reminds me of classic Aviators (who you probably don’t know but I plan on reviewing him next week, so you’ll know soon). That’s pretty much it. Really not much variety in this one. That’s fine though. At least it’s not overwhelmingly long

Plus, we’ve got lyrics to make the song a bit more interesting. This song is a bit of a grab bag. The song starts and ends with themes of misplaced anger, a man wanting vengeance and yet no knowing why. He’s forgotten a piece of his past I guess (strangely similar to the Mind.in.a.box universe, but again, this stuff isn’t canon). There’s also a few lyrics in the middle of the song that reflect more on the isolation that was introduced in My Own Little World. And for a fourth theme, Poiss’ favorite theme, we have change, escaping the monotony and trying to find a way to move on to the next chapter in life. Change will happen, but it’ll happen more quickly if you work for it before the doors close around you.

This song has a lot of great ideas as you can see, but it’s so eclectic that I feel it would be a bit better if there was more focus. Thankfully, there’s plenty of other songs in this album and the Mind.in.a.box discography that do a lot better

THYX – Into the Realm (8.25): Into the Past, Into the Realm. Regardless of the song, we’re going in.

This song’s calmness rivals the relaxation of Black Hole, spending much of its time devoted to the ambient chords and a simple drumbeat and bassline. None of it is intrusive, but for the first bit of the song, none of it significant either. I actually don’t care much about the music of this song until after it breaks the mold of being relaxing. Around one and a half minutes, the song quits rivaling Black Hole with its utter relaxation and offers up a more upbeat chorus. The song still uses a rather medium tempo with only a tiny bit of syncopation, but it’s enough to break the silence it once shared with Black Hole. The song still remains relatively chill though. Just not the chilliest it could be.

And that’s fine. My opinion of Into the Realm is mostly about lyrics anyway. This song rivals Black Hole in another way by diving into some extremely bleak themes and ideas. And this time around, Into the Realm wins (Black Hole isn’t the darkest song on the album? False advertising!). Like a few of the other songs I’ve gone over in this album. Into the Realm is about isolation. But this song is the most broken of the bunch. The whole song is apathetic to existence, tortured by the monotony, trapped in an undesirable place in one’s life, and closing the entire world out, suffering alone…

This song is the darkest I can go without spilling over into overly edgy Ashbury Heights territory. And these days, it’s hitting me a bit too close right now.

THYX – No Voices (8.25): Just as Into the Realm attempted to rival Black Holes in its calmness. No Voices attempt to rival Underdrive in its intense drive. It’s not completely upbeat during the entire song, but that doesn’t prevent it from winning the battle. Not only is the BPM faster i ngeneral, there are several elements to this song that reach heights of speed that make them sound slower than they really are. Makes sense? Probably not, but maybe I need to be more specific. Look at the arp. It may be difficult to notice it’s there at the points, not only because nearly everything else is so loud, but because the notes play so undeniably quick. The song is already at 160 BPM as it is. And seeing as the arps sound like they’re made completely of sixteenth notes, that means that the arp is at a speed of 640 BPM. Not to mention the hats, which when present also seem to blend in with each other due to their speed.

Other than the insane breakneck speed this song has, there’s some other elements that make the song stand out among the rest. The song sounds the most experimental overall, as many if the instruments sound crushed and glitched. The bassline is quite odd from the beginning, as it sounds like it’s made of several layers of overly distorted noise, though hit does so in a way, that is strangely pleasant to my ears. There’s some synths that reach a pitch that could very nearly be piercing, but they barely skim the upper limits without breaking the painful threshold for me. The chord progression is rather simple, as it simply climbs upwards repeating the same four chords again and again, but it really adds to the intensity to the track. And lastly, the lyrics are repetitive, but the vocals are not as it sounds like every iteration of “No voices in my brain” has a different tone to it. It’s all unique and it all works.

No voices in my brain. Sounds like a good thing to me. Don’t know about you, but if there were voices in my brain, I’d find that a little bit horrifying, especially because in many narratives, voices that intrude on one’s brain tend to be of the malicious variety. I guess, if it was a friendly voice that just spoke nonchalantly of pleasant things, some of them being direct encouragement and others being just general fun things that the voice was interested in, I’d be totally into the company. A shame that this song implies that such a voice isn’t there. It certainly isn’t there in my life. Or maybe the voice is more subtle. What if the voices refer to thoughts themselves, the internal train of though in which we speak to ourselves in our head: neutral voice that sometimes ends up positive, sometimes ends up negative, but most importantly, the voice that truly represents our own true identity.

I don’t want to lose those voices…

THYX – Crack It (6): The conclusion of this album is kind of underwhelming. It’s not bad, but it also pales in comparison to many of the other songs, especially because the second half of the album is quite high quality. I guess part of it has to do with the fact that there’s no lyrical content to rely on, yeah there are vocals, but all of it is chopped up and nonlyrical, so there’s no unique message that could possibly heighten my experience. However, I guess that does serve to make this song a bit more unique. That’s really all the song has to offer though. The rest is rather unremarkable. It’s slow but not relaxing. It’s absolutely repetitive. And it takes way too long to fade out in the end.

Honestly that’s all I have to say on this song though. Bit of a lame ending in comparison to what preceded it, but they can’t all be winners.

Conclusion: The Way Home was quite an interesting album to review as I went in here completely blind (just haven’t found the time to listen to THYX for some reason despite being aware of the alias). Overall, I do enjoy the divergence from Mind.in.a.box. It has a slightly different feeling than Mind.in.a.box as this album did not stray from the technological instruments in the slightest, while Mind.in.a.box has been consistently using pianos and guitars. I do miss the narrative and that is part of what’s preventing this album from being solid like the Mind.in.a.box albums I reviewed, but it’s still a well-enjoyed experience.

Final Score: (7.5/10)

April 12, 2019April 12, 2019

Infected Mushroom – Converting Vegetarians (2003 album) pt 2/2

Part 2 – Other Side

Album links

Bandcamp: n/a

Soundcloud (Other Side only): https://soundcloud.com/infectedmushroom/sets/converting-vegetarians-the

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3LbcBylGvC80f5OTeQaVuM?si=DRj2Ry1zQ1qfIxNXrcvF9A

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL718C82948CE653CE

Introduction: Alright! Time for the Converting Vegetarians review part 2! Not to be confused with the Converted Vegetarians part 2 review. That comes much later.

Anyways, we’re in for something a little different today. Last week was all psytrance so it felt a lot like one of the other Infected Mushroom albums I reviewed. The other half of the album however… the other side… It’s absolutely completely different. I guess I’ll let the music do the talking. I’d written the first half of this reviews if I’d release it all at once along with the Trance Side but that didn’t happen. So let’s just dive right in and let my words on the song, Converting Vegetarians tell you about the album, Converting Vegetarians.

Infected Mushroom – Converting Vegetarians (7.5): When the titular song of this album introduces itself, it ends up slightly jarring. The first ten songs all shared a common theme and together formed the “Trance Side” of the album. The “Other Side” has no theme to it. Unless you count the perpetual state of being odd in general to be a theme. Because a healthy portion of these songs are simply odd. Even if this was how the album began without over an hour of trance setting a precedent, the song is such a strange mixture of textural instruments and distorted vocals, that the majority of listeners might be initially put off by the vibes that Infected Mushroom is introducing in this album

I, however, love it.

I’m all for variety and this song definitely delivers on that front. There is such an interesting variety of carefully placed chaotic patterns to keep the song fresh and engaging throughout. Instead of catering to the psytrance side that Infected Mushroom has been known for up to this point, this song explores every corner of Infected Mushroom’s sound design, deconstructs it and reconstructs it into something new. The song takes on a slower pace with plentiful basslines, some a little too screechy (only true negative of the song in my opinion) and others that have a very deep unique groove. My favorite instruments in the song have to be the fully vocal ones though. The broken scatsinging in the background as well as the various voices used to display these lyrics (ranging from calm and slightly distorted to a cleaner voice belting out the lyrics without concern of losing his voice).

Those lyrics though… Oh boy do I have some lyrics to decipher. I mean, the likely goal of this song was to make a statement that the two of them aren’t limiting themselves to just the one genre any more. They shan’t sell out and give the people exactly what they want and expect, but instead explore other areas of their soundscape. It’s a song about transformation. And those that had been solely consuming their psytrance shallf be converted from their vegetarian diet (apparently psytrance contains no meat), to larger variety of genres (some of which is likely steak, I would like some steak right now, thanks).

However, I do find the mention that they’ve been converting these vegetarians since 1996 to be rather odd. If you remember back in my first review on this site, their first album dropped in 1999. Previous to that, they did release a song on a compilation 1998, but that’s still not back in 1996? What could have happened in 1996? I was born in 1996… Perhaps my meat looks so succulent that any vegetarian that looks at me suddenly wants to eat meat… Cook me up and take bite after bite of my flesh…

Oh wait. Erez and Duvdev started making music in 1996… They just weren’t Infected Mushroom at the time. Thank Wikipedia for easing my fears of sudden cannibals gazing hungrily at me (please don’t eat me).

Infected Mushroom – Elation Station (6.75): As we move deeper into the Other Side of the album, we’re met with many of the most relaxing tracks in the entire Infected Mushroom discography. Up until this point, most of the discography has been hard-hitting psytrance (and whatever that last song was).

For much of the song, Elation Station’s main focus is a simple piano melody. It’s the sole instrument at the beginning of the song and it isn’t until a good thirty seconds that any other significant instruments enter into the song. Some relaxing guitar, a calming arp, a slight bassline that’s more on the smooth side rather than funky or bouncy with a drumbeat to match. All relaxing elements.

And then that other synth comes in at one and quarter minutes in. I’m not as elated about this synth as the rest of the song. It feels a bit unfitting to the relaxing vibe that’s displayed in the beginning of this track as well as the end. The song would be a bit higher in rating if this synth felt a bit more polished, but it doesn’t distract too much from the relaxation, so I’ll give it a pass.

The middle, however, isn’t relaxing. It’s something else entirely. You may remember that the bassline this song introduces at the beginning is merely smooth. No funk. No bounce. The bassline introduced for the middle third of this song is the complete opposite of that. It’s all funk. This song is a funk sandwich with nearly relaxing bread. A funk sandwich that I would gladly assume is meat (not sure what kind of meat, funk is, but I’m going to eat it regardless). It starts out funky enough 2;20, but it only grows funkier as it goes on. Take a break to focus on some horns? It only gets funkier. Distort them a second to make them an octave lower? It only gets funkier. Get rid of the bassline entirely and return to the near relaxation the song started with? Well, the bassline doesn’t return after that, but I’m sure if it did, it would be incredibly funky.

Infected Mushroom – Drop Out (7): I’d say Drop Out is a strange song, but that could be said about nearly every song on the second half of this album, so I’ll try to restrain myself from saying such obvious things in the future.

It is quite strange though.

Let’s start with the overall feeling that this song has with the music. A lot of the song, especially in the beginning and the end has a lot of focus on a calmer glitched out vibe, not as calm as Elation Station, mind you, but still overall more relaxing than intense. And while the glitches with the drumbeats and strange arps and vocals do somewhat conflict with the relaxing mood, I feel that this song strays from the relaxing vibe in so many ways, that the glitched out behavior of several of the instruments (and those vocals) becomes the new overall feeling the song has. It’s not relaxing in a soothing way. It’s relaxing in a trippy mind-bending way. Regardless, this song’s relaxation works.

One part of the song that stands out, fitting perhaps the pure relaxation parts of this song, would be the guitar section in the middle. I don’t have much in particular to say about this, but I will make sure to mention that the guitar does a great job of providing a break between the strange vocals and other glitches, allowing one to get lost in the beauty of the simpler elements of the song. The more rock-oriented guitar near the end of the track serves a similar purpose, though I find it slightly less enjoyable and relaxing (It’s rock. rock is less relaxing than acoustic. That’s just how it works).

Speaking of the beauty of simple things, let’s take a quick look at the little lyrical content this song has to offer. When it comes to the lyrics, my original guess for the meaning of this song would be about dropping out of school as I have an innocent mind that views that quote of breaking free of the restrictions of thinking that the modern education system seems to enforce on the progressing generations as time goes on.

However, seeing as I’ve discovered this sample comes from an LSD documentary, it’s probably about dropping out of reality…

Via drugs.

Sometimes, you can’t escape the psychedelic messages songs of this genre display

Infected Mushroom – Avratz (7.75): Avratz passes by Dancing with Kadafi, becoming the longest song in the discography (up to this point). Beat it out by an entire second. Fantastic lead, I must say. When it comes to lengthy songs like this one, I must always ask whether or not the song uses enough variety to justify its length. In other words, does it count as a journey through sound? I’ll say yes in this case. It takes a long while for the song to pick up momentum on its journey, but the second half of the song has enough elements that make up for the slow beginning.

And I mean slow in two different ways. Not only does the song take a lengthy amount of time to get started, the music at this portion of the song is incredibly calm, focusing almost entirely on one simple melody that repeatedly climbs up and down. For the first two minutes, that’s all there is. Maybe a drumbeat here and there, but that variety isn’t looking quite good so far.

Thankfully, the conclusion of those two minute brings in a new piano melody. It’s a small change, but it’s entirely necessary to prevent me from losing my mind to the numb unchanging status quo. That being said, it does allow for some beautiful elements to be added to that melody the plays throughout much of the song, even beyond the halfway mark. It starts out quite beautiful though it does get distorted halfway through, but distortion is somewhat of a main them in this album so that’s to be expected.

The second half of the song is a bit more upbeat than what’s been shown so far. This upbeat switchup is where the song really kicks it up a notch. I don’t have time to go into every single element that this song throws into the mix so here’s a quick rapidfire rundown. We’ve got the more upbeat drumbeat with the introduction of a bassline that’s been missing for far too long. We’ve got some distorted vocals added in early on in this second half as well as bringing the song towards its conclusion (the latter being my preferred vocal bit). We’ve got a good progression of the bassline and the drums becoming more intense as the song goes on. We’ve got a sudden half time portion with a combination of a slightly more guttural bassline and a new relaxing guitar melody. We’ve got strings. We’ve got oddly unique arps that contrast with the rest of the song (in a good way unlike Elation Station). We’ve got a bassline that feels pleasantly broken as it builds up towards the conclusion of the song along with those vocals I mentioned earlier. And then there’s the bookend throwing back to the melody that started it all. Playing the song on loop makes it tricky to determine where exactly the song ends and starts anew.

All in all, this song is incredibly relaxing to the point where I almost fell asleep several times trying to review this song. Or maybe I’m just tired…

Infected Mushroom & Michelle Adamson – Blink (6.25): Blink is a strange song. I know I said I’d stop mentioning that, but when Michelle Adamson (spent a bit of time searching for that vocalist’s name, but I think I got it right) joins in to provide her vocals, it’s hard to say it just blends in with the usual oddity that makes up this album.

And I do believe that Michelle adds the most to this strange feeling this song gives my gut. After all, much of the music matches the vibe I’ve been getting used to as I listen through the Other Side. The bassline is slightly groovier, but it isn’t really groundbreaking in the same way that Elation Station’s is. The song has a solid halftime drumbeat that isn’t quite as glitchy as in Drop Out. There’s several mysterious synths that have somewhat of a relaxing feel to them, but Avratz has more. Converting Vegetarian’s vocals are much more heavily distorted.

But that doesn’t matter because Michelle’s vocals are more unsettling and discomforting with minimal distortion. I don’t dislike them. I just find them a bit… odd. The bridge especially sends chills up my spine. Her whispers as she talks of conquering demons and ignoring lizards feel as if they might be distorted, but it sounds so natural that I’m nearly convinced she might be some sort of otherworldly being herself.

As for the lyrics, it’s incredibly cryptic, but I’m not fully certain there was truly “no smoking or drinking” as they were being written. I’ve already mentioned the demon conquering and lizard whisper ignoring as I talked of the vocals. But there’s so much more in here that raises strange questions. There seems to be a song in her head leading her towards death. Then again, does that even matter because she also said she’s already dead (maybe inside?). And then there’s speak of bonding one’s mind in an intimate transcendent experience

Yeah, this one’s probably about drugs too. The Infected Mushrooms are not exactly subtle this time around.

Infected Mushrooom – Shakawkaw (7.75): Shakakaw is a short fun song with an entirely different feeling than Blink (especially in the vocals). Much of the song keeps a chill atmosphere to it, somewhat similar to the first half of Avratz with a simple melody dominating much of the song. That’s where the similarities end. Thankfully, this song develops much more quickly, adding more variety in the first minute that the calmer portion of Avratz did in its entirety (this song is over before Avratz really got going).

The simple melody is quite nice, but the instruments introduced to compliment are quite enjoyable. The bassline has a slight funk to it, most staying in the background, but definitely driving the song forward. There’s a couple of synths that contribute to the odd environment that’s integral to any song off of the second half of this album. Oh and the guitar.

The guitar definitely steals the show in its brief tenure. That seems to be typical on this album. Whenever, a guitar comes in, it’s the best part of the song for that moment adding in some beauty to the otherwise gritty oddity that is this album.

But the guitar isn’t the focus of the song. As awesome as it is, it’s not the most memorable part. The most memorable part would have to go to the vocals and their fantastic “lyrical content.” Ok, actually it’s just some guy yelling out the amusing title of the song, but that’s really the heart of what makes listening to this song so fun. Even when the “lyrics” stop, you can hear the singer who sun his heart out laughing as the song fades away. And rightfully so. This song is ridiculously amusing.

Infected Mushroom – Pletzurra (8.25): Pletzurra develops quite interestingly, especially near the end. But in order to truly appreciate the development of a song like this, I must first tell you of the trippy ambience at the beginning. There’s a pad whispering in my ear as the drumbeat begins and the piano joins in. Eventually, the oddly ominous gets covered up with all of the other instruments that make up this song in an attempt to send it back to the eternal abyss it came from. But just as the abyss is an eternal construct that we stare into throughout our life, the ominous pad is also eternal and never truly leaves the song. It’s always there.

Always waiting.

For something. Not sure what. It’s kind of just there.

Not exactly as ominous if nothing happens.

Unless something is happening and I’m just not noticing it.

Now, that’s ominous.

Maybe.

Ominous distractions aside, I’m glad that many instruments come in to cover up the ominous bits. Not because I hate that pad. I find it quite interesting. No, it’s because everything that this song adds to the mix from this point onwards is quite a pleasure. Or should I say Pleasuretzura? (I’ve decided I shouldn’t have said that. Forgive me for not leaving this pun alone). The piano in this song is one of the first things to start covering up that pad, providing the most beautiful melody on the entire album. With the help of a slight bassline, they cover up the ominousness almost completely. At least enough so that it’s no longer infecting my brain.

From there, the song takes a step back in quality, briefly being played through a lower filter, almost as if we were listening to a recording of the song being played on the radio. You can even here the tape spinning as the vocals begin to introduce themselves. The vocals sound pained at first but slowly develop over time to a more confident melody. None of it has lyrics of course, it’s merely a manifestation of overcoming pain with a choir to back it up. Probably reading too deep into it with that last sentence, but that’s the roll I’m on right now. Eventually the deep singing grows to be quite beautiful, the drums and the bassline do return to an ominous vibe. Thankfully though there’s a second melody and strings to cover it up as the song brings itself to close, proving itself to be an overall relaxing piece of music…

PSYCH! This song has a BANJO! And it’s AWESOME!

Infected Mushroom – I Wish (9.25): Undeniably my favorite song on the album. I’ve been listening through this album a lot as of late, trying to learn these songs inside and out and out and every single time this one comes on, I can’t help but sing along with that chorus over and over and over again. I guess I sing along to Shakawkaw too when it comes up, but that one’s more amusing than anything else. This one actually has meaning behind its lyrics. And unlike the trippy songs featuring Michelle Adamson (yeah there’s another one I’ll get to in a bit), I find these lyrics to be both decipherable and inspiring.

But music first. The music is great too. This time it’s all about the bassline. Well I guess there’s some other cool things too, a good chord progression, some syncopated drums with a few variations here and there. There are some slight whispering vocals in the background for a bit. And uh… the rest is bassline. And the bassline is great. The bassline has two elements to it. There’s the swinging more heavily distorted bass spotlighted best at the beginning of the song as well as after each chorus. And then there’s the more constant arpeggiated bassline that underlies the song’s drive. Together, these two parts of the bassline keep this song moving for the three minutes it exists. Not too much variety, but that doesn’t bother me too much. It’s the vocals that stand out.

First off, while I’d love to get into the lyrics, I did lie a little bit when I said this song is all about bassline. Sometimes, under certain circumstances, I’d consider vocals to be an instrument of their own. And this song is definitely one of those circumstances. These vocals are the most heavily distorted on the album. The immediate stuttering as soon as the first verse starts. The way each note seems to dance up and down, constantly wavering in tone. The end of each line being held perhaps a fraction of a second longer than you’d expect half the time and completely glitching out the other half of the time. It all comes to a head with the extremely catch chorus. Not only is the music best here because of the prominent chords, but the vocals are almost clean here except for a couple of perfectly placed accents at the end of some of the lines. The way the pitch slides upwards on “game” and “rain” is absolutely fantastic. I have a fondness for when male vocals suddenly soar in pitch without any pretense.

As for the lyrics, this song is about fresh beginnings (funny how often that message comes up in reviews of my favorite artists, wonder if that’s why I like them or if that just means I’m extrapolating my own meaning in order to match my innermost values). I Wish compares life itself to a game, a game that we won’t stop playing until the end of our time. Now, exactly how this game has gone in the past is a bit unclear, but there is something to look at through the singer’s desires to play the game without fears and regrets as well as his desire to rewind and kick it from the start. It’s clear that his past experience with this game has been… less than stellar. But like I said, he wishes to abandon those fears and regrets and start again with a fresh game. A game in which he takes control of his life and gives it his best possible. Sure, rewinding time would be nice (I’ve desired to do so more than once), but sometimes the main focus should be to be to push through the game, letting the rain ash away the flaws that hold you back.

Again though, I am likely extrapolating. Much of what I’m getting out of this song is somewhat vague. I enjoy it regardless.

Infected Mushroom – Ballerium (6.75): It’s always difficult to review a decent song after a spectacular song. Comparatively speaking, Ballerium certainly has nothing on I wish, but I still feel it’s an alright track. Has a good groove to it at points and it does stand out as one of the more minimalistic songs on the album, especially near the beginning. It has an ok variety to it, but much like Scorpion Frog from The Trance Side, most of it just kind of happens.

I think my main problem with this song is just how minimalistic it is. There are several points in the song where it feels empty, no ambience, just a couple basslines and a drumbeat. And while the basslines are relatively decent and the kick and snare definitely are stronger compared to many for the songs on this album, they don’t really hold up the song on their own.

Thankfully, the song does get better in the second half as there’s more melodies introduced here as well as a couple guitar riffs that add some nice flavor. The best addition to the song comes towards the end for we have a build-up from nothing featuring some gorgeous vocals spotlighted as all the other instruments have faded away. The way the bassline progresses (which serves as the build-up from the build-up from nothing) is also quite interesting during its brief stay before being taken over a bouncier outro. The last bit of the song’s vocals serves as a nice journey even if the song is a little lesser overall.

And that’s all there is to say.

Infected Mushroom – Selecta (8.25): It seems that on this album, even the most upbeat songs usually start out with a calmer section to build up to the upbeat. This song, despite being upbeat, isn’t one of those songs. No, Selecta wastes no time in getting that 140 BPM tempo out there in the open. Almost sounds like it should be on the Trance Side. It shouldn’t be though. I’ll show you why at the end.

The beginning of the song does differ slightly from psytrance. The psytrance bassline isn’t quite as prominent as usual, though the bassline it’s replaced with is still quite fast-paced. Plus a lot of the instrumentation does have a good balance between Trance Side vibes and Other Side vibes as it incorporates a lot of the new sound design without going overboard.

However, while I wouldn’t describe the introduction of this song as chill, there are some moments in this song that are a bit more relaxing than most. In particular there’s the middle section of the song winding down a bit after the two-minute mark. The drumbeat doesn’t change at all and the bassline is still there, but somehow the beauty of the new pad, overwhelms all of the energy and provides a soothing relaxation without eliminating the drumbeat entirely. Yes, after about thirty seconds there is a short bit where the drum is replaced by a simple melody instead, but that “nothing” part of the build-up from nothing only lasts a short bit before the “build-up” of the build-up nothing quickly returns.

The conclusion of this song is where things get a little bit iffy. This song does not belong on the Trance Side. Because out of nowhere, we have a funky little tune that feels more out of place than the banjo in Pletzurra. There is a piano appearing seconds earlier that might hint towards this little tune, but it sure ain’t an amusing little ditty like this one right here. Also, no horns. No funky little melody. This ending is just different…

Yeah, this doesn’t belong on the Trance Side and all.

Sure was fun though.

Infected Mushroom & Michelle Adamson – Illuminaughty (7): Michelle is back for round 2. Of course, that means we’re going to get into some whispery vocals with cryptic mysterious lyrics, but that can be an interesting divergence sometimes.

Now, I’m really tempted to compare the music of this song to Blink, but that’s technically not fair, because despite having the same singer, Blink and Illuminaughty sound like completely different songs. Blink was much slower paced and concentrated more on a funky bassline. Illuminaughty has a much more mysterious instrumental and I must say, I enjoy this one more. A lot of it has to do with it meshing better with Michelle’s mysterious vocals, but there’s also a lot more subtlety to this song in comparison to Blink. The ambient pads and the arps mesh together well when they’re alone and the bassline and drums enter smoothly onto the scene whenever it’s their turn to shine. Blink was by no means bad, but Illuminaughty brings it up a notch.

As for the vocals and lyrics, there aren’t quite as many whispers as in Blink, but the song is still the same level of unsettling, again raising the odd question of whether or not she’s truly human. An odd fantastical conspiracy theory that’s likely ridiculously untrue, but she does do some good convincing that she’s fallen from some other realm into ours. However, I’ve been looking over these lyrics and I find them to be so incredibly cryptic that I have so little to analyze. There’s mention of tasting the fruit which likely refers to the Garden of Eden (though in a completely different tone than in Andy Hunter – To Life to Love). And she also continues to walk the line between life and death, committing to neither side. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea what to say.

Infected Mushroom – Jeenge (6.75): This song immediately starts with the guitar that often steals the show in the other songs that present the stringed instrument. This time, it doesn’t really steal the show so much. That’s because whenever it’s present, there is no show to steal. The song instead opts for minimalism again. Though this time there’s absolutely nothing interesting in much of the front half of the song except for the guitar. The bassline is ok, but it doesn’t really stand out until the midpoint of the song.

That’s when things get a bit funky. The bassline has a more dynamic bounce to it and allows for a bit more variation it develops over the next four minutes as it bounces against other melodies and basslines. My favorite part of the song has to be the bass pattern introduced about five and a half minutes in. Not only does it have a nice swing to it, but every four bars it has a quick unexpected variation with shorter notes. It’s a fun moment, but unfortunately the front half of the song isn’t quite as fun.

Infected – Mushroom – Elevation (7.75): Final song on this all too lengthy album. Having 23 songs to review is a bit much for me, so I’m glad that there’s a divide in the middle of the album between Trance Side and Other Side. It made this whole review so much easier to handle. This album ends with its most relaxing track, it’s all ambience, piano and strings and all of it is soothing in comparison to the trippy textured instruments that clustered the rest of Other Side. Unfortunately, such a relaxing track doesn’t leave me with much to say. Maybe I’m having review fatigue…

The most important thing I can think of to say is that all of the elements in this song really have a beautiful feel to them and some of them mesh so nicely with the rest of the song, that I didn’t even notice them a first, though they do have an important supporting role in the song. The bassline especially fits this description as it’s always covered up by the higher ambience and strings whenever it’s present. The drums have a bit of a complex vibe too, made up of many of the same distorted synths we’ve seen on other songs, but they’ve been chilled down several notches, so they feel not that unlike a simple drumbeat. Though once I did notice them, I did enjoy the meaty flavor that they added to the song. The ambience also transforms into a stronger synth at some points, but it all feels so natural and relaxing that it fits along the more physical instruments without feeling out of place in the slightest.

A beautiful conclusion as we finally bring this alum to a close. Speaking of conclusions…

Conclusion: And so, concludes the two-week journey that has been Converting Vegetarians, a fascinatingly interesting album that serves as a transition into the expanding variety in Infected Mushroom’s discography. There’s plenty to offer in this album, but I think the Other Side suits me best. Then again, I might just be saying that because I Wish is on there. I love I Wish.

Well, regardless, the variety here shall lead into many fantastical developments in the journey through sound that is Infected Mushroom’s entire discography. We may be exiting the first phase of said discography, but there’s still plenty to catch up on…

Final Score of Trance Side: (7.25)

Final Score of Other Side: (7.5)

Final Score of Full Album: (7.25)

April 5, 2019

Infected Mushroom – Converting Vegetarians (2003 album) pt 1/2

Part 1 – Trance Side

Album links

Bandcamp: n/a

Soundcloud (Trance Side only): https://soundcloud.com/infectedmushroom/sets/converting-vegetarians-trance

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3LbcBylGvC80f5OTeQaVuM?si=DRj2Ry1zQ1qfIxNXrcvF9A

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL718C82948CE653CE

Introduction: Ah yes, if I were a vegetarian, then the first thing that would entice me to join the meat-eating side would surely be a human brain skewered on a fish hook. All that knowledge ripe for consuming. Absolutely delicious. Sign me up!

Please ignore my odd tastes in… taste as I delve into my much more relevant slightly odd taste in music. Specifically, my taste in Infected Mushroom. The last three albums I’ve reviewed from them have been purely psytrance. This album changes that. Oh yes, the first half, referred to as Trance Side is definitely psytrance and alone would seem much alike the previous three albums (except ten songs instead of nine. How adventurous!)

The second half, however, is referred to as Other Side. I’d talk about it here, but I actually haven’t finished reviewing the Other Side yet and so I’m going to be posting this review as a two-parter. I’ll introduce the Other Side next week. This review is going to be long enough as it is.

Infected Mushroom – Albibeno (6.5): Alright, let’s dive right in to the first song of the trance side. We’re starting out with a quintessential psytrance song. It has the perfect 145 BPM tempo. It’s got that quick paced bassline that almost feels like a slow arp. All of the synths involve have an unusual trippy vibe to them. What more is there to ask for?

Well, when it comes to Infected Mushroom, there’s always a little extra icing on the cake. This track’s layer of icing is a bit thin, but it still has some unique elements that cause it to be held above any ordinary psytrance song. The most substantial of these is definitely the synth at the beginning that almost sounds like a technological arp. Usually when I say technological I end up saying “Oh gee this could be in a Mind.in.a.box song! That’s my favorite artist!” but eh this one is a bit different. And yet, I enjoy it on a near equal level. It has a good haunting vibe to it as it introduces the mysteries this album has to offer. The second appearance of this synth is my favorite moment of the song, specifically because of its incorporation of the bass rumbling in the background, which allows for some suspense to take over for a short while.

Other than that, I don’t really have much to say, there’s some other melodies in here that are decent, but they don’t really diverge increasingly much from Infected Mushroom’s established style (though there is the occasional melody that seems a little bit closer to the newer style). This song could definitely have used a bit more variety and I’d have given it a bit of a higher rating if it did, but I find that it still stands out well enough above your typical psytrance song.

Infected Mushroom – Hush Mail (6.25): I have no idea what that animal at the beginning of this song is doing but I’m afraid to ask. Whatever kind of diseased creature is making that noise, I’d like it to hush. It’s disturbing me deeply.

This animal does remain present throughout the song, but thankfully, the creature spends a significant amount of time buried in all of the other much more enjoyable elements of the song (plus it wasn’t all that bad to begin with, just a little odd). Such coverup elements include some quite industrial drums, your psytrance bassline (plus variations) and another more animalistic distorted instrument that doesn’t disturb quite me as deeply. Altogether, these instruments provide an enjoyable experience along with a few melodies that aren’t special enough to note. In fact, the non-noteworthiness of every thing in this song means that I shall be spending as little time reviewing this part as possible.

The animal gives one final growl at the end. Whatever, its issue or activity was, it seems to be over. As is this song.

Infected Mushrom – Apogiffa Night (6.75): Apogiffa Night sees itself as such a special song that it starts with its own cinematic introduction to announce its arrival. This just means it puts its best moment at the start of the song. Well, I guess that best moment does return a bit later and it’s nearly equally as good there (nearly because I feel it just works better as an introduction rather than simply being inserted in the middle of the song).

Is it special though? Well, compared to that cinematic intro, not excessively much. The intro does definitely improve my overall opinion on the song, but the rest of my experience is admittedly underwhelming. This is the problem when a song puts its best foot forward, but then lets a bunch of slightly above average feet walk on the rest of the song. There are some good moments here and there like the fantastic textural bassline that dominates the song for about half a minute around 5 minutes into the song. But that’s about all that strays from the general path. Most of the song simply trudges forward with decent unrisky psytrance. That’s fine. The duo will make plenty of risks later, and they shall surely pay off.

Infected Mushroom – Song Pong (7.75): Song Pong is the song that should be proud enough to warrant some hyped up in an intro, as this is the one that really starts this song on a trend of 7s and greater (with only one song interrupting this pattern near the end). But instead of pumping the song full of energy with a cinematic intro, Song Pong opts for a calmer more soothing vibe in its introduction. There are slight signs of the energy that’s to come, but the main focus of this introduction is the automated pad that fluctuates in pitch as the song progresses. But the most important part is the arp that appears midway through this introduction. This arp is a core element in the essence of Song Pong.

There’s a reason this song starts off so soft and smooth. And it’s because, as in actual pong, this song has a tendency to bounce back and forth. Specifically, it bounces back and forth between two moods. The first is calm and soothing providing a chance for the heart rate to relax a little, but this contrasts with the other mood of the song, which is a bit more energetic and upbeat. This beautiful arp serves as the first transition between the two vibes. From there on out, the song does focus mostly on the upbeat vibes of the song, but it does take several short breaks for its 8 minutes of existence, often focusing on introducing new instruments and melodies to the table. Most of them are admittedly not as calm as the introduction, but they still allow for much more variety than the previous songs.

Seeing as the upbeat sections take up the brunt of the song and are more or less self-explanatory, I’m going to take a specific look at the calmer portions and how they develop the song. What better way to go over the most significant instruments? The first return to calmness happens at 2:15 and gives a slight nod to where the song started while giving a chance for a new melody to see the spotlight. It had technically already been introduced not long before this calm, but it’s barely noticeable and only becomes significant after the calm that highlights it.

Our second break comes in at about 3:45 which introduces a brand-new melody. Yeah, it still has the same texture as the melody that was introduced last time, but the variation is significant enough to highlight. I think I do prefer the first one as the one feels as if it has too much space in between the short notes and it doesn’t quite flow as well with the rest of the track.

Heralded in by my favorite arp is the break that at about 5:50 that cuts out many of the melodies briefly, leaving just the kicks and bassline. Of course, the true focus here is the melody that’s introduced shortly after. While the second melody was a downgrade from the first, this one easily is the best in the song. It’s a nice happy medium between the first two melodies (Goldilocks would have said the first was too fast and the second was too slow).

And as many of the songs of the first half of this album, this one does a quick bookend with exclusive focus on the pad with the fluctuating pitch, bringing this song to a close.

Infected – Mushroom – Chaplin (7.25): Chaplin’s main strength is shown right at the forefront. And this time around, that’s okay. Unlike Apogiffa Night from earlier in the album and Sailing on The Sea of Mushrooms from way back off the Classical Mushroom album, this strong creepy melody is here to stay. Well, it’s not eternally present, but it does return at a couple of instances in the song and that’s plenty more than the other two songs I mentioned. There’s something about this melody that makes the blood in my veins chill ever so slightly each time it reintroduces itself. And yet, I also feel as if the melody is somewhat soothing. It’s as if the melody is putting me into restful mood but I don’t trust it because it’s planning on killing me in my subdued state. I know that’s not actually going to happen, but there’s an instinctual part of me that still fears this melody for no apparent reason.

Other than that, this is a good psytrance song that plays a little bit into Infected Mushroom’s more modern distorted vocal style of sound design, while still keeping to the old school psytrance roots that had dominated their discography in the five years preceding this album. Because of that, this song has a fresh groove that is very welcome to the Infected Mushroom discography. However, because my first impressions of Infected Mushroom happened in 2014 with Friends on Mushrooms Vol 3, I have this urge to compare these distorted vocals to the ones of Rise Up and Kipod, the songs that drew me into this discography in the first place. It’s an unfair comparison and I’ll do my best to say that these are pretty solid for their time considering what I’ve looked at so far in these reviews. It’s just that the sound design gets much better over the next decade and beyond. Actually, to be perfectly honest, their sound design undergoes a huge transformation 40 minutes from now, so maybe we should use that as a benchmark.

Infected – Mushroom – Echonomix (8.25): Echonomix is a great mix of sounds that have an echo to them. It’s also the study of money and how we use it and all sorts of things (I never studied economics so don’t blame me if I screwed that up).

While the latter of those descriptions of the song is a bit irrelevant and not actually very true, the part about this song being a mix of echoing sounds is incredibly true. Every single instrument and melody here has an odd tone to it, much of it due to echoes and phasers. Now, that isn’t entirely unusual for Infected Mushroom, but I feel like it sticks out more distinctly here than many of the other songs in their discography. Let’s do a quick look at each of the echoey instruments that overwhelm this song (which is most of them).

The very first moments of this song contain a harmony that has undergone multiple phasers as the echoes of subtle melody scatter in the background. As the song progresses this harmony undergoes multiple transformations, but the echoes are always there. It would be wrong if they weren’t. There’s also a melody introduced in a short break in the song at 1:45. It ends up becoming the highlighted melody for the rest of the song. A plethora of other echoing melodies are introduced at the midpoint of the song, though most of them are just subtle little accents for the song. Really, a lot of them are just notes that happen to have an echo attached to them (they only seem like a melody).

There are a few other melodies and arps and drumbeats that don’t echo, but they don’t echo so I’m going to ignore them. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a subtle echo on them that I’m just not noticing. If so, nice job. I wish it was a bit more noticeable.

Infected Mushroom – Scorpion Frog (7.25): I’m not entirely sure what a Scorpion Frog is, but it sounds quite deadly. A slimy creature with a scorpion’s tail that can quickly hop towards me? No thanks.

Anyways, I painstakingly scoured through the last three albums to see what song these introductory strings are referencing. I could’ve sworn that one of the songs in the last few albums had a nearly identical melody and I thought it would be neat to show off such a little Easter egg. Instead I merely showed myself I was absolutely crazy and delusional. Bust a Move and Dracul have string melodies that sound mildly similar but it’s a strenuous connection at best. Ah well, regardless of where the melody does or doesn’t come from, it sure does have a very similar feeling to the strings that have been displayed throughout Infected Mushroom’s discography so far. Hopefully that was the intention.

The rest of this song is one of those journeys through sound. The mood changes from moment to moment and the variety keeps the mind interested and engaged. This is admittedly one of the lesser journeys through sound as the variety, while present, isn’t quite as dynamic as others. Plus, I hate to say this, but very few of these ideas are very interesting on their own. I never feel surprised whenever the song transitions to a new stage. I just think to myself “Oh that’s different than what we’ve been doing, ok.”

I’ll divide this song into 5 stages so I can quickly go over each change the song has.

Stage 1 is the strings. I already talked about the strings, they end at 1:25. They are strings and they’re great and remind me of older Infected Mushroom. Good vibes here.
After that we have stage 2, the glitched out bassline. This one’s ok. It goes through a couple of iterations and does have a decent bouncy groove to it, but it never really grabs my attention.
At about 3:20, we enter stage 3: the best stage. This one focuses on a calm, yet slightly off-putting vibe as the bassline rebuilds itself from the ground up. This melody is probably the second-best part of the song after the strings. It’s somewhat similar to the main melody in Chaplin, though it doesn’t quite reach the same heights of unsettling.
Stage 4 is the oddest of the bunch starting at 4:30. The psytrance bassline that has been building is traded for a phasing bass similar to the one at the beginning of Echnomix, but it’s not quite as good. There’s also a subtle melody that seems to be using some retro (or should I say R.E.T.R.O.) sound effects which rounds up this section nicely
Stage 5 takes up the last 2 minutes of the song, taking the phased bass from stage 4 and overlaying it with a bouncy bassline to provide a final build-up for the song (which works quite well might I add). Eventually, the strings from the beginning take over, wrapping up this song nicely.

Overall, this song is good, but it pales in comparison to what it could be.

Infected Mushroom – Deeply Disturbed (8.25): Deeply Disturbed is the only lyrical song on the trance side of this album. It is likely because of the lyrics that I remember it most clearly over the other nine (though I might have Scorpion Frog embedded in the depths of my memories somewhere what with that throwback mixup). The lyrics of Deeply Disturbed are… disturbing. If you’re looking for an uplifting feel-good song, then this isn’t really the place to look. In fact, you should probably tread all of my reviews with caution if positivity is what you want. I have a tendency to enjoy songs with darker themes (up to a point). Themes that might deeply disturb some. Themes that might make some deeply unhappy.

Actually, as dark and bleak as these lyrics are, they’re so out of context and so vague that I find it rather amusing more than anything. That’s probably not the right reaction to have and it probably reflects negatively on my sense of humor and internal psyche. But that’s it. That’s the entire song. He’d deeply disturbed and he’s deeply unhappy. What’s disturbing him? What’s sapping away his happiness? Is this man simply insane? We shall never know. But hey at least we get a good song in the meantime.

My memory of this song is also likely heightened by the overall music quality of this song. It’s certainly not the most complex song on the front half of the album, but sometimes it’s the simple things that prove to be the most enjoyable. My enjoyment of this song comes almost entirely from the guitar. Every single moment it’s there (which is basically any time the singer isn’t expressing his deep disturbance and unhappiness), it steals the show completely. Whether it be the ascending plucks played in the introduction of the song or the more melodic sections played shortly before each chorus, the guitar is truly the most enjoyable part of the song.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the guitar is the only good part of the song. The song simply wouldn’t be the same if the ambience didn’t give off that peaceful sense of dread at the beginning of the song. It wouldn’t be the same if the bassline didn’t have such a rolling groove to it. It wouldn’t be the same if said bassline didn’t become harsher in the chorus, while smoother elsewhere. There might not be a huge variety of instruments to work with in this song, but what’s there blends perfectly.

Infected Mushroom – Semi Nice (6.5): Semi Nice is the most playful song on the Trance Side of the album. It starts with an accordion of all things, which I find to be quite odd. It’s just not something I hear very often as my tastes usually don’t include the type of music an accordion would be involved in. But there is at least one exception. It’s this. This is the exception.

The song does stick nicely to that introductory playful mood to it. The sound design focuses mostly on the textured basslines. The typical psytrance bassline is there of course, but that’s not the one I care to talk about today. It’s there, being a consistent good as always. The bassline that stands out is the other bassline. For the first half of the song, it just gives a few notes here and there. Not too much in particular. But that playful vibe is definitely present when we reach the midpoint and the bass (now played at a bit of a higher pitch) starts to swing between notes. This funky middle section is probably the closest the song gets to matching the fun accordion intro. Shame that accordion wasn’t reintroduced

Instead, the last third song concentrates more on the less interesting elements of the song. There’s a new bassline playing exclusively lower notes with no experimentation whatsoever. And there’s a new simple melody with a few minor distortions, but that’s really just minimal experimentation if anything. Nothing wrong with this last third. Just nothing right with it either

Overall, this is a decent song. I’m still kind of in the middle when it comes to my opinion on it. The accordion definitely makes it stand out and I do think it would have been better off continuing to explorre the playful tone that the accordion introduced. Maybe reincorporating the accordion for later. It’s still a nice song, just not quite up to par for Infected Mushroom.

It’s Semi-nice.

Infected Mushroom – Yanko Pitch (7.75): Concluding the Trance Side, we have Yanko Pitch. With the exception of maybe Deeply Disturbed (which cheated by using the mantra of a madman for vocals), this is likely the creepiest trance song of the bunch. That also makes it one of the best trance songs of the bunch. When it comes to Infected Mushroom’s more psytrance side of their discography (I haven’t gone over anything non-psytrance yet, but I’ll definitely be doing so next week), the creepier songs are often the better ones. Probably because of all the emotions to be expressed through psytrance, fear is the easiest to convey. And a song that gives off a greater emotional reaction is a song that’s well-enjoyed (unless the reaction is utter disgust, then maybe don’t enjoy that one).

This song starts off right with the oddest creepiest ambience on the entire album. Deeply Disturbed had a great intro with the guitar that serves as one of the song’s core aspects, but this intro is incredibly trippy. The first twenty seconds are made completely of distorted synths that sound like the remaining echoes from a previous non-existent synth located in the negative area of this song’s duration. But now it sounds like something ominous is coming.

The rest of the song doesn’t quite match up with the creepy vibes the song starts with, but that’s mostly because the bar was set a little too high at that beginning. The rest of the song isn’t bad or disappointing. It’s just hard to live up to the expectations that intro sets. Not going to hold it against the song though because the song still maintains a relatively dark atmosphere and it does have some good unsettling melodies here and there. There’s a melody three quarters in that really stands out in the song, giving it some fresh upbeat variety as the general creepiness begins to go stale on its own.

That being said, it is admittedly a more simplistic song than the nine other trance songs on this album. The next thirteen songs, however, are a bit different…

Conclusion: We’re only halfway through this album due to its length, but it’s clear that the trend of Infected Mushroom’s quality continues to improve. Not all of the songs are winners, but they’re all consistently above 6, which is more than I can say for the past few albums. Plus, you get an extra song instead of the usual nine, so that’s a neat bonus. Of course, if I’d reviewed the full album, there’d be 13 more songs added into the mix and absolutely none of them would be trance, which I think would be an even better bonus. I’ll finish that up next week…

Final Score of Trance Side: (7.25)

Final Score of Other Side: (TBD)

Final Score of Full Album: (TBD)

March 17, 2019March 17, 2019

Mind.in.a.box – R.E.T.R.O. (2010 album review)

Album links

Bandcamp: https://mind-in-a-box.bandcamp.com/album/r-e-t-r-o

Soundcloud: n/a

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0ALIVYfLz7Pahmoq22y7HE?si=lZuIefmnRDmI2P2QzNNnvg

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF92F0FBECAC4CCB6

I̸̧̪̱̻̬̟̜̖̓́̍̃ṋ̵̨̬͓͔͚̣̞͖̘̒̇̓̓̈́̊̒̿̍̄̈̕͝͝ͅt̶͓̖̠̮̜̙̓r̵̨̞̹͕̝͎̜͓̥̩̤͔̈̑̑͒̔̀͐̈͊̈́̽̎ō̷̝͕̗͇̦̪̰̩̩͎̖̱̳̒͆͘d̵̢̑͌̋͋̏̐̔͗̽̽͒̑͒͜͠͝ụ̴͔͎̺̜̗͍̖͔̹̟̞̥͙̤̆̇̾̃̆̄̐̔͆̂͘͝͝ĉ̴̡̛̳̟̦͈̮͇͉̭̫͉̦͈̀̃̿͌͋͒̑̋̂̉͘̚̚t̵̢̧̛̯̟͕͙̖̪̻̩̗́̾͗̐̈͑̋͑͋͆̓̾̋̂ͅi̵̛̻͎̤̣̝̣̇̋̄͊̑͑̌͌͜͝͠ó̵̧̟͒͆̈̊̋̀̓̽͘͠͝ň̵̞̣̘̩̣͔̗̣̝̪͉̲̠̰͂̏̉͊̏̆͐͐̊̋̆͐͠: ………………………………………………………………………

Last time on Mind.in.a.box: Oh boy Black went through a lot of challenges in the last chapter of Mind.in.a.box. L̶͉̜͕̻̲̼̿̅́̕͜͝͝e̶̙̅̔̌͋̏̌t̷̛͚͌͛̐̐̏̈́͌̄̈̊̆͋͝’̴̢̺̩̹̦̠́̈́̄͜ș̵̢̪̬̥̝̭̗̲̈̕ͅͅͅ ̶̘̹̓̿̄̅̂̐̽̋̑͘͝r̷̮͐̏̀̇͠e̸̢̩̥̐̊̂̐̊͐͆̓͑̓̇̕̚͠v̵̭̰͎̙̼̑͋͛̑́į̴͇͉͚͎̻̫̣̪̳͒̇̽͌̂́̆̓̋͑͋̇ę̷̨̛͔̻̟̮͉͒̈́w̶̤̜̟̙͉͎̘̯͆̆͊̂͛̀͌ͅ ̵̪͌̿̀̏́͂w̶̢̨̛̗̦̭̺̘͇̳͂́̆̍̀h̸̨̧̛̞̪̲̮̣̪͐̀̒̈́͜͝a̶̫̭̹̖̼͔̱̫̫̭̙̺͚͐̄͐͂͗̔̽̋͗̒̇̚͜͠͠t̸̯̜̿̒͒̓͛̈́ͅ ̴̡͖̬͓̪͚͓͌̃̀̓̊͠h̷͖͍͍̺̩̳̐̄̀̓͊͊̅́̇͐̔̾͛͠a̶͔̭͔̱̙͆p̵̪͙̖͎̘̔͒̀͘͜ͅp̵͉̫̠̞͓̻̦͈͈͆ͅe̶̡̧̛͍̺͇̣̥͐̓͑͆ņ̸̦͚̗̣̻̣̝̑͆́̇̒͐́̊͊̕͠e̵̗̖͠d̴̤͇̣̖̈̈͗̽̅̿̂͛̚̚ ̸̤̗̘͂̐̌̈́͒́̎̄͒r̵̢̞̙̜͈̪̝̱̥̹̪̠̼̞̒͘e̷̡̧̧͔̘̳͙̤͕͠͝ã̴͔̳͈̮̱͓͇̍̈́́͋̈́́̄̈͘l̶̪͓̓̉͆̄̎̈́͒͐̿̕ ̷͕͕̊͊̏̈̓͑̿̏̈́̊̅̏q̵̧̪͉̞͇̯͓͇̲͓͍̙̈́̾̀͌͌̍̑̔͝͠ͅͅu̸̧͚͍̝͓̫͕̹͑͗̈́̿̽̎̊̾̾̄́̕͠ȉ̵̢̝̟̦̔͛̌͋̚͜c̷̗̋̏̏́̇̽̍͋ḳ̷̡̱͓͖̱̳̒͂ ̶̢̨̲̦͚̠̥̎̂̿̿̈̔̈̏̈́̏̀̾͝ḇ̴̪͍̲͍̞̤̄́̑̄̐̂̎̾̋͘̕͝͝͠ë̶̙̪͓͈̟͉͉̫̳̖̯̔̌̏́͝ͅf̵̡̖̝͕̝̿̈́̍̉̂̏͆͘͝ǫ̷̛͍̣̰̘̩̟̯͚̭͉͉̮̎̽͑͒̈́̀́́̌̚͜͝ŕ̴̻͖̬̹̀́́͂̔͆͝ȩ̷̡͖͕̯͙͓̪̝͇̭̾̑̓̈́…̸̗͓͓̩̓̀̕…………………………………………

Introduction: Actually, let’s hold on for a second. This may be a Mind.in.a.box album but there’s no need to recap the story this week. For the story is generally irrelevant to R.E.T.R.O. Think of it as an intermission of sorts. None of the songs in this album hold any bearing on the story we’ve been traversing through over the past 2 months or so. Here, Stefan takes a step back and just makes a handful of songs inspired by games off of the Commodore 64. A retro flashback to his nostalgic days I presume. This is unfortunately his most popular album. I say unfortunately because I rather prefer the storytelling songs rather than the slightly more attempted nostalgic style that much of this album takes on. It isn’t a bad album but… You know what? I can explain my feelings on the songs of this album while I review them. Maybe I should start on that.

Mind.in.a.box – The Last Ninja III (6): Not to be confused with The Last Ninja (which appears later on in this album) or The Last Ninja II (which is completely irrelevant to his album but I’m sure it exists). A large number of these songs are somewhat remixes of games from the Commodore 64. This one is the first one. I trust it to be based off of the game, The Last Ninja III, but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t played any Commodore 64 games as I hasn’t grown up in that era (earliest gaming system for me is the original Xbox so I’m kind of in the late middlish I think).

However, despite my lack of knowledge, I decided to take a second and look up the theme music of this game I only just heard of just now (I’m a listener of music, not a player of games) and it sounds like this is a pretty faithful recreation involving a slightly more updated feel as the technological sound of Mind.in.a.box has taken over many of the melodies and drumbeats of this song. There are a few portions that maintain a very similar sound to the original game soundtrack (the section at 1:11 being the most prominent example)

However, I don’t really feel that this is the strongest fusion of electronic and retro chiptune. A lot of the elements work well. The main melody has taken on a more modern feel and it fits quite well with the drumbeat and bassline. And there’s some subtle arps added in the second half that really flesh out the full Mind.in.a.box feeling (or at least as close as we can get). The sections that are a bit closer in tone to the original Commodore 64 game however… it’s a bit of a clash to be brutally honest. This song just really doesn’t strike me as anything worthwhile. It has some good ideas here and there, but it could have been executed a lot better.

Mind.in.a.box – Lightforce (6.75): Lightforce feels a bit more polished and seems to fit the general Mind.in.a.box mood much better. The introduction to this song in particular feels a lot like it could be part of the story of Black and his explorations through the Dreamweb. It’s not about that. None of the album is about that (well, it’s debatable for some of the later songs but we’ll get there when we get there. No, this song is a throwback to the soundtrack from an old space shooter known as Light Force (hence the title. Titling songs after the game it’s based on is a theme for a good half of the songs on this album). It’s a pretty faithful modernized recreation from what I can hear after looking up this game I hadn’t heard of prior to reviewing this album.

Everything in this song meshes a lot better than we saw in The Last Ninja III. I still don’t think of retro chiptune melodies when I think of Mind.in.a.box, but at least this song doesn’t really distract with its 8-bit elements. Perhaps it helps that much of the song, particularly the arp and the bassline, have a rather simple tone to them as well. Because of this, everything feels much on the same level, unlike the weird mesh of cinematic and 8 bit we had back in The Last Ninja III.

My only complaint is that this song is a bit excessive in length. I do like the occasional lengthy song, but there has to be enough variety for the song to earn it. And to be honest, I feel like this song could get along just fine at half the length. Ah well. Still a decent track.

Mind.in.a.box – The Last V8 (7): The Last V8 tells of the chaos arising within a family that all wants a can of V8 veggie-fruit juice. But there is only one left. And so, they engage in a never-ending battle over the last V8.

Actually, it’s another song that references a game of the same name. I mean, what else did you expect? That’s all this album has been so far. It’s not going to change soon. As usual, we have a decent modernized version of a decades old song from a classic video game that I’m sure makes Mr Poiss extremely nostalgic.

This one seems to be one of the closest to the game that inspired it based on what I could scrounge up. The stronger bassline and the smoother melodies really fit together quite well. I especially love the combination introduced right at the beginning. There’s less instruments and vocals distracting from the simplicity of these two instruments as they bounce off each other. Nothing wrong with the instruments and vocals or anything. I just enjoy the simpler vibes a bit more. The whole point of this album might be focusing on being R.E.T.R.O., but honestly, the 8 bit portions are often my least favorite part.

Oh yeah. This song has vocals too. It almost sounds like it belongs in the Mind.in.a.box storyline. As I’ve established already, it doesn’t. Pretty sure the lyrics here are referencing various elements of the game this song is based on. So, there’s not as much to get into with these lyrics. It’s a bit more fun when I get to delve deep into Black’s mind and the world that he lives in. Could’ve nearly fooled me though. There ae a lot of mentions of a guy in white… but that couldn’t be our White… Could it?

Mind.in.a.box – Supremacy (7.25): You know the drill. Supremacy shares the theme with a video game of the same name. The game was retitled Overlord when it came over to the US (where I live, though I wasn’t living when the game was released), but that fact is completely irrelevant. Mind.in.a.box is Austrian anyway, so they needn’t care for the renaming.

The mood of this song is completely transformed in this case. Oh, the melody stays the same. It wouldn’t be much of a remix if it didn’t contain a melody from the original title theme of the game, but when I went ahead and looked up the original song form the game, the mood was completely different. The game had a bouncy upbeat feel backing the melody that Stefan chose to base this song around. However, when we get to the remake in question (I am reviewing Mind.in.a.box, not games from two and a half decades ago), the song focuses a lot more on ambience.

I definitely prefer this transformed calmer mood. Maybe I’m biased because Mind.in.a.box is my favorite artist and it would be quite nearly impossible for me not to prefer his version over anyone else’s, but I feel there’s a bit more variety with what Mind.in.a.box creates by creating a calmer atmosphere and building off of it. Over time, the song grows slightly more intense, pulling away from the ambient vibe that the song started with and growing in intensity with increased arpwork. Eventually, the song reaches its climax in which the main melody from Supremacy. Only difference is that instead of committing to the bouncy mood of the original. Mind.in.a.box opts to aim for a more cinematic feeling with a slower drumbeat and some slower basswork (almost sounds a bit like a guitar, but not nearly as much as Machine Run).

Overall, this is one of the better adaptations of a game soundtrack to be seen on this album. The overall progression and variety really makes it stand out above some of the less interesting or overly lengthy tracks I’ve reviewed so far.

Mind.in.a.box – Shades (6.25): As far as I can tell, Shades does not come from a Commodore 64 video game. That’s different. Well there are a few other songs like this as well, the soundtrack recreations only take up half the album and we’ve looked at the majority of them already. How about a short break for something a bit more original? Shades, while not taking inspiration from any particular game, still maintains a similar retro feeling within its core. Many of the synths used to imitate the 8-bit melodies are still present here. Or at least there’s something similar in play.

After spending so much time comparing the covers to their original counterparts, it’s kind of weird to look at this track as its own original creation. I guess I’m just stuck in comparison mode. Ah well, I can still compare this to the last few songs on the album. It’s really par for the course. There’s plenty of decent elements to the song but few of them really stand out.

The drumbeat is kind of in the middle as far as tempo goes. Wouldn’t say it’s plodding, but it definitely isn’t driving either. There’s a bit of nice variety to it with a few extra syncopated kicks added into the mix at some points in the song.

As for melodies, they aren’t really distracting like in The Last Ninja III, mostly because they have longer notes with smoother transitioning. However, it just doesn’t feel quite as dynamic as it could be. There’s just not really much to work with. Some simple melodies play in the background but they don’t really add much to the song from what I can hear.

And then there’s basslines… I guess. I really don’t have much to say about these basslines. Inoffensive but completely forgettable.

I want to enjoy this song, but it really has nothing to offer that can’t be given by the other songs on the album.

Mind.in.a.box – 8 Bits (6.5): Here it is. The most popular Mind.in.a.box song. It shouldn’t be a song from this album, but it is. 8 bits may be enough for some people, but not me. Ok that was too harsh. I just wanted to do a pun on the song lyrics.

8 Bits and its counterpart, I Love 64, seem to tell their own narrative in a way. Not saying it’s connected to the narrative from the other albums. Not nearly as good as that. No, these songs seem to follow a virtual being made of code, though the tone doesn’t quite fit with the type of code I’d consider to be related to the Dreamweb. Interestingly, the world of 8 Bits is the reverse of the main Mind.in.a.box universe. Instead of escaping into the virtual universe known as the Dreamweb. An emulated entity desires to transcend its world perhaps to enter into our own reality. That would be a bit crazy though, right?

Both stories do have an element of trying to escape the world we see in front of us and redefining reality to maybe find a way to live comfortably with ourselves. And I think both themes are worth looking into. But this song feels somewhat cheapened. With everything that the rest of the discography shows, 8 Bits is very shallow in comparison. It’s alright but it just feels shallow.

The brighter happy music does contribute to this. Simple drumbeat and bassline with no harsh elements. And the melodies are made completely of short little chiptune bleeps and bloops. It’s definitely a happy mood. Maybe that’s my problem. I do seem more attracted to slightly edgier music. This song just doesn’t do it for me in the same way. It’s a good song despite my negativity, but it pales in comparison to everything else.

Mind.in.a.box – Mindkiller (7.25): All this time we’ve been putting the mind in a box, but now we’re killing it? Well this has taken a violent turn. Mindkiller is surprisingly not from a video game called Mindkiller. It’s actually supposedly from a game called Parsec. It’s only called Mindkiller because those are the sole words spoken throughout the song. Or are those words spoken because the song is called Mindkiller. Why isn’t this song called Parsec?

Actually, come to think of it, does the music here come from Parsec? Because I looked up the game on Youtube and I can’t find any moment anywhere in the surprisingly varied soundtrack (in comparison to the other games I’ve looked at) that sounds like what I’m hearing in this song. I’ll be honest, I got that little tidbit of info from Wikipedia which is possibly not the most reliable source. It is possible I missed the similarities though so if anyone else magically hears it, let me know.

Anyways, enough of the pondering of the song’s source and title. That information holds no weight on my final rating. It’s the music itself that matters. And this music is definitely different from what I’ve heard so far on this album. In fact, this is one of the three songs that I might consider to be suspiciously similar to what I’d expect from the more narrative albums. Perhaps the melodies are a bit more simplistic in the beginning, but the rest of the music here sets up a great dark atmosphere. The drumbeats are constantly changing, focusing on an eclectic range of kicks, snares and claps to keep that unsettling mood going. Not to mention the creepy breathing down the neck that builds as the song reaches the midway point.

The second half of the song sounds much like the Mind.in.a.box I know and love. That technological arp really is a staple that’s been missing for a lot of the songs in this album. The drumbeat does return to more regular four on four beat here, but it still maintains a bit of its edge to keep that unsettling vibe in place. And of course, there’s the titular lyric: Mindkiller. I theorize that this as well as two other songs later in this album are deleted scenes from previous albums, this one being the least developed of the bunch. The Mindkiller could be a deleted element from the Mind.in.a.box universe that was cut in favor of some of the other mind-bending elements sch as the Dreamweb and the Stalkers. I have no idea what a Mindkiller would be, but it could very well fit in with what Stefan has already created for us. But we shall never know what it would be, for if it was ever part of the story, it has since been removed.

Mind.in.a.box – The Last Ninja (7.25): Not to be confused with The Last Ninja III (which appeared earlier on in this album) or The Last Ninja II (which is completely irrelevant to his album but I’m sure it exists). A large number of these songs have been remixes of games from the Commodore 64. This one is the last one. I trust it to be based off of the game, The Last Ninja, but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t played any Commodore 64 games as I hasn’t grown up in that era (earliest gaming system for me is the original Xbox so I’m kind of in the late middlish I think).

But enough with recycling content, now that I have a soundtrack to compare it to (unlike with the enigmatic Mindkiller), I can faithfully say that this is a pretty good recreation. When I’d scoured through the soundtrack on Youtube (much easier to sort through than Parsec), I found a song that confused me because it sounded exactly like the Mind.in.a.box remix at the beginning. More accurately, the Mind.in.a.box version sounds exactly like the beginning of the original piece, but that simply isn’t the order I heard it so that’s not how I experienced the comparison.

But a good remix isn’t just about making the song sound similar to the original. It’s about improvement. And Mind.in.a.box’s modernization is certainly an improvement. As far as composition goes, this sounds like a direct copy of the original soundtrack with some drums added into the mix. However, it’s only the beginning of the track that truly sounds identical to the original. As the song travels forward in time as far as duration is concerned, it also travels forward in time in the modernity of its sound design. It may start with the simple 8 bit melodies, but it isn’t long before this songs starts using more guitars and modern synths to display the melodies originally composed three decades ago. And it definitely works quite well, as it sounds in some places that the original Commodore 64 wasn’t quite up to par with its instrumentation for some of these melodies (or maybe I have a bias towards Mind.in.a.box). It still incorporates some chiptune elements in there to maintain the retro integrity of the song, but there’s some great guitar added into the mix as well as a fantastic breakbeat portion in the middle.

Despite its intense modernization. This song serves as the most faithful recreation of the other recreations this album has to offer.

Mind.in.a.box – I Love 64 (6.5): And now to continue in the two-song universe of the emulated soul trapped in an 8 bit world. Fittingly, I love 64 refers to 64 bits. A bit of an upgrade from the 8 bits we had in the last song. I love 64 follows our eight-bit emulated entity as it discovers a second being made of 64 bits. 8 falls in love with 64 and romance begins to blossom between the two as 8’s eyes are opened to an entire new world beyond the one it had been stranded in back in the last song. Filled with desire, 8 wants to upgrade to become part of 64’s world but worries about whether their love will last through the transformation.

Honestly, it’s a cute love song with a unique spin on it. It serves as a nice logical sequel to 8 Bits as it allows the protagonist a window to embrace its dream to transcend into a greater reality. And in doing so the story of a search for meaning also becomes a search for love. There really isn’t much in particular to say about this one. It’s pretty similar to 8 Bits in tone and serves as a bouncy happy distraction before we get to the last two edgier songs that conclude this album.

Mind.in.a.box – We Cannot Go Back to the Past (7.5): This could have very well been a song on Crossroads that just ended up getting cut and left aside to be released later on this album. One of the very themes on Crossroads was moving on from the past. A song of not being able to go back to the past would have fit the album perfectly. However, it really just states an idea and it hits the nail pretty hard on the head. There’s really not much added into the narrative by including this song so that might explain the reason it was cut (if I’m correct at considering this song to be a deleted scene). The remaining songs gave this message out clearly enough on their own.

Seeing as the more narrative driven side of Mind.in.a.box is what I like most, this song is a bit closer up my alley. The C64 covers are fine and the short 8-bit storyline is suitable, but it’s Black’s journey that got me into Mind.in.box. This song gives a small taste of that feeling, even if it really is just stating the title of the song on repeat… kind of like Mindkiller did. Unfortunately, all that’s to be said about moving on from the past was said in my Crossroads review so you should probably just go ahead and read that one. Best album I’ve reviewed so far.

As for the music, it’s got a really solid bassline introduced at the very beginning of the song that serves as a backbone to the rest of the track. It’s dark. It’s a bit mysterious. And it honestly has a lot more texture than any of the other basslines I’ve heard from Mind.in.a.box. Like if the song Mind.in.a.box on Mushrooms ever came into existence (it’s not going to but that would be cool), then I’d likely expect a bassline like this one to be a main element. It doesn’t sacrifice its iconic technological nature, but it still creates something new that I haven’t heard in any of the other songs as far as I can remember.

Really, the bassline was the only musical element I wanted to highlight. Maybe if I weren’t so late on getting this review out (not going to stress too much about that. I cannot go back to the past), I’d try and dig deeper into the other parts of this song, but nothing is really as prominent as that bassline, which is fine because the bassline carries the song very well.

Mind.in.a.box – Whatever Mattered (8.75): Saving the best for last. This song could have definitely replaced The Place from Crossroads. I’m not entirely certain which one was produced first as I’m the one calling them deleted scenes and for all I know, I’m just making assumptions, but if he was choosing between this and The Place, I personally think he made the wrong choice. Really, it’s mostly a musical preference. The Place definitely had some flaws that held it back from me enjoying it. It was just a bad combination of musical elements that didn’t quite fit, making it the worst song on the album.

This, however, is the best song on this particular album. While The Place had conflicting moods between the piano and low end technological synths, this song focuses on a very smooth collection of instruments the feel somewhere in between. It does focus more on the relaxing side of Mind.in.a.box just as The Place did, but all of the melodies feel a lot smoother. Sure, they don’t stand out as much as the piano in The Place, but they do serve the song well in creating a deeply relaxing and introspective mood. And seeing as Whatever Mattered is all about introspection, then that works quite well for the song.

I will admit that when it comes to lyrics, The Place is a little bit better. It goes a lot more in depth to where Black is in his life (though it surprisingly doesn’t give much details on where Black is physically considering that the song is called The Place). This song is a bit more simplistic focusing only on the concept of moving forward into the future despite the past. And yet, stripped of much of the narrative detail, it does maintain the soul and message that was there in The Place. It’s more simplistic, but I feel that only makes the message stronger. Living in the past does not make the present a comfortable place to build one’s future.

Plus, it sounds good so there’s that.

Conclusion: This is Mind.in.a.box’s worst album. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good album, but I can’t help but prefer the more unique narrative that expands exponentially as the discography continues. Worldbuilding is just a passion of mine.

This album is simply different. It instead serves as a tribute to the Commodore 64 and some of its games as well as testing some new waters without contributing to the storyline. Maybe I’d like it more if I’d played these games as part of my childhood, but I wasn’t even alive at the time they were released, so you can’t really blame me too much for overlooking them (again, gaming is a minor pastime for me, not a passion).

While I may suggest skipping it if you’re listening to the discography chronologically for the narrative, I still think it’s worth coming back to once you finish listening to whatever the most recent installment is in Mind.in.a.box story.

Final Score: (7/10)

March 8, 2019August 24, 2019

Andy Hunter – Exodus (2002 Album)

Album links

Bandcamp: n/a

Soundcloud: n/a

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0kfUvTWsUJnIkCDj1zkDLS?si=jXpT6Ns-TzSq_iRfYevbXg

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nqiT5K2O0UP2K9BxQd-DuEB83N5sTdqyM

Introduction: What’s this a new artist? You may have thought I’d be reviewing the same three artists for all eternity seeing as that has been the pattern for the first couple months of this blog, but now that it’s March, perhaps I can venture a bit further into some other favorite artists of mine (this March line was more profound when the review was scheduled to be released on March 1 but oh well. Still the first review of March).

Andy Hunter… This is extremely nostalgic for me. Maybe a bit too nostalgic… You see, Andy Hunter was the very first. The very first artist that I heard that made me want to delve into electronic music. He was my number one artist for quite some time. However, seeing as I’m only now getting to him, I clearly consider him to have backslid a bit (Mind.in.a.box is currently winning, recently stole that spot from Infected Mushroom). Will I have some bias in this review? Well, music is incredibly subjective so I have some bias by default, but I will admit that these songs may have some emotional connection as I’ve been listening to this guy for nearly a decade now while most of my other favorite artists only reached my ears in the past five years or so. Regardless of my likely skewed ratings, I’m happy to share this piece of my childhood (early teens still counts as childhood yes?) with you.

However, before I get started, I do want to note one last thing about Andy Hunter. He is the rare occurrence of a Christian DJ/electronic artist. And because of this, a lot of his songs have subtle religious messages in them. There may be some who disagree, but having a Christian background, I can somewhat enjoy the messages I hear within these songs (though I am more prone to edgier music these days. I’ve grown to be somewhat of an agnostic to be honest). Really just wanted to give that context here and now before we got into any “lyrical analysis” (not much to speak of in this album when it comes to lyrics).

Andy Hunter – Go (7.5): Andy Hunter always does a fantastic job of introducing his albums. From Exodus to Glow (The Presence Project is a whole different animal so I’m ignoring that for now), each album/EP starts out with an energetic upbeat track to get the blood pumping. From there, the rest of the album ranges from mostly high energy songs, to the occasional more relaxing track.

Go is one of these opener songs (which was obvious from the get-go seeing as it’s the first song on the album but bear with me). The first couple minutes are admittedly calmer, but in a way, that only makes the rest of the song all the more energizing. Instead of throwing the listener directly into the energetic breakbeat tempo that makes up the majority of this track, the song begins with a simple heartbeat. And as that heartbeat plays onward, synchronizing your own heartbeat with the tempo, a stringed melody slowly builds along with some vocal synths as the song slowly builds up to its full potential

And then after a couple of record scratches and an echoing cry of the song’s title, that energetic breakbeat kicks in. Andy reintegrates those strings from the build-up into this more energetic portion and introduces some groovy basslines and computerized vocals (along with some other melodies and textures, but I find them to be less important compared to that bassline and the vocals so I’m only mentioning them in parentheses).

The bassline pretty much speaks for itself. It gets its own spotlight at the tail end of the build-up before the drums take over and they’re demoted to the background. I will admit that the bass isn’t flawless in this track. The main groove definitely works, but there are some points in the song where extra elements are added on that I don’t appreciate nearly as much. The part that stands out the most is that higher pitched note that sounds like it’s part of the bassline. It’s first introduced at 2:20 and it kind of feels out of place. The rest of the song fits quite well together, not perfectly, but not noticeably bothersome like the high-pitched bass note I just mentioned. The continuation of the strings as the song progresses is really what holds this all together (also the main groovy bass that isn’t an octave or two too high).

As for the vocals, they’re pretty simplistic. I don’t have much to discuss when it comes to any of the three lines, this song has to offer. There “Go,” the singular word that serves as a namedrop of the song’s title. There’s the line “Release Yourself,” which serves as the better half of the moment occurring at the 2:20 mark. Really not much to go off of there. And then there’s the chant “Born to Worship. Birth the Freedom,” which is the most cryptic of the three lines. Those first two looked pretty meaningless on their own, but this one deserves at least a bit of an extra look.

“Born to Worship, Birth the Freedom” can be translated to the sentiment of dedicating one’s life to worshipping God, finding freedom through doing so. Rather simple message and I can see some truth behind it as I know many who find peace through religion. I don’t believe that religion is fully perfect, and that it can be abused to hurt others (which I frown upon greatly), but if it brings peace, then I can’t help but respect that.

Overall, Go is a pretty good opener. It’s by no means perfect, definitely has some flaws, but it’s a good beginning to a good album.

Andy Hunter & Lyle Day – Wonders of You (8.25): So now that Go has established the breakbeat tempo that the first third of this album relies on, Wonders of You doesn’t bother itself with two-minute of build-up to reestablish itself. It does take about thirty seconds for that beat to fully establish itself, but compared to the two minutes of peace that began in Go, these thirty seconds have a lot more energy. Not saying that makes this intro better or worse. Just noting the difference.

One other thing to note as we move on from Go to Wonders of You is the transition. Exodus is an album that prides itself on flowing from one song to the next seamlessly. If it weren’t for the fact, that I knew this album so well (Been listening to it for a decade), I might not even notice as we transition from one song to the next. This transition is a bit less interesting than some of the later ones, as it relies on nothing but shared ambience. Still, I think it’s a noteworthy element to experiencing this album.

Enough about the first thirty seconds of the song! What about the other 7 minutes? I’d say that this tune is an improvement over the majority of Go (Go did have a beautiful start). The bassline is much smoother as it climbs up and down throughout the song. And unlike Go, which had some less pleasant accompaniments to that bassline. Every instrument in this song blends quite well with each other. And there are so many little tidbits in there, that it’s hard to point out the best ones. This might not be as highly rated as Walking or Redefined from previous Mind.in.a.box reviews, but I think that this song still deserves at least a short bullet point list of the best elements you can find in here.

Lyle Day jumping in there right at the 1-minute mark with an insanely energetic rap. More about the lyrics for this one later. He’s got some good wordplay between the words cross and fade in here.
Not ten seconds later, there’s a subtle little synth that sound like echoing water droplets.
And a minute after that at 2:10, we’ve got that quick little build-up that works as a transition to introduce the first short appearance of strings (which offer nice variety by the way). The same thing happens around the 3:40 mark and it’s just as good the second time around.
This simple five-note melody introduced at about 2:40 is the main melody of the song (odd how it appeared so late), Other than Lyle, this is the most memorable part of the song to me.
The way Lyle says “Fire” and “Desire” at 4:45 just stands out to me for some reason. That is all.
The outro is mostly there to transition into Radiate, but I do enjoy how it sounds as the key changes (plus that last synth introduced at the end has a great distorted vocal vibe to it, which now reminds me of Infected Mushroom oddly enough).

The true star of the show is definitely Lyle and his two verses. Bouncing right off of Go’s declaration that we are “born to worship,” Wonders of You is a rapid-fire unconventional worship song. This isn’t a hymn, that’s for sure. Lyle only spends about 40 seconds of the song rapping, but man does he jam pack those 40 seconds with praise. I’m not the biggest fan of rap but I used to abhor it. And yet, I’ve always enjoyed Lyle’s verses. Maybe I was just enjoying the album in its entirety, but I believe they still hold up even though the album has taken a couple steps down in my general taste.

Some last-minute notes on the lyrics, I do quite enjoy that wordplay between cross and fade in the first verse as well as the energy behind fire and desire in the second verse (but I already mentioned that). I found it interesting that some of the lyrics in that second verse, there’s some references to the events within the book of Exodus, the book likely behind the name of this album. God appeared as both a burning bush and a pillar of fire to Moses and the Israelites. And there was a lot of wandering in the desert for about 40 years. Small things, but I find them interesting.

Andy Hunter – Radiate (8.75): Now this is a much better seamless transition. Not relying on ambience this time. Instead, Radiate starts with the same exact beat that Wonders of You ended with and incorporates elements of the previous song within its introduction. That main five-note melody? You can still hear it for about thirty seconds before it fades out completely. How about vocals? Well, maybe I’m just going crazy, but I think I hear someone repeatedly saying “wonder” in that intro. Doesn’t sound exactly like the vocals in Wonders of You, but that could be because Wonders of You had some more distortion on that chorus.

But that’s just the transition, the first minute of the song. As the longest song on the album, we still have seven and a half to go. What does it have for us? Well there’s that trance drumbeat for starters. I think I’ve established well enough in my Infected Mushroom reviews that Trance has a great tempo, and while Andy Hunter is in no way psychedelic, there is a nice sliding feel between the snares on the second and fourth beats. Any BPM between 135 and 145 is an excellent drive. This song just barely reaches into the low end of that.

Anyways, enough rambling on and on about the little things (I sure do love going in depth this week). Perhaps I should talk about some highlights within this song. Radiate is one of those Journeys through Sound (initially and frequently mentioned in Infected Mushroom reviews). And because of that there is so many different moments I could look at within this song. I am going to have to leave a few out as I have noticed I am getting a bit lengthy here in this review. I need to tone it down a notch.

Let’s have a little intermission with the lyrics before I continue on with my favorite elements of this song. Just switching things up a little. I shan’t be long here. Radiate appears to be focused on letting God into one’s self, his perfection permeating through the soul, shining brightly so that it shows throughout one’s life. And that’s all there is to say about that. The wording of it is a bit violent though. Radiation, Eradication. Burning. Very destructive words. Ah well on to the rest of the music

In addition to this song being a Journey through Sound, I also want to highlight another element I enjoy in several songs, Build-ups from Nothing. There are two points in the song where the beat completely drops out of the picture and all that remains is ambience and a simple melody. A calm in the middle of the storm if you will. But the silence doesn’t last forever. It can’t. But it wouldn’t do to suddenly interrupt this soothing calmness either. So instead, the song builds upon that calm beginning. Slowly but surely, the song returns to its past power. The two build-ups included with this song are rather similar to each other in form. Both start with that ambience. Both have a similar melody. Both introduce the sliding snares part way through (before introducing the kicks). The only real difference is that the first one has a piano at the beginning, meaning the electronic melody has to battle with the piano for the spotlight (piano obviously wins). However, the piano is absent from the second build-up allowing the other melody to have a chance in the spotlight (after getting creamed by that piano). Well, both build-ups are amazing (no pun intended considering the next song) and definitely stand as my favorite parts of the song.

Before I move onto the next song, I want to quickly highlight a few more little parts of the song that I feel deserve noting. First off, there’s that bass that introduces itself midway through the song after the second Build-up from Nothing. It definitely overtakes the song at that point, giving it a slightly harsher feel as it throbs along with the beat. Another thing that I enjoy in this song is the strings. They don’t reach the same levels as the beginning of Go, but they are quite good. They serve mostly as transitions into those Build-ups from Nothing (A lot of what I love about this song seems to center around those) and at the end of the song as we prepare for Amazing.

Andy Hunter & Christine Glass – Amazing (7.75): Amazing kind of breaks the seamless transition that this album has. There’s a moment of silence at the end of Radiate which means that it doesn’t matter what Amazing starts with. It has nothing to work with. Ah well. The introduction still does share some similarities with the conclusion of Radiate. Both feature a heavy amount of strings. Both are at a very similar BPM (though Amazing takes a little while to get started so that BPM isn’t immediately apparent). I guess that counts somewhat as a transition, but it’s the least interesting transition on the album if so.

Amazing has vocals though. Not slightly filtered vocals from Andy Hunter himself. No, these vocals come from Christine Glass. This song and the four after it make up what I’m going to call the female vocal half of the album. Each of them features a different female vocalist, though some are less integral to the song than others. For this song, Christine Glass is definitely integral. Her soft vocals are smooth as glass (pun definitely intended) and are definitely the most memorable part of the song. The strings come as a close second, but they blend in so well with Glass’s vocals that I almost think of them as an extension of that beauty. Whenever the strings are present, I have a tendency to ignore all the other instruments as they simply can’t compare. There’s a good bassline, and a couple little melodic touches (though the main melody is kind of eh). Overall, the music of this song works well enough. Maybe, a balance could be given so that other instruments mattered more, but there’s nothing in there that I outright dislike so that’s a plus (the next song won’t be as fortunate).

Lyrically, this song isn’t as religiously focused as some of the other tracks on the album. It do believe the intention was to be a song focusing on experiencing the majesty of God’s power, allowing us to experience things beyond our comprehension. But without the context of Andy Hunter’s tendency to write song’s religiously, it sounds more like a love song. I don’t mind either way, but as of this point in my life, I’m not really drawn to either option either.

Andy Hunter & Michelle Prentice – Show (4.5): As Amazing ends with a whisper, it leads into Show, one of the calmer songs on the album. It is also the worst song on the album. Sorry for the harsh words, but even the best albums have to have a song that takes that spot. Ah well, let’s go backwards and talk about the lyrics first, because they’re relatively simple and I really would rather conclude my thoughts on this song by discussing a certain instrument…

Show me glory. That’s it. That’s pretty much all the lyrics. There is a bridge in the middle of the song which has Michelle saying a couple of lines about Opening one’s eyes and heart to God as well. But I don’t have much to say about those either. There that’s all of that. Wouldn’t that be a shame if I ended this particular summary with this lame paragraph about lyrics. On to the music!

I’d say a good half of the instruments in this song are beautiful and relaxing. The slow tempo works well for the relaxing mood, not to mention some of the moments that focus a little more on ambience. As for vocals, most lyrics are said with a whisper. The female vocals in the background are a nice touch, both the clean unedited version and the more synthetic choir that is added in from time to time. The bridge is a sight bit strange, but I do feel like it makes a good centerpiece to the song. If only the rest of the song was like this…

The bassline doesn’t fit. It has a nice long rolling feel to it, and I would consider it to be one of the better parts of the song, but it doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the relaxing stuff. But that doesn’t compare to the screechy synth that is completely out of place. It first appears at 2:17 and I find it to be quite annoying. But the real nail in the coffin is just a tiny little beep. I’ve looked across countless versions of the song hoping the beep was just a glitch but no. It’s there and it ruins an otherwise decent song. Am I perhaps complaining a bit too much? Maybe. But this little beep breaks the song in a jarring manner. I find it to be a bother every time it interrupts the otherwise smooth experience and gives me a slight bit of a headache. If it were absent, this song might get a higher score, but this song is a disgrace to the rest of the album anyway.

Andy Hunter & Cathy Burton – Translucent (7.25): While Show could have been the most relaxing song on the album, it ended up flopping spectacularly as Andy Hunter’s worst. And so instead we have Translucent as the most relaxing song on the album. And it is a major improvement. Everything here is pure relaxation, no weird trippy divisive instruments and absolutely no annoying beeping. This song is truly a beauty to listen to. If Show’s main goal was to beg for glory to be shown, then Translucent does just that by taking the ambience from show and building it into a glorious introduction.

Much of the song is simply ambience fading in and out throughout the verses. It’s not exceptionally interesting, but Cathy’s vocals (which are the best vocals on the album) do well to prevent the lack of variety from becoming a bore (there’s not even any drums here). The chorus is a bit better with adding some stuff in there. There are some very subtle drums as well as a simple melody added in there and it thankfully works well with the relaxing vibe the rest of the song has, which is more than I can say for Show (which I apparently love to hate seeing how often I mention it). The only instrument that I could possibly consider unfitting is the more electronic synth used in the final chorus and the outro. But it’s used subtly and doesn’t interrupt the glorious feeling so much as it adds some variety and some transitioning into the next song. This whole track is a much better example of Andy Hunter’s chiller side (the side he’s devoted his time to in recent years with his Presence Project).

The lyrical content in this one is quite intimate. The whole concept is opening one’s self to God showing your entire soul and self to him as he washed away the sin that mucks up our life. The chorus is where this concept is most explored while the verses focus a little more on God’s incredible majesty and glory. And then there’s the bridge which mentions Angelic sounds filling the air. Speaking of Angelic sounds…

Andy Hunter & Alisa Girard – Angelic (8.5): That final synth I mentioned in the last song brings us into Angelic, our first nonlyrical song of this album. Plenty of gorgeous vocals from Alisa but not a single word is voiced. This song is a transition back into the more upbeat music that I prefer from Andy Hunter, at least for this album, but it is also the most beautiful song this album has to offer.

Angelic has two main focuses, the piano and the vocals. Sure, the other instruments in there have some presence too. You can’t have a good drive without a good drumbeat and the strings and ambience definitely do some solid background work to add to the beauty that the main stars of the show create, but those main stars are definitely the vocals and the piano. And how can I describe their beauty and why this is one of the best tracks on the album? I’ve pondered how to explain it for a good while now, but there isn’t a way to explain it other than tell you how gorgeous it is. It’s impossible to really go into detail because this track is a simple beauty.

Part of me feels like somewhat of a failure of a reviewer for being unable to review this lovely song, but really, it’s something you have to experience for yourself. Just know that it’s beautiful.

Andy Hunter & Tasia Tjornhom – Sandstorm Calling (8.5): Not to be confused with Darude – Sandstorm.

This song right here is an absolute classic. I understand that a lot of these songs are great classics to me even though Andy Hunter is a slight bit more obscure than some other electronic artists from the time. He was my childhood though and this was once my favorite song from him. My opinions have shifted slightly but this still remains to be one of the most nostalgic songs for me. Other than Tasia’s occasional vocal this song is fully instrumental, and to be perfectly honest, since Tasia only has a small note here and there (no lyrics), I could probably count her as an instrument herself if I felt like it, making this the most instrumental song on the album.

But this song doesn’t need vocals to be one of the greatest songs on the album. Right from the start the song transitions smoothly from angelic with a heart pounding drumbeat shared between the ending and beginning of the two songs respectively. And when I say heart pounding, I mean it literally. This drumbeat sounds like a combination of a heartbeat and some heavy breathing and it has the same effect as the drumbeat from Go at the beginning of the album, except this time that heart is pounding a little bit faster. Also, it comes back into play a couple more times in the song where Go’s heartbeat only really mattered for the intro.

The most prominent and memorable part of this song would have to be the horns that play the main melody. It’s not so prominent that it feels overused, but it is definitely the clear motif of the song if it has one. Besides the most obvious iterations of the melody shown at 1:27, 2:36 and 5:37, there are several subtler points where the melody is used. From fairly obvious parts such as the fractions of the melody played in the song’s introduction to slightly more hidden points such as the quieter melody underlying the song whenever we aren’t in full melody mode (or build-up from nothing mode but I’ll get to that). Everything else the song has to offer, the basslines, the strings and Tasia’s vocals, contribute to the mystical feeling this song presents to me. Nothing feels out of place. Everything works together.

My favorite part of the song, of course, has to be the build-up from nothing. After the second chorus of the motif melody we reach the midpoint of the song and as I’ve explained in previous songs with a Build-up from Nothing, everything drops out. The drumbeat, the melody, the bassline. All of it. Nothing remains. Well, almost nothing. Andy Hunter leaves a bit of ambience in there to work with as he refreshes the rest of instruments over time. There’s a few notes that sound like water droplets in the beginning which I love as they kind of remind me of a cave. In a way, it kind of helps me visualize the rest of the song with this short portion taking shelter from a cave in the middle of a tortuous sandstorm before the safehaven collapses. I have a vivid imagination when it comes to some of these songs, pretty sure I used to visualize a music video for this entire album when I was younger, this is the only part I remember though.

I got distracted. Let’s talk about these strings for a second. The way they’re introduced really is the heart of this build-up and the remainder of the song following it. They don’t gradually introduce themselves with a rising crescendo (unless you consider the ambience to be an introduction to the strings, though I’m pretty sure that ambience is made up of the sweeping notes of a bass (the actual stringed instrument, not just a general term for low notes). These higher strings begin at full volume along with some cinematic drumbeats to accompany them. As the stings build- growing more intense, eventually playing a quicker melody, other elements of the song are introduced and reintroduced. A new bassline joins in first followed by a return to that literally heat pounding drumbeat from the beginning. And all the while there is a slight nod to the main melody (albeit this iteration is played a bit lower so it sounds quite different in tone).

And after that build-up concludes itself, the song returns to its usual tempo and energy. This time highlighting those strings as the star of the show, once again letting them develop in a similar manner, starting off slowly and then shifting the notes around bit more rapidly as the song progresses. And with one last iteration of that motif melody chorus, we have a fantastic closure to a fantastic song.

And so, concludes the five female vocal songs of the album. Only two more to go.

Andy Hunter – Strange Dream (8.25): These last few songs on the album transition quite well between each other. Sandstorm Calling ends with a rising scream that drops right back into the breakbeat style we had at the beginning of the album. Strange Dream is a return to where we started and, living up to its name, it’s definitely one of the stranger songs on the album. Unlike the last couple of songs, this song returns to having lyrics, but if there’s a message behind them I can’t seem to figure it out at all. There’s a dream. It’s strange and funny. Only way I can think of this working biblically is one of the many stories of dream interpretations. Only problem is… none of these appear in Exodus so I really can’t tell you how that connects. Maybe Andy over here just had a strange and funny dream one time and felt inspired to build a song around the concept.

What’s the dream about? Well there’s so few lyrics, I’m afraid I can’t tell you. It’s strange and funny, I can tell you that much, but the rest of the vocals don’t give much information to work with (if any information at all). As soon as the song begins, you’ve got two lines: “You wasted basics for that, dude” and “Down, sit down, See you down.” What do they mean? Who knows! My guess is that our man Andy here has a subconscious self-criticism of how he continues to waste the basic elements of his life on… something… Also, he forces himself to sit down to try and ponder this self-criticism he has. Am I looking too deep into this and almost certainly misinterpreting any meaning Andy has for us (if anything)? Yeah. Pretty sure I am. Am I self-projecting? I don’t know possibly. Self-criticism seems to be a problem of mine, but I didn’t actually put much thought into this theory. I sort of just vomited out the first existential possibility that came to my head when looking at these either cryptic or random lyrics. Maybe my subconscious is the one we need to look into…

Ok, well regardless, of how vaguely I try to analyze these lyrics, the penultimate song of Exodus does have some pretty good music on it. After the introduction is done about a minute in, the song returns to four on four, which I find to be a bit disappointing (Syncopation is such a pleasure of mine). Still, the conventional drumbeat doesn’t interfere with the rest of the song. There’s some great bass design throughout, be it the harsh funky notes in the intro, the nearly arpeggiated pattern that plays for most of the song or the cleaner lower synth that joins in around the three-minute mark (though to be fair this could count as a melody).

This song divides itself into two different vibes. There’s the upbeat vibe that takes up the majority of the song and a couple of calmer breaks at each third-way mark in the song. I’ve already talked extensively about the former when it comes to the basslines as that’s the most prominent focus there. There is a synth that I haven’t mentioned that has a nice swing to it and plays the main melodies of the upbeat four on four areas of the song. Plus, there’s a couple of points in the song where an extra instrument is layered on top of the arpeggiated bass to give it a much-welcomed accent.

The latter of these two vibes is the calm between the storms (not sandstorms, that was the last song). The song takes two short breaks to strip away the kicks and basslines from the song, creating a more relaxing environment focusing more extensively on melody and strings. There’s a chilling main melody in here that gives me extra nostalgic vibes for some reason (even more nostalgic than the usual Andy Hunter and I honestly don’t even remember it somehow so there’s definitely something fishy going on in my subconscious music memory). Regardless, I enjoy these two portions of the song the best. I wouldn’t say they’re build-ups from nothing, but at the end of each one “Strange and funny dream,” tends to get me a smile. I especially get a kick out of the “straaaaaaaange andfunnydream” at the end of the first calmer portion. As strange (and funny) as they are, these vocals are definitely the selling point on this song.

Andy Hunter – Intercessional (7.25): Final transition of the album smoothly leads us into Intercessional with a bassline not all that different from the main one in Strange Dream. It’s a bit higher in pitch, but the rhythm is quite similar (though I think I prefer Strange Dream’s). However, this bassline is only important half of the time in this song as Andy continuously switches back and forth between the already mentioned bassline and a second rhythmic bassline introduced about a minute in, which I find to be a bit smoother. I prefer the latter of these to be honest. That smoother vibe is definitely better in my opinion.

As for the rest of the song, I’m not all that impressed. It’s still a good song but compared to all of the other stuff we’ve seen in this album. The singular melody that this song seems to have isn’t especially interesting except for the ending of it’s first iteration where we spend a small few seconds with that syncopated drumbeat. Some of the best few seconds of the song, though the rest of the melody just doesn’t carry the song very well.

After those few seconds of breakbeat, the song does reach a calm as it prepares for a small build-up from nothing. There’s a decent choir introduced in there (which is used throughout the remainder if the song which is a welcome bit of variety), and the breakbeat drums do continue as the song builds up. Some good subtle touches here and there make the build-up work quite well It’s nowhere near as remarkable as the build-ups in Go, Radiate and Sandstorm Calling, but beating those songs is a tall order anyway.

As for the lyrics, there’s not really much deep to go into. The song is called intercessional. An intercessional is a prayer. The song is about prayer. The song is about an intercessional. It’s all pretty self-explanatory.

Overall, this is a pretty weak closer for the album. The song is good and all, but it doesn’t reach the same heights as many of the other songs on the album.

Conclusion: that review was a lot longer than I’d expected it to be. A good half of the songs had full on essays of things to talk about which might be a bit excessive (even my Mind.in.a.box reviews are shorter than this and they have more songs plus a whole narrative to deal with). Regardless, I definitely enjoyed immersing myself into the intricacies of Andy Hunter’s early works. The album does have some flaws (take a look at Show, his worst song), but overall, it’s been a great nostalgic experience working on this review. As much as I had to say in the body of this review, this conclusion is pretty short. I guess I already summed it all up.

Final Score: (7.75/10)

February 23, 2019

Mind.in.a.box – Crossroads (2007 album)

Album links

Bandcamp: https://mind-in-a-box.bandcamp.com/album/crossroads

Soundcloud: n/a

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4ttiMmV56iQRKSuCOhSiPl?si=ADufv63kRtKTFT8hJhQ_mQ

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8kgGG6wGqRAE8yajRvCTEaWfkYIuL04

Last time on Mind.in.a.box: White has tasked an agent with a mission to track down a hacker, but unfortunately, his target has escaped into an alternate reality, the Dreamweb. Thankfully, White had found a lead that the two of them can use to try and figure out how to enter the Dreamweb and apprehend the hacker that has been eluding them for several months now. The lead? A woman who’d spoken to the hacker the night of the disappearance. The agent finds her at a club, but something strange occurs. The music within the club invades him mind, giving him visions of another world. His dreams have been infected by an unknown source. The gap in his memories remains unfilled and the agent begins to suspect that his mind may have been wiped at some point in time. The agent prepares to take the next step in his journey, but the question is which step will he take?

He finds himself at a Crossroads…

Mind.in.a.box – Introspection (7.75): This introduction isn’t a recap. It’s an information overload. The entire perspective of the agent’s world has been turned on its head. He awakes under the care of two people, a man and a woman, The Friend and Night (Just guess who these two are. I dare you). He is greeted with a smile as he floats in an enclosed pool of water. A weightless environment in which the Sleepwalkers attempt to save his identity from his employer’s mindwipe. White isn’t who he seems.

No one is as they seem.

Honestly, all of the introductory songs to the Mind.in.a.box albums are great, but this one is one of the most enjoyable to listen to. I can’t fully decide which is better, this or Tape Evidence. Tape Evidence did a better job at being immersive by using foley along with the agent’s narrative. The music in this song however, is an immediate step up from much of the music in the last album. A perfect balance between the energetic basslines overlaid over high-paced syncopated drumbeats and the melodies that match the mysteries that are to come.

As of right now, I prefer this over Tape Evidence as I enjoy the music a lot more this time around and I feel like there’s a great overload of new information introduced here. And while this does answer the question of how the agent’s memories had begun to fade from his mind, several more questions take its place. Who are the Sleepwalkers? Who exactly are Night and the Friend? How did they get a hold of the agent and where is this empty flat they’ve taken him to? More importantly, where was Black when he’s woken up underwater? And what happened when the glass shattered?

The world is changing. And it will never be the same again.

Mind.in.a.box – Amnesia (8.25): I mentioned this in a previous Daily Hat Track, but Amnesia is quite a special song to me in the Mind.in.a.box discography. Any firsts are incredibly valuable in my opinion. And as my first song from my current favorite artist at the moment, this one definitely has a nostalgic bias.

As far as the music goes, this song doesn’t do any thing particularly special. It plays a little bit with the whole technological Mind.in.a.box vibe but most of the song is just the same bassline and four on four drumbeat. There’s a bit of variation with some subtle melodies here and there, but as far as the verses go, that’s about all the song has.

The chorus on the other hand, while a bit more minimalistic at first, does stand out a bit from the rest of the song. In its first iteration, it begins with a solo bassline and slowly adds new elements over time, a more complex drumbeat and a building melody that ebbs in and out as the chorus continues, transforming in tone so it flows connectedly into the original vibe from the verses. In the second iteration, it starts off with an arp instead of the bassline and the drumbeat disappears for the second half of the chorus as the song winds down towards its conclusion.

However, while lesser musically than surrounding songs, Amnesia still showcases the agent’s struggles well. As I’ve been mentioning for weeks now, the agent has been having a little bit of trouble recalling his memories. This has become especially important seeing as we’ve recently discovered the source of his amnesia, White’s mindwipe. This song does share some thematic tones with lament for Lost Dreams from the last album as the agent looks upon himself, knowing that his past has been broken and that he will never be the same again because of it. But he doesn’t lament for long. He instead looks ahead to tackle the future instead of dwelling in the past. In fact, this song does even less lamenting on the past. The agent has become more accepting of the fact that his past has gone. In fact, he seems intent on leaving it behind, making peace in the present so he can look to the future.

Mind.in.a.box – Into the Night (8.25): Ready for another information dump? Because our agent has stumbled his way back into the club he’d visited back in Dead End from the previous album. And boy does he have a lot of questions (he is having troubles remembering after all. We did just have a whole song about that). Unfortunately, as usual, we only get the agent’s side of the conversation. So really, this is just reiterating questions we’ve already had. On occasion, the agent gives a vague reaction to the questions, which allows some of information the agent has collected to slip through the cracks. But in usual Mind.in.a.box fashion, we just have more questions. Oh sure, they’ll all be answered eventually, but there’s always another secret to taunt us with.

But before I dive in too deeply into Mind.in.a.box lore, let’s talk a brief bit about the music. Into the Night bounces back between two vibes, one for the experience the agent has scoring for information about his recent experience, trying to find a path to take in the future as his direction has been lost since his severance with White. The other playing as the agent repeats his mantra depicting his emotional emptiness. For the former, the music actually takes a backseat, allowing the conversations to be displayed with very little distraction as the music drives forward subtly in the background. But for the latter, there’s plenty more Mind.in.a.box arps taking over the song. Some simple melodies, projecting a mysterious vibe as the mantra repeats.

There was nothing left to feel as the agent fell into the night. Cut off from his past, he felt cold and empty uncertain of where to begin with his new life. He’d originally resigned to the pain he was used to under White’s careful watch but now that he had been freed by the Sleepwalkers (Who are they?), he’s been healed, reborn into a new person, but a person unsure of where to go in his life.

So, he searches for answers. He revisits the club where he’d nearly caught Night before being overcome with visions of the Dreamweb, the reality invented by The Friend. The agent still isn’t quite sure what happened that night. He peers around the club searching for answers. He recognizes a man he’d seen before, though he’s unsure of the identity. He vaguely recalls a place known as the Pi, but he remembers nothing of it. He tries to figure out what band was playing that night when he’d nearly lost his mind, but he can’t recognize any of them. He is, however, introduced to the Sleepwalkers (previously mentioned on Introspection). He wonders who (or perhaps what) they are.

But the most mysterious blank in the agent’s mind is his name. He doesn’t know his name. And so he creates a new one. A new identity for his reborn self. To oppose his previous employer, the agent becomes his opposite.

Black.

His name is Black.

Mind.in.a.box – Identity (9.25): Identity is an enigma sometimes. Perhaps I’m just prone to overthink everything, but I find it nearly impossible to truly lock on to solid identity that defines who I am. Can I truly be defined by a simple list of characteristics? Is there really a core to myself that I can latch onto? That I can rely one and look to as a constant in my life? Am I being all too existential for my own good? Probably yes to that last one. But Black seems to have the same problem, the same desire to define himself. Admittedly, his loss of identity is a bit worse, as he can’t even remember his true name. I at least know that much.

Following the last two songs, Identity definitely has a more energetic powerful feel to it. Introspection comes close with its intense introduction throwing us directly into the story with Black’s interaction with Night and The Friend, but Identity has many more melodies and a bit more variation. Part of this is thanks to the vocals which span across several different moods. The calmer introspective verses, the more emotionally intense chorus (the last fourth reaching a higher octave in Black’s desire for identity), the monotone mantra following the chorus (I want to know who I am. The rest of the music is stellar too, great drum patterns and arps easing in and out with a nice variety of melodies (bassy or otherwise. Some good moments of ambience too, which can surprisingly be heard even with all the energy of the rest of the song that could distract from the calmer strings. But even the ambience Is prominent. Every single element of this song provides a great mixture of sounds to fill the ears, but the vocals are definitely the emotional heart of the song as they easily steal the spotlight from everything else.

But what good are vocals without fantastic lyrics to go along with them? Thankfully, this song has just that. Like I’d expressed at the beginning of this portion on Identity, this song focuses a lot on Black’s desire to find his identity. To figure out who he is and where he belongs in this world. His life had been empty and monotone before as he submitted to his fate as an agent of White’s. But now that he’s free, now that he can sever his ties, he spends this song striving to make something of himself. To figure out a new purpose for his new life. He will define his life as his own.

Mind.in.a.box – Lucid Dreams 1 (7.25): Why was I so afraid? Night was not afraid.

As a twenty second intermission, I’m not going to have much to say on this song. It’s twenty seconds of ambience and two sentences. Such short intermissions are a rarity in the Mind.in.a.box discography. There’s only two such short intermissions in this album (the second aptly named Lucid Dreams 2) as well as a couple on Broken Legacies. Each one has to do with Black’s fear as he faces the road ahead. He must overcome it if he’s to join Night and The Friend on the journey through the Dreamweb. On his journey to find his purpose. But for now, his fear still has a hold on him. Let’s talk about that fear, shall we?

Mind.in.a.box – Fear (8.25): Fittingly, the song called Fear begins in a rather creepy manner, with an ominous bassy ambience setting the mood so that the eerie melody and some rough distorted vocals can ease their way into the song. The verses in the song is where this slightly ominous underlying feel is most present. The tone of the vocals contributes the most to this feeling of dread. In the verses, the computerized vocals take on the lowest octave within its comfortable range (not that such distorted vocals couldn’t go any lower, but it wouldn’t be that intelligible if you continued down the path towards contrabass. Thankfully, the chorus takes the vocals an octave or so higher instead. And since an uplifting arp is also more prominent in these choruses, the emotions portrayed are a bit calmer, a bit less unsettling. This works quite well, as the entire purpose of the song is not about succumbing to fear but about how Black must overcome his fear.

Fear is an interesting emotion. Even though, I normally wouldn’t describe myself as a fearful person, it truly is fear that drives me in some ways. Mostly my fear of the expansive universe that will swallow up my mortal identity, but that really only bothers me on bad days. But even on the good days, that fear is still there, crouching in the corner of my soul, simultaneously fueling my productivity while also waiting for a chance to latch on to me, paralyzing me whenever I reach the lower points in my life. A huge theme of Mind.in.a.box is dealing with the darker more existential parts of the mind and finding a balance between confronting them without being overtaken by them. And what makes this one work so well is how it accepts that fear is sometimes a fact of life, while simultaneously sending out a message of overcoming it. Everyone’s afraid, but that’s no excuse.

Like displayed in that last intermission, fear has been haunting Black for a long while now. Across, all of the albums so far, Black has tormented himself trying to pick apart at the mysteries of his mind. And the more he discovers, the less he truly knows. The questions that had begun arising from the very beginning are increasingly prominent in his life as he transitions away from White’s control and has to face a band new future in which everything has changed. A change which he fears.

Mind.in.a.box – Stalkers (8.25): Stalkers is a song depicting a new group of within the Mind.in.a.box universe, the Sleepwalkers. They repeat a mantra in unison as they serve some unknown controller (I have my theories) and all the while, a solitary voice tries to escape their chase. The music accompanying this struggle is quite fitting to the themes of these Stalkers. Much of the song has a more monotone feel to it, with repetitive arps with small bits of variation driving the song forward. It isn’t until the last act of the song, that there are significant changes with a melody that breaks from the constant and slight change in tone of the arps that we begin to break away from the uniformity of the Stalkers. But who are these Stalkers I’ve been speaking of?

My initial impression was that this song was about the Sleepwalkers, but just because the name starts with an “S” and ends in an “Alkers” doesn’t necessarily mean the two groups are related. Quite the opposite actually. Looking at the details we can glean about this new group from the lyrics, the Stalkers are a group of people who have a collective mind. A solitary consciousness. And seeing as Night and the Friend, the suspected Sleepwalkers, have saved Black’s mind, it doesn’t quite add up to the mental slavery depicted in this song. Black, now freed from White’s mindwipe, has the chance to live a new life of his own, not one in which he’d become slave to the other side. No, the stalkers are not with the people who were running from Black as he and White chased them in search of the Dreamweb.

Or perhaps they weren’t just chasing the Sleepwalkers

Perhaps they were stalking them.

I could be wrong about the true identity of the controller of the Stalkers, but I think one thing that’s notable about this theory is the outro of the song. A solitary voice, Black’s voice, calls out repeating the Stalker mantra. It’s possible that this song serves as a Flashback to how Black begun serving White, but things have definitely changed since then. He’s no longer a component of the machine of White’s creation and now he can see the strings that has held him previously. Black is still in danger of the mindwipe. He must fight the machine in order to truly free himself, but his journey to freedom has only just begun.

Mind.in.a.box – What Used To Be (8.5): At first glance, What Used to Be seems to take on the exact same themes as Lament for Lost Dreams and Amnesia, but there’s a significant difference between those previous tracks and the track what we’re looking at today. The first two are about Black’s struggle to let go of the memories that have faded from his mind. This one however, focus on the memories he does remember. The memories he has of serving under White (perhaps as a Stalker). Letting go of the holes in one’s mind is one thing. Letting go of memories that continue to haunt one’s self is another story altogether.

I’ve chosen the longer version to review for this review. While searching for a Youtube playlist, I noticed that a lot of the less official ones use a Short Storm remix that’s only 4 minutes long rather than the full 7. This is a completely different version of the song though. I wouldn’t even consider to to be an oddly named radio edit as the whole vibe of the song is transformed into something a bit less interesting. I prefer the seven-minute version anyways. Longer is nearly always better in my book. Especially when the longer version includes a greater variety of the technological arps and basslines I know from Mind.in.a.box. I’m not sure if there’s anything that especially stands out in this song. It really meshes quite well with the rest of the album though so I’m glad this is the version included rather than the Short Storm version (It may sound like I hate Short Storm but it’s honestly not all that bad. It just doesn’t really sound like the technological perfection I’m used to from Mind.in.a.box)

Black must move on from what used to be. From the life he had while still employed by White. Now free from White’s control, Black reconsiders the Crossroads he’d faced in the past. The Crossroads he’d mindlessly followed White down. He looks at the paths he’s taken and regrets where he’s ended up. But like in Amnesia and Lament for Lost Dreams, Black must look towards the present and the future, while he can learn to the past, obsessively dwelling over his mistakes (as I am admittedly all too guilty of) will do him no good.

The Crossroads ahead are what matters.

Mind.in.a.box – The Place (7.25): The Place is definitely the most relaxing song on the album. I’m not certain if it tops that particular list for the entire discography. I believe the next canonical album, Revelations, has a fair amount of songs that fit a calmer mood as well. But as far as the first half of the Mind.in.a.box discography goes (Yes, we’re halfway through already. Though I might get distracted by a certain side project in a bit so I’m not certain when we’ll get to the next chapter) this one is the most relaxing.

The beauty begins immediately with the piano melody which serves as the bookends for this particular song. It’s quite a refreshing diversion from the typically hyper-technological vibe that the rest of the album has. While I personally prefer the more upbeat songs, the beautiful piano does intrigue me and it builds quite well to the main vocal section of the song as it distorts back into a more technological sound while accompanied by some synthesized strings. Overall, it makes for a powerful introduction to this slower more reflective song.

However, when the song returns to the more technological instruments, the beauty of the song unfortunately gets covered up a little bit. It’s still there and there’s a lot of instruments that work well with it, but then there’s that bassy lead. It shouldn’t be there. It’s distracting. Its melody seems almost completely random. It just doesn’t fit with this song. Ignoring that, this one of the less gritty songs on the album. Even the vocals are a bit cleaner than usual. They only have some slight touches of distortion that were unnoticeable on my first several listens).

As is the theme with this album, Black is still coming to peace with the memories he has lost. He does seem to have some familiarity with a certain undescribed place (Obviously we want to know where such a place is, but such information is currently still withheld from us). As he searches for peace in the little he has left in this world, he does his best to reflect over the things he has lost from the mind-wipe. He doesn’t mull over it for long though. He’s at a turning point in his life. He could linger on this undefined past of his or he could look forward to the equally undefined future. A future that will allow him to transform himself into a new person entirely different from the one who’d served White.

He shall redefine himself.

Mind.in.a.box – Redefined (10): Redefined is a masterpiece. I consider it to be the ultimate defining moment in the entire Mind.in.a.box discography. There are so many intricacies within this song that make it rise above the rest of the discography and above nearly every song I’ve ever heard. It is the best Mind.in.a.box song musically. It is the best Mind.in.a.box song lyrically. It is the best Mind.in.a.box song narratively. It is the best Mind.in.a.box song of all time.

Let’s start with the music. Every single moment in this song is fantastic musically. About a month ago, I’d mentioned all of the different musical aspects in Walking that I found to be fantastic. I had to use a bulletpoint list in order to cover all of the intricacies that made the song work. I think I’m going to have to do that again here…

Immediately following The Place (slowest song on the album) with this masterpiece (most energetic song on the album) only makes Redefined seem even more energetic and more powerful.
All of the main elements of this song are introduced and developed so seamlessly throughout the introduction of the song. The arp, drums, strings, ambiance, and bassline are all introduced in the first fifteen seconds of the song and it never feels like any of them are struggling for attention over the others. They smoothly ebb in and out with each other and build on each other throughout the first verse.
Speaking of the first verse, the song still continues to introduce subtle elements, a couple of small melodies and a second bassline. Not to mention the drumbeat that grows ever more intensive.
During the chorus, the song switches to half-time allowing for a more reflective feel (which matches the chorus’ lyrical content to a tee). The variety works great, giving a quick breather in the middle of the high energy verses and prechorus.
Even more striking is when the high tempo returns from the chorus. It’s especially noticeable after the first chorus as the snare in this portion has a great punch to it driving that energetic feel home.
There’s a couple of additional melodies introduced in the second verse of the song. The changes are subtle, but it still adds a new bit of variety. I find it fascinating how many small melodies there are in this song that could easily go unnoticed the first few listens.
The structure of this song is actually quite familiar, but I’ll get into that when I go over the narrative excellence.

When it comes to the lyrics, I’d say Redefined is the most inspiring song in the entire discography. Crossroads may narratively focus a lot on Black trying to move forward in his life despite his fractured memories, but it’s also about change and transformation. At several points in my life, I’ve found myself feeling lost. I’m unsure of where my past has led me. I’m unsure how to define myself in the present. I’m unsure of what paths I should take in the future to try and find a new self that I can be proud of. I’m always telling myself that I’m “at a turning point in my life,” but in reality, the person I am is constantly changing, constantly transforming, constantly redefining.

I’m rambling. I could talk forever about the existential paths I wander. My main point here is that any moment can be a time of change and transformation. Redefine yourself from who you used to be to the person you desire to be. That’s what Black is doing in this song.

Narratively, this song is a major turning point in Black’s journey. After mulling over his memories for the entirety of this album, he takes steps forward to free himself. But the fact that this song is a major turning point isn’t what fully interest me this time around. In order to truly see the genius of this song, we have to take a step back and look at the last album, specifically the song Machine Run. These two songs are intensely connected. For every lyric Machine Run has exploring Black’s anguish trapped within the cycle of working as a Stalker, Redefined tears it apart, redefining Black’s life now that he’s free.

No longer will he feed the machine that represents White’s hold on Black’s life or be on the constant run trying to find the Dreamweb. For now, he shall stand his ground and fight the machine that had once held him captive. No longer will he suffocate his dreams until his identity completely fades away. For now, he shall embrace the identity he has lost and instead let the machine fade away from his life.

No longer shall the endless cycles of routine overwhelm Black For now, he has found a brand-new beginning to start his life anew. No longer shall he feel that his life is going nowhere, that everything he does leads him back to where he started. For now, he shall look into the future and define himself by what he will become rather than what he’s been.

He is redefined.

Mind.in.a.box – Lucid Dreams 2 (7.5): There it was up ahead. And I was not afraid any more.

Another short ambient exploration into Black’s mind. What makes this interesting is how it shows Black’s development over the course of this album. 6 songs ago he found himself overcome with fear. He no longer questions his fear. For now, he is no longer afraid.

The Crossroads are up ahead…

Mind.in.a.box – Crossroads (8.25): Well, the crossroads aren’t up ahead any more. We have finally arrived. Now independent of White’s control, Black is free to make his own choices. The choices were always there, but until now, Black has been blind. He’s mindlessly pushed his way forward on the only path he’d seen before him, the path of a Stalker. But now that the Sleepwalkers have saved his mind, a whole new world has opened in front of him. He is now free to truly live rather than just survive. His mind is his own

Really tricky to review this one since I’m still fresh off of Redefined (Lucid Dreams 2 is more of a story element that a song). The lyrics are a bit more simplistic. They do represent the theme of the album well (I’d hope so. This is the titular track after all), allowing Black to face the choices in his life. To take on the new life he’s been granted by the Sleepwalkers. But there really isn’t that much left to go into as we’ve been talking about these Crossroads so much as they approached. This album represents a turning point. If Black is now free to choose, what path will he take?

The music in this one is pretty run of the mill for Mind.in.a.box. That’s not a bad thing as Mind.in.a.box is my favorite artist for a reason. But it does mean I don’t have much in particular to point out other than go through the Mind.in.a.box checklist. Good technological vibe with some layered arps? Check. Solid drumbeat and bassline driving through the song? Check. The occasional subtle melody giving a tiny bit of flavor to the song? Check (though it took some time for me to pick them out so maybe that’s part of the reason I find this song to be less remarkable). Distorted vocals that delve into the existential mysteries of the Mind.in.a.box universe? Check. It’s a Mind.in.a.box song and I don’t easily dislike a Mind.in.a.box song (Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever disliked a Mind.in.a.box song).

I think there may be a subtle reference to Machine Run with the guitar riff that appears in the background after the “How long since I cared” line, but compared to the parallels that song has with Redefined, this detail is pretty unremarkable. For all I know Poiss could just really like that bassline and has a tendency to implement it into many songs. Still, Poiss doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to do that sort of thing on accident. The questions Black asks himself here could be him questioning how much of himself he truly drained in order to feed the machine in the past. Perhaps there are several other similar references like this throughout the other songs and I’m only noticing the Machine Run riff because that’s so memorable.

Mind.in.a.box – Run for Your Life (7.5): And here we are at the album closer. There’s a bit of a cinematic vibe compared to the rest of the album. That ominous cinematic intro is likely the best part of the song as it sets a good tone. It eventually reaches a slightly more peaceful feeling at the end with a subtle choir, but almost immediately after, a glitch infested driving drumbeat takes over the song, leaving only short notes of the stringed variety as the only remnant of the orchestral origins this track had. From there on out, it doesn’t really have too much variety. But the darker tone does leave some suspense as the third chapter concludes and the fourth chapter resides somewhere in the future (though you could listen to the next chapter right now if you wanted. This album is a decade old).

The past two albums have closed with some good reflections on Black’s mind as he prepares for the next chapter of the story. This one is quite minimalistic as far as lyrics go though. All we know is that despite Black saying he no longer needs to run as of Redefined. Something is still chasing him. White hasn’t given up on Black yet. He beckons him to return. The struggle continues. Black may be on the path to peace, but he’s not there yet. He must continue forward into his future as he rediscovers himself and the reality that’s been hidden from him.

Conclusion: Crossroads was my first Mind.in.a.box album. Yeah, I started in the middle on chapter three so sue me. But even before I knew that there was deeply intricate cyberpunk story lurking in the shadows, I couldn’t help but enjoy this album. Redefined is definitely a big favorite of mine, getting a rare 10/10. And many of the other songs reach into that higher range as well. I think what I like most about this album is that it’s all about embracing change and reaching for a new beginning. A value that I’m constantly trying to implement into my own life. I feel like of the many Mind.in.a.box albums that have come to be so far, I connect to this one the most. And so, it rises above the rest.

Final Score: (8.25/10)