IMPLOSION

What surprised me about this record was how accessible and bright some of the tracks were.Thankfully we still get a lot of darkness and experimental passages mixed in.This variety impresses me, a mix of old and new, in fact the whole album was a pleasure to listen to this past week. With instruments like the English horn, aboe, bassoon, sax, cello, accordion, clarinet, trumpet, flugelhorn, marimba, violin and glockenspiel along with the traditional bass, drums, keys and guitar you know your in for a smorgasbord of sounds. A feast for the ears.

We get started with "Suintememt(Oozing)" that features a loud and heavy sound like a giant shaking the ground with every step, while sampled sounds are heard in the background. Quite creepy. "Falling Rain Dance" is one of my favourites. I love the bottom end that this one has. Daniel on drums and Eric on bass create a lot of heaviness. Meanwhile violin, keys, acoustic guitar, aboe and clarinet all get their turn to shine on this one. "Partch's X-Ray" has these loud percussion beats to open followed by these eerie sounds. Lots of atmosphere on this one. The percussion and eerie hair-raising sounds are back. A rhythm 2 1/2 minutes in comes and goes. This song scares the hell out of me.

"Rapt D'Abdallah" is brighter to say the least. This is uptempo chamber music with intricate acoustic sounds coming and going. "Miroirs(Mirrors)" sounds like voices from the pit crying out, when suddenly this strange clicking sound goes by. Like they have delivered another one. "La Mort De Sophocle(Sophocle's Death)" features more scary low end sounds as violin, cello and keys slowly play. Lots of dark, heavy waves after 2 minutes including clashing gongs that only add to the scary mood. "Ectoplasme" is a short one minute example of what hell sounds like. "Temps Neufs" is a fantastic tune with amazing crisp drumming and bass that rivals Top's deep sounds. Horns come in followed by mellotron as the heavy bass and drums return. This is awesome! More mellotron before 3 minutes. The bass that follows has to be heard to be believed, then MAGMA comes to mind as the bass line speeds up. Some screaming trumpet late. "Mellotronic" is an ode to mellotron. It opens with samples of a song. More heaviness but not like the last song. Mellotron is all over this one. Some excellent acoustic guitar as mellotron waves come in. Marimbas late. "Bacteria" has these industrial-like spooky sounds. My son said it sounds like the music you hear before someone is killed. You get the idea.

"Out Of Space 4" is a good uptempo track with lots of drums, keys and other sounds coming and going. I like it. "First Short Dance" sounds like the dance of death to me. "Second Short Dance" is more otherworldly, like the dance on the other side. "Variations On Mellotronic's Theme" has no mellotron but is uptempo chamber music with some great band interplay. "A Rebours(In Reverse)" features these pulsating sounds with experimental noises coming and going. "Meandres(Meanderings)" is by far the longest song at almost 10 minutes. This song is like a mini version of the light / dark contrast that is felt on this record. The first half is more chamber rock and it sounds amazing. Then after 4 1/2 minutes the mood changes as it becomes dark and haunting with a slower tempo.

Implosion means a bursting or collapsing inwards. This music has THAT effect on me.