MYSTIC ACOUSTICS

Zelda Lexie Lulamoon is 18 and with this momentous event comes the release of this cinematic masterpiece from Vylet Pony. Sit back and get ready for one of the most beautiful and memorable musical adventures I've ever had the privilege of being on.

1. "Forewarning" (3:23) an absolutely gorgeous opening song that reminds me very much of some of the pensive, melancholy music I've heard in Japanese anime. There's even a Japanese quality to the melodies occurring beneath the vocalists. The conversation-like vocals of Izzy Powers (who is alos the guitarist and co-producer of this song) and Zelda are gorgeous and so realistic in terms of how two struggling lovers might try to talk to one another through some painful topics. Great song! (10/10)

2. "Statera" (5:14) atmospheric for its first 2:20, this music transitions into an orchestra-supported MIDI-percussion sequencer of blended Japanese melodies--until the 4:00 mark. That's when synth and wind percussives set up a spacious motif in which piano and deep (low end) bass (piano) chords set the pregnant mood. (9.5/10)

3. "Wonders" (3:15) reverb piano chords support Zelda and (frequent) guest vocalist Kelly Boyer in their beautiful, heart-felt presentation of some pretty openly-revealing lyrics about expanding awareness and self-discovery. If the allegoric lyrics are to be honored, the protagonist has experienced some revelations about the trappings and deceptions occurring in (throughout) their life--revelations that are quite upsetting, unsettling, even shocking and disheartening--things obviously out of their control and probably not of their origination or imagination--things that they know they're going to have trouble dealing with. I just love the way this artist uses fiction and allegory to project their own story. I just hope that this creative outlet is also providing healing, processing, separation, and even detachment (not necessarily disassociation) from the offending events and their traumatizing residues. Beauty is present in every note, every nuance of this song. (10/10)

4. "The Watcher" (4:48) for its first 2:39 this is a cinematic orchestral piece, but then the music switches into that more pensive piano-based "conversational" mode that Zelda has been using for the first three songs--but only briefly, for about 45-seconds, before the orchestra swells and presents us with some of Pony's masterful EDM work, instrumentally, for the final minute before it surrenders to the orchestra for the finish. (8.875/10)

5. "World Adrift" (5:14) more music that tries to hold down the tremendous potential energy that we know is building and bubbling from down below. The suppression only works for about 110 seconds as the faerie EDM work finally bursts through--though it is quite domesticated with regular repetitions of muting/suppressing space about every second or two for its duration over the next minute. Then it's all reigned in again as Namii and Pony trade vocal statements for a minute or so before the wonderful EDM theme is released again--this time, eventually, fully--in the fifth minute. After delivering its message, the EDM recedes and lets the piano and orchestration What a brilliant rendering of a complex composition! (9.5/10) 6. "Deception" (3:18) a stream of television/radio messages about impending disaster and doom (to Equestria!) is spliced together and sequenced over an atmospheric layer of ominous synth washing for about 25 seconds before a rapid-fire synth-drum beat is unleashed over a more future-industrial soundscape and then, with the final declaration of doom finishing at 1:09 (a line that sound like it was extracted from the film Lawrence of Arabia). Then the full-on, heavy, frenetic and industrialized EDM stuff that Pony is capable of is untethered and presented with Zelda's unrivaled mastery. Powerful stuff! (9.25/10)

7. "Tales of Conviction" (2:32) gentle electric piano keyboard play that seems to hide or harbor more subtle Japanese (or anime) melody lines within its anime-familiar sound choices. Zelda puts on full display for us ever sign of the fact that she is such a master of synthesizer manipulation! Her vocal at the end is more of the wistful, forlorn, and melancholic beauty. (5/5)

8. "Fall of the Empire" (4:44) wonderfully atmospheric music that has that plaintive heart-strings pulling effect like some of Hans Zimmer's soundtrack to The Last Samurai--with Ryuichi Sakamoto-like piano and synth violins providing several of the layers in the gorgeous weave throughout. But I haven't even mentioned yet the most powerful aspect of the song: Zelda's voice! She starts out singing beautifully, in a "voice that comes from you and me" (though my voice has definitely never sounded so beautiful) but then it begins to sound strained, emotional--on the verge of cracking with emotion--right up unto the end/transition to the next song. Amazing song! Perfection for its humanness. At the same time, the music is portending something serious coming on down the pipe: like a battle! (10/10)

9. "Inequality" (3:10) more radio/television spy doom over portentous music that gives way at the end of the first minute to a flood of EDM "Africa" (sounds like the music from DJ Snake's "Turn Down for What"!). The music is at first quite straightforward and is peppered with a couple of anime-like interludes but then when the DJ says at 1:55 "This is how you switch" it becomes an absolute master class in hip-hop EDM until the military communiqué interrupts informing us through static-ridden signal that "Sierra One is trappped." Could've been longer (for me). (9.75/10)

10. "Treachery" (3:56) more EDM, this one with a lot more space, as if there is sneakiness going on. ("You underestimate my sneakiness.") The single synth chord interludes confirm that there are moments of pause--moments to think, take stock, carefully make decisions. (9/10)

11. "Cadence for the Dying" (5:42) for the first 90 seconds this is a ride of purely masterful synth play, but then the strained narrator's beautiful androgynous voice enters to try to describe the place that the protagonist finds herself mentally. A synthesized orchestral bridge at the three-minute mark then let's us prepare for Pony's use of Trevor Horn-like synth bombast to express action. But then at 4:35 an orchestra hit and the sound of seagulls and waves leads us into a ruminative piano piece that takes us to the next song. Amazing execution of musical ideas. (9.5/10)

12. "Death's Whisper" (3:55) a minute's worth of synth-orchestra chord work leads us to the rather abrupt entry into a kind of carnival-funhouse musical theme which is then ended by Chi-Chi's theatric play-acted "evil" voice telling the protagonist that they "will not get away with this" before the voice of "Death" sets in motion an EDM "crush, kill, destroy" theme. The POV must shift a couple of times for there are lulls in the flow of the music that seem to indicate "drama"--some of them hauntingly spacious, with an occasional "ghost"-like vocal from the beautiful voice of Pony herself. The swirling synth resolution in the first half of the fourth minute is exquisite, but it's sudden end with distant Blade Runner"Rachel"-like piano notes playing over the sound of mountain stream water flowing leaves me a little confused. Still, quite an extraordinary song for its conveyance of "fight-scene drama." (9.75/10)

13. "Remember the Words She Spoke..." (1:59) Morse code over slowly shifting "distant space"-like synth chords is another genius move. Man! Pony has my (carte blanche) approval to soundtrack my (lame-ass) life story any time! The perfect "recovery" interlude for this MLP "episode." (5/5)

14. "αστέρι" (10:34) (Greek for "star") synth washes, Toby Driver-like time-keeping guitar strumming, Spaghetti Western whip-snaps, and "dated" cheesy synth strings expressing a 1990s Japanese anime-like melody before giving way to "full orchestra" chord play opens the first five minutes of this beautifully cinematic piece. This could be from a Kurosawa, Sakamoto, Miyazaki/Hisaishi, or Hans Zimmer soundtrack! Then the bombastic orchestral work rather suddenly comes to an end (with a boom) at 4:59 whereupon the only instrument left standing is the sound of "a grand piano in large empty concert hall." Pony tinkles away rather extemporaneously for nearly two minutes before moving into some beautiful chord play for about 20 second. At 7:20 she moves back into single note melody play, though her steady little runs are now punctuated with some chords and a background synth cello. At 8:48 the piano stops, here allowing the entry of an accordion-like sound for the sharing of a deeply nostalgic little melody that feels as if it came from an old sea shanty. Interesting. Definitely not the finish I was expecting. I'm not sure I ever felt total resolution from the earlier conflict(s) in the story. Perhaps this is Pony's intention: to leave us in a recuperative place of hiding--by the sea (or on the sea)--as we await the protagonist's healing and recharge before continuing its adventure/journey. (I've heard that this album is the first of a trilogy.) (18/20)

Total Time 61:44

Some of the musical references I hear as I listen to this album include Ryuichi Sakamoto, Toby Driver (maudlin of The Well, Kayo Dot, Ultraphauna), Harry Potter soundtrack music, Fiction-era Yuki Kajiura, Hans Zimmer's percussive orchestral bombast, Joe Hisaishi's piano, some Tony Banks keyboard and compositional sensibilities, with a production purity that rivals that of my favorite producer of all-time: Trevor Horn. Plus, it all flows so seemlessly! No where have I heard EDM and other modern computer-generated musical styles so seemlessly flowing within the context of your cinematic prog synth and piano world. This album is as good as anything Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yuki Kajiura, or Joe Hisaishi did in the 20th Century--and it makes me think that this might be the kind of music they would have made in the 21st Century had they been born in the 1980s or 1990s! Of the eight Vylet Pony albums I've heard so far, this is by far my favorite--and the one album that deserves full masterpiece credit as a true progressive rock album. It may also end up being one of my true favorite albums from the crop of music that was released in that most fabulous year of prog that was 2017!

A/five stars; an absolute masterpiece of cinematic progressive rock music bringing to realization exactly what prog's ultimate potential is and always has been.