IN A COLD EMBRACE

In a cold embrace. The title of the new album of the post-rock innovation called Battlestations is screaming darkness, melancholy and, since we know Battlestations, musical experimentation. The band's self-titled album took the whole post-rock scene by surprise with its uncliché and untypical genre fusion into their post-rock whole, full of chaotic dissonance and anti-melodies. The second band's recording, an EP called Return / Mr. Abject, represents a bridge between the chaos of the first album and the more wholesome concept of the new album, In a Cold Embrace.

The members of Battlestations are still unknown. With this move the band shifts the focus from the individuals and their potential fame to their music. The Belgians without a face reflect their mystic-selves through their music, but they reflect through it much more than only that ? their music is still something that cannot be identified, that can be known as such, something that is so fresh and new that you can't really put a finger on it.

In a Cold Embrace is divided into five parts - »Prologue : Nature morte // You're not welcome here«, »Comrade // The way we grieve, Interlude : Time stands still«, »Breaking bad news // The faces we remember«, »The semblance of fate // Epilogue : Citizen creep // The end« - but, like its debut predecessor, works fluent as a whole, like one composition. It would be therefore pointless to indulge into describing each of the five tracks as a separate part of the album.

The album itself is, despite its diversity, fluent through and through. It's not only connected in some kind of a musical story, the thing that connects it goes deeper than that. I would be difficult to simply say that the whole album is made in a similar fashion, because it's too dynamic, too diverse to say something like that. The fabric that connects the music on the album is rooted so deep that it transcends your usual conceptual albums. The somewhat chaotic minimalism is always around, and this is tied in a larger concept of psychedelic and post-rock sound, influenced by such different genres as classical music and electronic music. Battlestations' music simply takes its material from so many musical genres that seem to be completely unrelated and unmergeable, which makes the job harder for the music critic. Therefore I can only rely myself on my feelings when I listen to the music and trust the word associations that pop-up upon hearing the band's work.

It is obvious for In a Cold Embrace to be an album that really plays on the listener's emotions. The whole musical construct has such a huge influence because of this suppressed dynamics and really unusual and diverse compositions that leave the listener at least uncomfortable upon hearing a certain part. There are many unexpected musical turn-outs that really attract the listener's attention. But the most intriguing are these little pieces of the musical fabric that stand out. These little details are practically infinite, but they are connected in such a way that they result in an ambient music par excellence. Because ambiance is what Battlestations are all about. They take the seemingly ugliest and noisiest and combine them into a whispering beauty of a post-rock minimalism.

In a Cold Embrace is another Battlestations album that is going to sweep you off your feet. Their ability to compose the uncomposeable, to put passivity into a rhythm and to make a noise sound like a whisper is beyond this world. But the most surprising thing is that there are no obvious band influences, nothing to reference. Battlestations stand alone in their music. They are the future of this era of innovation, of possibilities, of musical discoveries. They are everything that is right in today's music scene.