FLOATING ISLANDS

This Tiny Planet

It's not much, but it's all we've got. Our planet Earth, that is.

Italian composer/synth-master ALESSIO 'JALAYAN' MALATESTA and his compadres guitarist VINCENZO (CINVENZO) CALVANO (VALCANO), drummer MARTINO MALACRIDA, and bassist MATTEO PRINA (NOT Dario Marchetti, BTW), collectively known as JALAYAN, take the listener on a spacey, synth-laden, trippy journey throughout lost worlds and ancient civilizations.

With a nod to mentors and heroes like Ed Wynne and Ozric Tentacles, Oresund Space Collective, and Quarkspace, JALAYAN provides eight tracks, filled with plummeting bass synth sounds, chittering upper range space effects, and a wall-of-sound style built on synthesizers that is requisite in this genre.

One Track Stands Out

At least for me. Having heard some of the masters of this genre and getting a bit more familiar with the conventions and boundaries that have been set, I was pleasantly surprised by "Nemesis", the second track. To my ears, this might be a promising direction for JALAYAN.

It's the only track on this album in which guitar, bass, and drums get to let loose and get heavy. I like it. I really like it. Ironically it was the first JALAYAN track I've heard, and it convinced me to give this album a listen. Normally I get bored at the seemingly endless synthesizer gyrations and gambols. A little goes a long way. I get the space sound references, and it IS psychedelic and space rock after all.

Yet added into this familiar soundscape, the heavy guitar opening, crisp drumming, and cool unison bass guitar/guitar riffs, PLUS the synth panorama really stood out. There's burbling energy throughout this album, yet there was undeniable intensity and depth coming from the guitar/bass/drum foundation. Gripping. Heavy. Almost approaching progressive metal territory at times.

I Kept Waiting

Waiting for more of this kind of energy and zest. Not that the other tracks are sleepy or ill-conceived, not at all. It's all skillfully done, carefully layered, well-performed, by expert musicians. We expect nothing less, and we get it.

It's just that "Nemesis" shaped my expectations and raised my hopes that JALAYAN might be breaking some new ground here, in a very winsome, cool way.

But it was not to be.

So, for me, this is a competent, fine album well within the bounds of this genre, a crystalline example of good psychedelic and space rock music, done by gifted musicians.

But..."Nemesis"!

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 shimmering synth journeys.