PRICELESSNESS OF THE PASSING TIME

Somebody probably knows that we have problems with the site's software when we put cyrillic words in an album's title, so in general when I add a Senmuth's album to the site I look for an English translation with the help of Google as I don't speak Russian. This time Senmuth decided to replace some characters with digits, so I struggled a lot in finding a translation and when "The Miracle", a Russian PA fellow wrote down the correct title I'd be happy enough to have correctly translated two of three words. (The title meaning was completely wrong anyway).

The jokes continue with the track titles of which "MiяRor Neurons" and "Vid3or3gistr4tion of D3ath" are just the two easiest to understand.

This is the first Senmuth's release of 2012, a year which seems to be destined to become one of the most prolific for Valery Av aka Senmuth. This album belongs to his "Industrial Ethnic" side. In this review I will use the track numbers instead of the titles.

Track 1: Noisy industrial metal with distrted guitar and percussion at very high volume. It takes 2 and half minutes to find the first ethnic interlude and when the metal restarts I have the impression of some vocals but it may be a keyboard or recorded voices electronically manipulated. Just a sequence of heavy chords with ethnic intromissions. It's like the music is describing a busy market or a ritual orgy in a Middle-Eastern town of the past.

Track 2 is opened by a quite melodic mandolin which gives a Mediterranean flavor to the percussion which follow. Also this track is dominated by the guitar, distorted and on bass pitches, with the exception of piano interludes. One good thing os that the transitions between metal and ethnic are not so sudden and disconnected as often happens with Senmuth. There's also room for a short guitar riff.

Track 3 is a short ambient track. Good to break the tension after two heavy tracks.

Track 4 starts quite symphonic and dark, and the darkness increases with percussion and distorted bass (or whatever it is). It's a very good start unfortunately jeopardized after the first interlude which sends it back to the album's standard. Good but it was very promising so it's a partial delusion.

Track 5 is the longest one and it starts slowly, melodic and atmospheric with few dissonances, ethnic sounds and an unusual guitar sound (for Senmuth). One used to Senmuth expects a drastic and sudden change sooner or later, and it arrives after about 2 minutes and half. It's not so heavy or distorted. A sort of melody is still present. It's like the metal part is now the interlude while the ethnic-melodic is the core of the track. However it switches from one to the other too often.

Track 6 starts totally electronic, with a high pitched keyboard vaguely reminding of the first notes of Tubular Bells. Nothing to do with Oldfield anyway. This is another full-industrial track with the usual ethinc instruments added. A characteristc of Senmuth, you may like it or not, is that effectively the interludes are part of the track. It's like he wants to show us how the music would sound if performed by an ethnic band. This can also be the sense of the album's title. A musical journey in time more than in space.

Track 7 is in line with its title: "Videoregistration of Death".. It can give the idea of something very dramatic seen on TV.

Track 8: Time of Paroxysm, is built on strong percussion, as one can expect. It's disconnected, made of ethnic parts coming and going and a deep bass electronic sound so that you can find some music beyond the noise only during the interludes.

Track 9, the last, is opened by a sort of flute and little ethnic percussion, like bongos. It proceeds in this very ambient way. It's like we have left the Middle East to move to the South- east of Asia. This is a kind of music which makes my brain release endorphines, but I know Senmuth and I expect a sudden change that this time doesn't arrive. Other ethnic elements come, so that the place on Earth is now undefinable. It continues in this way until the faded- out end. There are many Senmuth's albums that I have enjoyed more than this, but this is not totally bad. Of course I don't know how often I will play it again, as I can now choose between more than 100 albums of Valery Av.