CONTINUUM 2

This is volume 2 in the collaboration between Steven Wilson's experimental minimalistic project Bass Communion and Vidna Obmana. The tracks are titled "Construct" like the previous volume and numbered IV, V and VI this time. This starts out just like the previous volume with electronic ambience and starts right away painting the picture of isolation that was obvious all the way through the first volume. Once again, the music melds to your mind, even if you are playing as background and it seems you are once again travelling nowhere. But just as the numbness starts to settle in for another long hour, a guitar comes along and smashes the ambience after the first few minutes. After the mind numbing tracks that have gone before in the last volume, this is totally unexpected and if you aren't aware of this, it can scare the heebie jeebies right out of you.

The guitar remains through the track after this and plays a repeating slow hook with very little variation while underneath, the electronics continue to swirl, cascade and grow. On the 5th construct, the electronic ambience seems to have grown some and is a little more bold. Nothing much happens throughout this track, returning a little to the previous album, but towards the last 1/2 of the track, a droning guitar creeps up from under the sound and crescendos until it has almost completely taken over the track. The last Construct is similar, but the guitar gets louder quicker as the electronics play more sustained sounds and tones that are maybe a little brighter. The guitar plays a slowly descending pattern as it gets louder for the duration of the track.

So, where the 1st volume was an album with electronic ambience that for the most part did not go anywhere, the 2nd volume has a little more character and movement where the loud guitar churns and plods around the synthesized sounds. A little more interesting this time, but still not the best available Bass Communion album out there. It's still all about atmosphere, but the loneliness that was the feeling for the 1st volume is gone because of the guitar becoming a constant companion. But, is having this companion turning out to be better or worse than the loneliness? It sounds like the story here wants to suggest no, but as for the music, it does help make the slow, long tracks a little easier to digest. I would consider this a little better than the 1st, but it is a weak 3 stars.