BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW

Last year saw a surprisingly big wave of new progressive electronic fans, and this album is undoubtedly the reason why. I've read dozens of rather confused reviews over the net describing this album as VHS music with nods to Goblin and Giorgio Moroder. The people responsible for making such parallels have obviously never acquainted themselves with the electronic musings of 1970s Germany. This happens a lot though - all over the musical map. There are so many new music "fans" out there who know nothing of what went down just 15 years earlier.

Sinoia Caves is the solo project of Black Mountain's Jeremy Schmidt and his vast array of organs and synthesisers. The music he conceives is deeply rooted in the sounds of the mid 70s and all the way up to John Carpenter's early 80s laserbeam qualities , yet what he overtly displays in his influences he makes up for a hundred times with sheer gusto. This man truly immerses himself into the music. Something I find essential to any music making, yet when it's for a movie soundtrack - the parameters change a little.

Beyond The Black Rainbow is indeed a soundtrack to last year's horror sci fi flick by the same name, and it very aptly conveys the secret and all important handshake between music and images. The pulsating electronic music with these colourful and melodic flairs of sound adorning it mixes oh so well with the clean, dystopian and futuristic ambiances of the movie. Listened to on it's own the album still packs a punch. From the motorik drumming groove of the first cut 'Forever Dilating Eye' to the beautiful almost Klaus Schulzian space ambient pools that start forming during '1966 - Let The New Age Of Enlightenment Begin', the music flows freely like some imaginary space sled going through black holes and immense diamond encrusted canyons.

What monsieur Schmidt has achieved with this release is something very rare inside the world of movie soundtracks. He's created music that stands proudly on it's own two feet.......................but who, in their wildest dreams, would've thought that an album chuck full of the old school sequencer 'chug chugs', carefully placed organ washes and stroboscopic lightsaber synth galore would ever resonate with the youngins of this day and age?

Personally, I find Beyond The Black Rainbow to be a breath of fresh air in today's retro electronic scene (oxymoron intended). I hear a musician who isn't afraid of the past yet ultimately manages to interject something wholly original into the proceedings. I hear and feel the cold embrace of space whenever I put this on.......delivered in looooong almost breathing synthesiser drones..........or through those ceremonial sounding organ riffs that pop up like mountainous totem poles during the track 'Run Program: Sentionauts'. I picture sudden solar flares shooting out of the sun while listening to some of the shorter and sweeter tunes, which, contrary to common belief, take this anodyne electronic mumbo jumbo and transform it into something with melody and warmth. PIIUUUOOWW WUOU UOOU the solar flare says on it's way away from it's orangy home, and I quite like it.

If you're one of those who dream in colour, then this one is for you. I had the vivid experience of travelling in slow motion through an all encompassing hug from a cluster of newly born stars just now while lying on the green golf carpet that covers (most of) my living-room.

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