BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW

I have been familiar with Jeremy Schmidt's Sinoia Caves for some time now, although I am not familiar with Black Mountain, even though I am aware of them. In 2002 The Enchanter Persuaded was originally released, privately, then in 2006, thanks to Black Mountain, was re-released on JaJaguwar (the label Black Mountain recorded for), with an additional track. I bought that CD, the 2006 reissue, that is, and that it had great material, although room for improvement. I was most fond of "Sundown in the New Arcades" with that rather sinister vibe. After that I pretty much gave up on the idea of another SInoia Caves release, probably due to Black Mountain taking up Jeremy Schmidt's time.

I am so glad to see a second release, this time a film soundtrack, to the 2010 Canadian sci-fi/horror film Beyond the Black Rainbow, but for some reason or another the soundtrack album never saw the light of day until 2014. I have never seen the film in question (update: I have now seen the film thanks to renting the DVD), it appears to be a film about some telepathic teenage girl being held captive who attempts to escape the facility. The movie never goes much past a 2001: A Space Odyssey pace, so high action flick this is not. I have to say the movie is just as disturbing as the music contained within. In my opinion this album is an improvement over the Enchanted Persuaded. A truly amazing album. Once again, Schmidt uses nothing but old analog gear, including even the Hammond organ and Mellotron, as well as various synths, to give it that '70s/early '80s vibe that brings to mind the likes of John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc. What's up with the lengthiest song on both SInoia Caves albums being the most sinister? "Sundown in the New Arcades" off The Enchanter Persuaded was the lengthiest, and also very sinister sounding, even if it seemed to be just looped phased string synths, ping sound, and strange yelling voice). Here it's "1966: Let the New Age of Enlightenment Begin", at over 16 minutes, a really ironic title if there ever was one, nothing close to flower power sounding music or sunshine pop (like The Association). Very disturbing vibe throughout, sinister sounding synth drones, and, as much as I enjoyed "Sundown in the New Arcades", this one is definitely superior in every way. There's much more going on, plus there's a sinister sounding vocoder passages. Then there's some drones that reminded me of something I've heard off Cluster's Cluster 2 album. The rest of the album is much shorter, and unsurprisingly has a rather soundtracky feel to it.

This album has been getting lots of praise, even from Pitchfork Media, an outlet I take with a grain of sait, and in this case for very good reason. This is probably some of the finest electronic music in recent years I've heard, and it comes highly recommended!