DOPPELGÄNGER

Putting the Galician region of Spain on the map in the world of progressive electronic, ambient and drone music, JAVIER MIRANDA left his days with bands like Bristol, Crazy Breed and Kalte Sonne behind to embark on a journey that follows in the footsteps of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Heldon. As the old guard slowly passes on and a new generation picks up the secrets of their craft, it's really cool to hear music like this done so well by a musician in the most unlikely of geographical locations. MIRANDA is back with his third album DOPPELGÄNGER following the "Lowride EP" which also emerged in the calendar year of 2022.

Progressive electronic is one of the most difficult genres to describe in words given the abstract ethereal and almost exclusively instrumental nature of this synthesizer dominated offshoot of the Krautrock universe of the late 1960s / early 1970s. Happy to know it's still going strong. Although we just lost Klaus Schulze, newbies like MIRANDA are more than happy to grab the baton and make a long fruitful career. While retro prog has been a thing for quite a while now, so is retro prog electronic and DOPPELGÄNGER proudly revisits the ethereal abstract electronic soundscapes of what made all those albums in the 70s so timeless.

What we have here is an album that is basically the JAVIER MIRANDA show as his programs all synths, plays all keyboards and who knows what else however we do find three guest musicians contributing piano, electric guitar and even a bamboo flute on "Deep Cosmology." I was impressed with MIRANDA's first two albums but he seems to have staying power as he fully comprehends how to construct alienating yet appealing electronic pieces of sound art. Most important of all his compositions have grooves where overt or under the surface. "Chromatic Rhythm" for example has a steady 4/4 bass beat which if not layered upon by trippy otherworldly sound effects could possibly be danceable! Just add enough alcohol and anything goes :)

This album showcases seven tracks at 42 1/2 minutes in length which is about the right album length for this kind of music for my liking. Too many artists release 70 minutes of prog electronic which almost always outlasts its welcome. These tracks are all diverse enough to keep the interest level up while not taxing your patience by the time the final 9 1/2 minute "Ephemeral Arkitecture" closes things up. In addition to the classic prog electronic references, MIRANDA incorporates modern electronic influences ranging from Autechre, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada and many more. While those artists don't exist in the prog electronic realm, it's interesting to hear their influences incorporated into it as they are fairly unique and inventive in their own right.

For the most part this album is on the darker more ominous side with brooding drones, detached robotic beats, quirky keyboard riffs and oodles of sound bank effects. As the woofer album cover insinuates there are lots of deep house beats that are right out of the IDM playbook, some danceable but most not as the time signatures are mostly on the jittery side of things. Overall a nice balance of boom boom and drifting dreamy atmospheres thrown onto the same playground and in the act of cooperation completion. Actually there is a bit of spoken word text in the Finnish language on "Kakshiko" which strangely appears as "Aquarius" in databases but on the Bandcamp page bears the full title "Kakshiko (Doppelgänger)."

The coolest track is the final "Ephemeral Arkitecture" which is the only track to feature electric guitar but the guitar is virtually unrecognizable as such due to the fact it plays in a most unorthodox manner as a weird buzzing special effect than as a means for a melodic riff machine. This track perfectly sums up MIRANDA's excellent mixing abilities that incorporates a droning effect, a melodic synthesizer part and numerous freeform sound effects of which the guitar is just one part. Overall this is my favorite album by MIRANDA so far and it seems there is not stopping him now so i'm sure something cool will spring forth in 2023!