WHITEOUT

Let's be honest, here is a band that I had totally lost sight of since 2005 and their very disappointing fourth album of the time "Digging for Zeroes"; so I skipped the records of 2013, 2016 and 2020. SONUS UMBRA act eight at the end of the first half of 2024 presents us with "Whiteout" no more no less an album of almost seventy minutes for a single title cut into seven sub-parts increased by three extras at places 2,5 and 8 which fit perfectly into the mega suite. Luis NASSER the Chicagoan still leads the boat or rather the big sailboat with faithful musicians who come from all over the planet, no singing on the work, only "spoken words" on certain beaches to explain what the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA have become today, on the sidelines of an undeniable militancy speech ("Imperfect Ally").

The challenge is to swallow a single title of such length in one go, which I have always refused to do since the dawn of time, the necessary concentration is impossible over such a duration, so I listened to the album part by part or two by two or even three by three, the sumo wrestler on the cover inviting us to a certain auditory distrust. Likewise, rating the titles as I do regularly was in this case too difficult, so you will find in these lines only my preferences but also a few scratches.

Luis NASSER, bassist by training, supports most of the pieces with his four strings and a very forward sound recording, we are never better served than by ourselves ("Whiteout Part 2 Aurumboros" and "Whiteout Part 3 Veterans of the Incel Pixel War" are the two best examples), moreover they follow each other which is perfect for a musical analysis, the guests Pete LARAMEE on guitars and Alan HEARTON on Hammond organ showing themselves to be particularly brilliant in the two sub-parts, each in turn. We will also note the very good opening track "Whiteout Part 1" which installs a real climate favorable to what will follow, with the sharp six strings of Tim McCASKEY.

The piece that gave me a good headache to dissect it is the longest "Whiteout Part 4 Incognegro" and its sixteen minutes, very and even too patchwork for my taste with a jazzy intro (themes that we will find a little later), knitting of six strings in the DIRE STRAITS style and also the one that contains the most "spoken words" (Averi Lynn BOYD and Mélodie SHAW) in short to listen to a good ten times before perceiving all the qualities, the second part from 9:00 being more pleasant and easier to listen to than the first with a hell of a bass guitar (crimsonian hints in the Tony LEVIN style) but also the chopper guitar of Aaron GELLER in lead and crunch (I let you look up the definition on the Internet).

For parts 5, 6 and 7 of the title track I'll make you a package of the whole thing, "Into the Maelstrom" features Aaron GELLER again as in the previous track, "Antropocene Blues" installs at the bow the inevitable Mattias OLSSON present on many progressive productions for a good quarter of a century, here on percussion and mellotron (the last fifty seconds are an unparalleled piece of crap) and Aaron still there, finally "Epilogue or Requiem" rather relaxing, with an acoustic lead guitar all in Knopflerian restraint, which precedes an explosion of HAWKWIND model synthesizers from all eras.

Open wide all your chakras and take the time to discover this SONUS UMBRA album, the reward will be at the end of the long road.