After delving into Almark Thaolan's 2013 release, -ADT-, I was directed to another of his older, finer works: The Scheme of Things. From the 2016, track titles, I decided what to envision, and so for me, the opus became a wartime/war-torn stratagem, inspired by Almark's penchant for hidden meaning.
"Enter Tunnel" is the opening track, and an apt one at that, comparable to a Tangerine Dream selection. As such, it may have worked as an alternate placement for Michael Man/F. Paul Wilson's The Keep. It's catchy and foreshadowing, depicting an inward journey that heightens the senses, and among those senses, is fear.
"Oracle" holds a faster pace, drumming like a dance number, but with a New Age tingle that backs ancient and primal impulses. It's a brave, next step in a brash and dangerous campaign, and its offbeat, spellbinding charm is difficult to define, but once it enters one's ear, it doesn't let go. (Really, this one would work well as an opening-credits scroll for a chic, dystopic sojourn.)
"Parashoots" slips into something dreamier, with its spiraling backdrop and visiting dialogue, which bleeds from an adolescent, schoolyard fancy. In this respect, it conveys a loss of innocence (or an abandonment of a long endeared pastime) and the futile desperation to maintain it.
"U-235" twists the narrative onto a blithesome perch, but it's no less sorrowful in its undertone. It holds a John Carpenter avidity, the sort that might track Snake Plissken into urban hell. It also carries nuclear-equation/uranium-detailed utterances (in groove with its title), alluding to unavoidable calamity.
"Reconnaissance Missions" drops the stride, its dialogue referencing a HMS P38, spy run. The beat is jittery yet compact and analytical: an instructional passage that also proves haughty for all its outward confidence.
"A-Test" grabs the threading torch, using the famous, Emergency Broadcasting System edict, which summons nostalgia but also suspicion. A smacking, snapping, electronic current empowers its loop, stretching the surveying march: cool and breezy in a way, but like "Reconnaissance Missions," margined by threat.
"Silo" inflates the warning, crawling into a dark, missile-laden compartment, with a juddering tap that signals attack. Something is set to kill, and because of this, "Silo" may be the album's most unsettling sample, with a scrupulous progression that tastes (sounds) like bittersweet candy.
'' 'Aura' " lifts the disconcerting aspects higher, performing like a whistling rocket, hooked with a contemporary beat, building in eerie tiers, revitalizing the established, Tangerine Dream sweep (though caped by a soft, contemplative conclusion). The track's entirety totters between palpable gloom and inexplicable elation.
"The Sun was once Yellow" is the album's rubberiest submission, bouncing off an angelic, wall of sound (much like the uncanny sighing heard in the original Invaders from Mars). It recalls a time before the terror and destruction, but cradled by a steadfast, militaristic march that refuses retreat.
"Sub-23" is a boot-camp reflection to make one's subconscious all the stronger. It's a recalled preparation for fighting, for surviving, and by the track's end, one's belligerent focus is as fine-tuned as one can get.
"Echoes of Blue" holds a hurlyburly quality; not that it's fraught or tremulous, but rather that it creates a gradual apprehension. It connects to "The Sun was once Yellow," with an affecting voice that's odd yet terrestrial, dead yet alive, stirring the sort of harsh and surreal residue a soldier might face.
Almark follows "Echoes of Blue" with two remixes, one a "single cut" of "U-235," with the original's uranium tutorial resumed and accelerated. Then there's the "warm mix" of "Parashoots," which carries the original's lament, also quickened.
The album closes with the luminous "Plane Ride to London," which projects the peacefulness that follows an ordeal. It denotes a time of healing, daring to discard what once was. It reminds one that, in the vast scheme of things, all one consumed in the fairness of love and war is a distant memory, perhaps to be forgotten, perhaps to be embellished, but all the same, little more than a fragment of a dark and dire past.
Now prick up those ears and listen to one of Almark's expressed best:
https://synthoelectro.bandcamp.com/album/the-scheme-of-things
And while the opportunity is at hand, enjoy the album's sublime videos:
For " 'Aura' ":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Dqj9ScRT8
For "A-Test":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8J5XYp4uhA
For "Oracle":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ZQiBzO9wI
For "Elcaro" ("Oracle" in clever, audio/visual reverse):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AGHdEJKj5g&t=2s
No comments:
Post a Comment