Malaise Event is
baroque mood for people who like massive synthesizer excursions. Yes, the tones
are thick as syrup; yes, you feel like you’re under a few hundred feet of ocean
pressure when you’re listening to them; yes, the sea is filled with syrup.
There’s a reason that massive anglerfish is menacing those fast-food-starved
humans on the cover: it’s showing us the distillation of every moment of our
waking lives.
That doesn’t mean that Petridisch has to like it, or
even, by god isn’t fighting against it constantly. The depths of Malaise Event are filled with the proper
sound design, reverberating through deep-sea caverns and caves, shimmering the
reflective surfaces with whatever light is at hand. It’s like a glimmer of hope
when all seems lost, possibly in the maw of some surprise beast.
This ain’t no soundtrack to no BBC documentary. This
is tension incarnate.
And it’s as exciting as it gets. It even remains
exciting when Even Wolves remix the A-side for “Abyss Event” on the flip, which
may or may not have anything to do with those James Cameron liquid aliens from
the movie. If it does, let’s all stay as far away from Michael Biehn as we can,
OK?
Available as a Minidisc too, but this is a cassette
blog, so shove it, alternate formats!