Showing posts with label Houdini Mansions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Houdini Mansions. Show all posts

PETRIDISCH “Malaise Event” (Houdini Mansions)


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!



--Ryan

SEFFI STARSHINE “Virtual Goddess” (Houdini Mansions)


Ambient vaporphonics fill the courtyard, and it’s all we can do to avert our eyes as the menagerie of classical sculptures comes to life, revealing the gods and goddesses trapped within. Seffi Starshine has freed them from their marble prisons. Their glory and aura fill space, overwhelming us human visitors.

Seffi Starshine walks among us, but is not one of us. Wielding aural power as only an immortal can, Seffi brings the enlightenment, guiding all who listen on a path toward infinite peace. “Virtual Goddess” is the record of Seffi’s ascension, an accompaniment of all molecules leaving earth for the great expanse. “Virtual Goddess” is the artifact left behind to guide us, to help us evolve in the right direction.

The mood in the courtyard dissipates, and gods and goddesses are once more encased in stone. Seffi Starshine is gone, never to return.



--Ryan