Akikaze
Conflicting Emotions
Yes, I know. ‘Conflicting Emotions’. The title just doesn’t inspire excitement. What styles do the words conjure up? New Age insipidness, schmaltzy sugar-sweet tunes? Well, yes there are one or two tracks present which meet these preconceptions. Have the skip button to hand for the likes of ‘The Weight of the World’ or The Head and the Heart’. However, these questionable interludes are relatively few and far between. Elsewhere you’ll find some strong compositions infused with an expert sense of melody and detail. Yet, even these attributes are not the main feature of this album.

After the opening trio of pieces, which range from the enjoyable vocoder treatments of ‘The Call’ to the robust edginess of ‘Escape’, I though I had the measure of this album and prepared for a fair to middling review. Suddenly, track 4 ‘The Other Side’ opened up. Sequencing. Completely scorching sequencing bounces into life. A one off piece? Certainly not! Incredibly it carries on throughout the next 3 pieces - almost 17 minutes of the tastiest pulsations this side of Free System Projekt!

‘The Other Side’ has a basic rock beat backbone, and is supplemented by mellotron timbres approached very much from a prog angle. But the sequencing just keeps on surging through the piece, up and down the scales like a lemming on a bunji rope. Enter track 5 ‘Shadowland’ and here we go again. OK the opening minutes feature some impressive synth voices and textures but it soon starts up those blistering pulsations once more, this time resplendent with angst ridden synth lead lines. Track 6 ‘Out of the Dark’ fleshes out the sequencing with a bass line and a steadier drum beat which simply ramps up the enjoyment factor even more.

Other highlights to listen out for are track 9 ‘Exaltation’ which again pins back the lug holes with enough sequential trickery to keep even Glynn Lloyd Jones fans happy, and track 12 ‘The Tale of the Fire Horse’ to which we are treated to two versions with a bonus ‘Radio Version’ (!) tagged on to the end of the album.

Get the CD program button working and select over 30 minutes of the best modern EM sequencing you’ll hear for a long time. (GG)

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