Peter Mergener
Noises in the Sky
When you look at Peter Mergener’s CV it does make impressive reading. Software, Mergener/Weisser and G.E.N.E. have all knocked out their share of top notch EM and judging by Dave Law’s review of his last album ‘Instinctive Traveller’ there’s still more to come. The latest album ‘Noises in the Sky’ claims to be created in a “quite unusual manner” with each piece being based on a “space imagination”. The attempt to distinguish this from the billion and one other space-based EM projects seems a little too subtle though.

Lets start with the bad news. This albums contains quite a few tracks which deserved to go no further than the ideas stage. Bland, boring, twee and cliche'd are some of the more polite adjectives I’d use. Now the even worse news. In amongst them are a few pieces which scale sequence driven heights and would not be out of place on any “best of” EM album.

The opening brace characterise this dichotomy perfectly. The opener “Skylistening” starts promisingly with PF ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ chords and Mike Oldfield-ish electric guitar, peppered with the odd Software style choral flourish. It then descends into an organ based dirge with vocal touches of mind boggling inappropriateness - the only saving grace being that they are used sparingly. Then suddenly ‘Into the Great Wide Open’ kicks in. Fantastic sequencing, a storming dance beat, and an ever shifting focus of effects and detail combine in a superb outing which (cliche warning) is almost worth the price of the CD alone. Don’t listen to ‘Celebration’ without a sick bag, however the following piece ‘Return Back’ (complete with Alien samples) hints at RMI in top sequence form - it’s a corker!

Your CD’s program button will take care of the dross, but unfortunately it won’t reduce the price. (GG)

This page is part of a frame set. If you can't see the information strip to the left of the screen then click on the smd logo above.