Rogue Element Storm Passage Play:    Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'Encounter at Stormwater Crossing')

CDR / 3 tracks / 55.12 mins

Before Brendan Pollard started releasing albums under his own name he recorded music with Jerome Ramsey as Rogue Element, creating the same Berlin School sequencer driven excitement as his solo works. Dripping watery sounds get the mammoth forty-one minute ‘Infinite Imagery’ underway. Soft pads and flutey synth take over. It doesn’t take long before the first sequence arrives, a rapid melodic bouncy one that gets the pulse racing. Of course it wouldn’t be a Rogue Element or Brendan Pollard album without loads of Mellotron and said instrument soon provides periodic colouring to all the pulsations. The sequence morphs this way and that. More prominent synth flute takes the lead as the sequence subsides slightly. By the tenth minute all the pulsations have faded just leaving the tron and gentle synth pads. After a couple of minutes of blissful float the original sequence returns, a second chasing it. A heavy bass sequence then comes in and all Hell is let loose. This is absolutely amazing. Crank up the volume and feel the ground shake! The original sequence now seems to have been completely consumed, or at least morphed into a different pattern as the main ball breaking sequence thunders away. Little melodic touches do provide interesting diversions but really this is all about excitement and power. Things never stay still. It’s like a roller coaster darting this way and that. If it was as much fun to create as it is to listen to, it must have been a blast. In the Twenty-Fourth minute things come to a cataclysmic explosive halt as a cacophony of sound whooshes from the speakers. After the wave of destructive power subsides more mellotron emerges and for a short while our nerves are calmed and we settle down for some relaxing drift. Of course the sequences do re-emerge, and rather superb they are too, driving us forward at light speed once more, combing beautifully with yet more tron. The intensity of the pulsations ebbs and flows and the patterns seem to be in constant flux. Your full attention is required please! We calm down (for about a minute anyway) for the intro of ‘Encounter at Stormwater Crossing’. Lovely whooshing pads surge forward then fade into the ether. OK, that’s enough rest. Yet another blistering sequence, accompanied by multiple Mellotron leads, shatters the peace. What a wonderful sequence it is too ornamented by rapid little sequential trills. This might be a shorter track than the first but, unbelievably, it is probably even better. Absolutely awesome! ‘Elements’ finishes things off. It is basically a work out for massed mellotrons, so lush and thick that you feel as though you can cut slices of it. Sequences do emerge just after the half way mark providing some structure but really this is a track dominated by the mighty mellotron. If you are a fan of sequences get this album before it sells out. DL

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