Moon_Koradji
Moon Koradji Records
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Posted : Mar 18, 2012 21:04:39
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Album review by Colourofmoney91
Improving on the sound of their debut album with clearer melodies and a dub influence.
Emergence keeps many of the elements intact from Ascoil Sun's debut album -- the thick psychedelic rock atmosphere, shiny synth effects, song-oriented composition structure, bass grooves of the gods -- but everything sounds more professional. The recording itself has less open space, being now more densely packed and unrelentingly psychedelic. The melodies, carried by either the guitar or synth, are better and more easily recognizable to the point where the music is actually accessible in a way that I've only heard Shpongle pull off so far. The most recognizable alteration to Ascoil Sun's sound is the strong Jamaican dub influence (not dubstep; dub, like Scientist). The dubbiest track on this album, and one of my favorites, is "Mermaid's Hypothesis" which is entirely based around the dub-style bass groove laced with staccato guitar that is bound to get your head bobbing, all the while Ozric Tentacles style psychedelic fill the empty spaces with smokey synth melodies.
Something Emergence has that Pinnacle of Coil does not is memorable tunes. Each track on this album is very individual in its own way, but similar enough to the others that they don't compile into an inconsistent collection. "Ocean That You Hold In Your Hands" is another chill dub track with a stronger oceanic atmosphere and soulful wordless female vocals that add a much needed emotional quality. "Entaglementary" starts with summery acoustic guitar strumming and percussion that sounds like one of the better Acoustic Alchemy songs until a striking string section leads into another thick bass groove and druggy electronics with intermittent saxophone wonks. "Feel the Flow" is exceptionally darker than the rest of the songs and the dub style used is of the 21st century variety that Skream often uses, but is just as slow and infectiously groove as all the tracks before it.
This entire album is such an extreme increase in quality compared to Pinnacle of Coil that it's kind of hard to even compare them at all. What Ascoil Sun have managed to do on Emergence is create a very modern sounding dub-influenced album that is also sufficiently psychedelic and progressive while also being very unique.
LINK TO ALBUM http://www.moonkoradji.com/mkcd006.html
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