A BLACK BOX

Peter investigates more into electronic and experimental music, which I could hardly appreciate. IMO, a track as "The Jargon King" and "The Wipe" are rather useless. But Peter was maybe having fun while experiencing these "sounds". "Fogwalking" is also a difficult one. Very cold mood (like the icy atmosphere of "Low" from whom you might know).

Unfortunately, most of the first side of this album is about the same texture; I consider this one as the weakest Peter has produced so far.

The positive point of this is the side long song "Flight". These electronic attempts are abandoned and a more classic song is performed. A fine combination of a subtle and charming Peter (piano & vocals) and strong instrumentation (Jackson of course, but not only). This song gets his roots from the early VDGG repertoire. Nothing to do about it: "Plague" is not so far away.

Peter switches from melody to more complex and less accessible music exactly like in the good old times. Since I am rather nostalgic of those days, I can only be very enthusiast about such a piece of music. What a shame that side one is absolutely not on par!

"Black Box" is indeed a dark album. If you were depressed before having listened to this one, this ain't no cure. In the spirit of "Berlin" (Lou Reed). Three stars, thanks to "Flight" only.

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