ESAMERON

RUNAWAY TOTEM are a Zeuhl band out of Italy and they have released eleven studio albums between 1993 and 2019. Three times they have been reduced to a duo including this 2007 release called "Esameron". I have their four album run between 1999 and this record from 2007. A couple of three star records and two four star albums between those.

This has been a band who have intrigued me more than anything I suppose hearing them first back in 2007 with "Andromeda" and liking how they blended that gothic vibe with Zeuhl and Italian vocals. Abrasive guitar and keyboards, a metallic element for sure made them sound quite unique.

I have always had this question mark about them though just feeling something was "off" about the music but of the four records I own by them this is the one that stands out as my favourite. There's a psychedelic component to this one with the soundscape music and repetitive grooves and sounds. This has a lot of sampled mellotron on it and man this music is dense at times. A long one too at almost 70 minutes with only four tracks.

There's a fair amount of sampled instruments on here as well and I like the space that we get on this one instead of feeling like it's a chore to get through that dense sound for over an hour. A lot less Zeuhl on this record as well as those Blasquiz-like vocals from "Andromeda" are gone and while we don't get a lot of lyrics we do get plenty of vocal melodies and the vocals we do get they change them up enough to again make this an interesting listen. I like this one!