SEVEN DIRECTIONS DIVERGENT

A surprisingly accessible Voice of Eye album which kicks off with a very 'Gong 1975 ' sound. This is easily the most listener friendly album they've released to date. However that doesn't mean it's their best. Not by a long shot...

The opener has the pretentious title 'Gates Of Mysterious Fire'. Thankfully it's a lot more tasteful than it sounds. A bass guitar playing a tune in a 'Voice of Eye' track is startling enough, but guitars too? This wasn't at all what I was expecting. There's many soft feedback effects in the background which adds a nice all enveloping ambience. After 20 odd years we finally get to hear Bonnie McNairn sing properly, and doesn't she have a nice set of vocal chords guys? I mean, crikey, she's actually singing tunes, would you believe it?

'Where Are You?' has a very 'This Mortal Coil' vibe going on and to my ears quite a bit of 'Biota' in the extreme effects used on instruments and vocals.

Another 'Gong' like tune follows with a funky bass and spacey guitar thing going on in that 'Cosmic' mid 70's style before we get to the meat of the album 'Om Shanti' where hugely stretched out violins and vocals are mixed with sparse tribal drums, This is much more middle Eastern orientated than I've heard from them before.

A lot of their all consuming darkness and impending doom has evaporated leaving tunnels of light that remain tantalisingly beyond reach. On 'Remember' main guy Jim Wilson decides to sing a tune too. Joy of joys! I'm still rubbing my ears in disbelief. Not only that - but he can hold his notes just fine! Bonnie McNairn has ethereal twitterings going on in the background amongst heavily treated high pitched guitars. All the while I'm reminded of 90's band 'Air'.

'Transformation Birth' is classic Voice of Eye material. At 18 mins it's the central track. Murky, swirling electronics played gently, slowly transmogrifying into something unworldly and totally alien. Without one single percussive beat it holds my attention far more than anything that's gone before. Something nasty sounds as though its working its way up from the bottom of a swamp. Slowly but surely, looking for a human face to grab hold of.

Thankfully the remainder plays out in this fashion. A real creepfest which would be enough to give your kids nightmares if you played it through the crack in their bedroom door in the middle of the night. A borderline 4 stars reduced to 3 simply because the first half ain't scary enough. The second half though... It'll scare the bejeesus out of you.