ALPHA RALPHA BOULEVARD

Cremator is a progressive electronic project by Matt Thompson of Guapo, Rashomon, and Zoltan. His brother is none other than Andy Thompson from the Planet Mellotron website, so it should come as no surprise that Andy's Mellotron makes an small appearance here. It's obviously more similar to Zoltan than of the heavy avant rock/prog of Guapo. Alpha Ralpha Boulevard appeared as a very limited edition cassette by the Portland, Oregon-based Field Hymns label, but largely available only as a download from Bandcamp. This is obviously retro electronic music, influenced by film soundtracks and the Berlin school (but doesn't sound like a clone the way of Radio Massacre International or Free System Projekt). I am also reminded a bit of Jeremy Schmidt's Sinoia Caves' Beyond the Black Rainbow, except this cassette consists of two side-length cuts. Synths are all analog, and thanks to his brother's connection, the Mellotron being 100% authentic. Really nice to have and worth hearing, even if you can only download it (since the cassette was pressed in a ridiculously small amount of 100 copies).

3.5 stars. CREMATOR is the one man project of Matt Thompson. Matt will be known to some for being a founding member of GUAPO, and creating one of the most incredible recordings I have heard called "Five Suns". He also has a project called RASHOMON as well as ZOLTAN. He was also an original member of LITMUS along with his brother Andy who is the owner operator of Planet Mellotron. Andy by the way gave this album a 3.5 star rating as well.

CREMATOR is an electronic project and there's actually not much in the way of mellotron on the two side long pieces of this 2013 album. Very little in the way of sequencers as well. As Andy relates on his site, this album is more about textures and melodies than rhythm. There's just not a lot to latch onto into my opinion. I like this record but I wish there was more mellotron and rhythm. Matt says his influences for this project were HARMONIA, KRAFTWERK, HELDON and more. I probably thought of HELDON here the most, but without the guitar in play of course.

Two side long pieces beginning with the over 20 minute title track. This one has some sequencers early and mellotron around 8 minutes in or so, and is quite spacey throughout. Soundscape music. The second track is called "Catmaster" which is actually my unofficial title. Almost 18 minutes in length it really is a toss up which side I like better. This is more mood music to me. Not a lot happening although there are times on both tracks where there is so much going on with all the different electronic sounds and vintage equipment in play.

I do recommend this record, I just haven't warmed up to it much. For Matt's best check out "Five Suns" by GUAPO and "First Stage Zoltan" by ZOLTAN. Both are incredible mellotron albums.