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Steve Hauschildt - Nonlin CD (album) cover

NONLIN

Steve Hauschildt

Progressive Electronic


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admireArt
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars Well, how the hell Steve Hauschildt´s Nonlin (2019), can surpass his previous masterwork?

By not even glancing at it, nor becoming over indulgent, neither falling prey of his own previous work´s excellence as prog legends usually do automatically. Need names? Not the time nor the place.

A fresh new perspective of his own self acquired possibilities, without overworking the same roads , but having the fun and eagerness to feel free to sow new ones, I mean, this is an artist at work, nor a clown, neither your harlequin, if you are in come on and join the party, if not , well you have the right to do so . He is not here to repeat himself for the pleasure of your enjoyment, he obviously is not here for your money, artistry certainly has a price, usually paid by the artist himself.

No time to lose in ephemeral ratings or reviews, people will still praise whathever they want to, but to the ones who can even raise a pen to write 53 words.. and still have the ability to be overwhelmed by an original, way ahead of its time, yet as humanly close as independent Progressive Electronic music could turn out to be, this is another Steve Hauschildt´s real deal work.

If you need more written info to lose yourself in written words, well maybe someone else would write all the WORDS you need, but if you are in for the music , well my friend, you are in for a perfecly threaded embroidery of the few & complex simplifications of the the still unturned stones (no famous or infamous plagiiarists allowed repetitions), which makes contemporary Electronic music still such a thrill and silently the future of any contemporary prog band (any genre, time will tell (lol), time will tell).

In Prog world´s layman´s terms and in comparison (underlined) like the distance between , ( both masterworks), Close to the Edge & Relayer, also like the gap between Rubycon & Ricochet, genre wise speaking (also of course both masterworks) , even though , I do still prefer the first references due to their own music language idiosyncrasies and opposite resemblances , of course in Steve Hauschildt´s contemporary electronic music idiom & point of view, which of course is just a manner of explaining and has nothing to do with Yes.

***** "Another 5 star gem" . ENJOY , enjoy & enjoy...............................

PS: If, as told, you need more to read, well read more in his Bandcamp site, but if you have the urge to listen to hyper well written and evenly performed contemporarty PROG Electronic music, don´t miss.

Report this review (#2283337)
Posted Thursday, November 21, 2019 | Review Permalink
BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars New to me as of this album, I am blown away by Steve's innovative and refreshing approach to a melodic multi-instrumental (and multi-dimensional) Berlin School-type of electronic music. Steve merges recognizable instruments with computer generated "noise music," arpeggiated sequences, and even ambient techno synth washes and rhythms.

1. "Cloudloss" (3:45) a strangely satisfying excursion into controlled chaos as layered beauty of ambient synth washes are paired up with a cacophony discordant and, at times, disturbing computer noise "music." Somehow it works. (9/10)

2. "Subtractive Skies" (6:46) hypnotic ambient techno weave of layers of synths and computer percussives, all with a steady and driving presence of a pulsing bass line--at least until the final two minutes when bass cuts out as synth flock seems to fly slowly and beautifully fly away like a thick flock of birds all flying in perfectly synchrony. (14/15)

3. "A Planet Left Behind" (3:36) pitch-warped and warbled keyboard play is soon joined and suppressed by deep bass and slow rise of muted synth washes, thus creating space for a delicate dance of synth strings. Beautifully "orchestrated." (9.5/10)

4. "Attractor B" (5:29) opens with slow pensive electric piano chords, by the third minute has become dominated by computer techno noise music. (9/10)

5. "The Nature Remaining" (2:34) echoing electric piano play over distant etheric synth washes. (4.25/5)

6. "Nonlin" (5:15) techno track and RADIOHEAD-like synth chord with busy and heavily treated bass synth performing the lead work. Interesting for the pops and glitches. (8.5/10)

7. "Reverse Culture Music" (6:09) opens sounding like a slow Gamelan song performed by Western orchestral strings under the guidance of Phillip Glass. By the second minute it has morphed into a more Western hypno-trance piece with Steve Reich and Pat Metheny's guidance. By the third minute it's feeling more like a SEQUENTIA LEGENDA song. Cool and sly flow of transformative shape-shifting. The cello use is genius! (9.5/10)

8. "The Spring In Chartreuse" (3:26) this is no spring from my experience! Maybe the opening of discordant backward notes is supposed to represent the chaos of late Winter weather, or perhaps the title is merely an afterthought, but the weave of reverse and forward arpeggi is weird and a bit unsettling. Still, nobody else that I know of is doing taking music in this direction. (8.5/10)

9. "American Spiral" (5:35) slow arpeggio of VANGELIS-like space synth notes opens this one--notes covering the entire breadth of the keyboard. At the one minute mark a blob of computer noise music in a kind of raw Kanye West "Faster, stronger" pattern enters while the space notes continue to arpeggiate slowly behind. The noise music gets quite gnarly, like the movement and noise of a creature from Ghostbusters. Weird, ending with a slow exit/escape of the alien usurper. (8.5/10)

Total time 42:35

4.5 stars. I vouch for this album as a masterpiece of progressive electronic music though it only qualifies as a near-masterpiece of progressive rock.

Report this review (#2285384)
Posted Wednesday, December 4, 2019 | Review Permalink

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