CLOUDLAND CANYON

You have to have either a surreal sense of humor or an otherwise uncontrollable memory craving for the 80´s early 90 ´s dark/cold synth wave movement which ends up being "cliched compiled" by the experimental electronic music ensemble Cloudland Canyon: An Arabesque.

I myself enjoyed immensely some of those bands like Propaganda, Yello, Tuxedomoon, Gary Numan & some others. But in 2016, the date of this release, it is kind of senseless to plunge into this wave if you are not going deeper than surface level, more if you are the flexible, highly experimental combo who usually does exactly that.

A clean cut retro plunge influenced by Blondie, Gary Numan, Ultravox,The Human League, DM & other synth/techno similar acts spiced with nowadays noise/drone recording techniques played mostly around its safety lines, very well done by the way, but if you are going to play this stuff that was just the first of many other future steps.

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I suppose this Cloudland Canyon/Lichens "Exterminating Angel", 2007 release striked it big in the PA's P/E curators minds as to open a whole Cloudland Canyon/Lichens archive for this EP collaboration. (Lichens, by the way has his own solo discography). I myself would have set it alongside the other already archived collaborator "Cloudland Canyon", but this is just a suggestion.

Anyway to where it matters the music! This project blends the Cloudland's 60's hippie touch/Bay area school's electro/acoustics with Lichens unconventional and darker electronic ones, adding up for an almost perfect blend between both idioms.

A one track EP, which could actually be divided into 4 detectable compositions which account for their own structure and instrumentation, thus making for a quiet surprising ride. This collaboration is balanced yet both musical worlds are detected as single entities or as two, nice!

Haunting, surprising and exciting. As it runs each section seems to outdo the previous one. Kind of raw here and there but the music composition, different sections and its inherent EP's briefness (31:48) saves the day entirely.

****4 PA stars.

As a review, which was recommended by the Cloudland Canyon's founding members themselves mentions, this work is a total groundbreaking point in this band's career.

No explanations needed on why or how this transformation in music composition came upon, this "Aureliua", 2012, EP is great!

Progressive Electronics which are launched from an unothodox Berlin/West Coast departing point, blending micro-minimalistic melody lines with deep and attractive electronic environments.

The real deal, as in all great works, has to do with music composition or plainly how able are you to create musical structures which will be listened with the same enthusiasm they were originally written with.

No dense smoked atmospheres as previous works, opposite to that in this release, the structures are up front clean.

3 tracks travelling parallel yet asymmetrical paths. Each one depicting its own world. The 60's fashion has been stripped out to an undetectable minimum, in favour of a more contemporary electronic environment. No preachings nor prayings, mostly instrumental if not for some high- tec choruses and an 80's like scream in its best track "Light Falling", track 3, more there than here. All 3 tracks run in a mid/fast paced motion through pulses and electronic drum rhythms .

Fairly unique in its electronic music approach, perfectly structured and wrapped tightly around its enticing melody lines which keep you hooked till the last drop.

Made accessible by the band through their SoundCloud plattaform, to even out its limited edition publishing, this release is a sure ****4 PA's stars Progressive Electronics release.

I waited a while to give this Cloudland Canyon, 2008, "Lie in Light" a good listening due to the fact that I was quiet mesmerized by their later, 2012 EP "Aureliua".

Well, from these ashes they rose....

Lie in Light / track by track >

"Krautwerk" , its first track blends , as it title implies, Krautrock, with Roxy Music's made up "Strand" and bits of synth pop. Although it obviously was intended to be high spirited, things get tangled up along the way and "the fun" seems quiet artificial. 2 stars.

"White Woman" , track 2, also holds a retro 60's fashion, involving high pitched wind instrument like sounds and noise while a praying like voice throws some Hippie like lyrics. Much in tune with the USA's Flower Children's West Coast vibe in those days. 2.5 stars.

"You and I", third track, is far better than its elder siblings and by far. A bit of psychedelics mixed with Progressive Electronics among an under recorded voice which follows the synth/pop rhythm to then disappear to leave a droning/noisy environment as its epilogue. 3.5 stars.

"Scheise Schatzi, Auf Wiedersehen", the 4th track, explores those instrumental, cacophonous, high pitched noises in between some industrial, sweeping and triggering synth's flashes. Experimental and quiet successful in its results. 3 stars.

"Herme", track 5, continues this instrumental experimental ideas in a nice blend between noises, the 60's hippie styling in voice, rhythm and guitar, which actually ended up founding the Krautrock sound, but doing so without the USA's blues colors which were an integral part of that style, which is quiet fine. 3.5 stars.

"Lie in Light", a noisy dronescape with a high dosage of quirky and twisty synth noises which have as a background a kind of spiritual and massive melody line with some unintelligible choruses yet subtly funny and irreverent, as early good Kratrock was. 4 stars.

"Mothlight" the final track, plays in a more song like tradition. Wah Wah guitar, a super dense and noisy atmosphere, chanted riffs and an obscure constant electric guitar soloing. Again the cross between the 60's styled underground rock and the contemporary whirling sounds construct the piece. The melody line is just average but true to its nature. 3 stars

All in all, I would recommend it to the dense Rock crowd or as they are now known as Stoners and the Krautrock/Psychedelic listeners who enjoy up to these days, the now highly fashionable then underground, 60's music unwritten protocols.

***3 PA stars flat.

This mysterious contemporary american musical collective released what I consider to be among the best 2007 albums. Esterminating Angel is a spacey-resonant electronic epic for organic immersive lo-fi drones, various bass minimal textures and intense, emotional ambient melodies. The first seven minutes provide a deep sounding electronic run with a few electric hypno-noises (in the genre of Maeror Tri at their darkest dreamy-like momente), heavily mystical. From 7:00 to the end of the first part, the atmosphere becomes more and more environmental and positively evocative with a serie of minimal strates / superpositions of piano, electric bass lines, covered by transcend synth waves (in the genre of Tangerine Dream at the beginning of the Virgin era or Cluster's Sowiesoso). The second part sounds more mechanical / metallic with a certain post rock aesthetism (Neu! 2), buzzing synth tones, e-guitar freakouts. Not a revolution but an amazing musical travel throw time and space. Recommended for fans of Berlin electronic, abstract industrial music and post rock. I'm curious to hear what the band has to offer after this convincing debut album.