BREMEN

"Sinister" starts out the album with a sparse sounding, almost oriental melody and a soft drone in the background. A piano joins in about halfway through as the harsh melody chimes on in the background. Deep in the mix, there are some fractal vocals and a barely discernable percussive sound. "The Middle Part" has a more positive vibe to it as strummed guitar chords bring in a spacious and fuzzy keyboard and an echoing electric guitar. The feeling of sparseness continues. "Aimless Cruising" makes a complete 180 and goes for a more psychedelic hard-rock sound as a improvised psychedelic guitar burns it's way through a rock n' roll style foundation.

"Closures" gets established from a nice keyboard sequence and a fuzzy drone. A guitar with an interesting hollow effect plays the improvised line over this as layers build. Soon you can hear a mellotron-style effect building in the background and that layer melds into the other layers as this tune meanders along without any percussion. "Valley of Ashes" begins with a dark sounding piano with other keyboard effects built on top of it.

"Palladium" begins with a solo electric guitar strumming out dark chords and later, other layers are added in. This track sounds more like a post-rock affair, with the sparse darkness painted with the fuzzy guitar and the slow rhythm. As expected, the sound crescendos against dissonance and harshness as the intensity builds. "Enter Silence" is even darker as deep tones from guitar and keys combine, creating a moaning and mournful minimalism. Later, a dirge-like rhythm starts up and the guitars start to wail and more fractured vocals come in. Very nightmarish.

"No Means to Remain" sounds like a spooky calliope churning out a 3 / 4 rhythm against an electronically chopped up guitar foundation. Screeching and whining guitars improvise over this. "Too Cold For Your Eyes" is introduced by the mellotron sound again, and quickly, a mid-tempo beat comes in. After the darkness and sparseness of the previous track, the percussion is a surprise. This jam is more like the space jams that you are used to as this track moves away from the sparseness of previous tracks. It becomes more powerful and intense as it moves along and layers play with and against each other. This is definitely a highlight of the album.

"Everything Coagulates" makes a cool effect out of processed sounds as a lone guitar picks out a slow, repeated pattern. Keys soon provide a thick, mournful melody. "Earthbound" also has some interesting effects, this time against a soft mid-tempo beat. These two short tracks lead up to the longest track on the album at only 7+ minutes. "Vanishing Point" gives you a sprawling feeling as it takes it's time developing in a pensive and expansive way. After 3 minutes, a strummed guitar brings a thread of hope as the psychedelic meanderings start to formulate into some form of structure.

There is no doubt that the music is sparse and dark, and even though it is put under Space Rock, for good reason, it could just as easily fit under post-rock for it's bleakness. Many of the tracks are short, and seem more like ideas than full thought out songs, and the production is a little choppy at times, with the fade ins and outs not done very smoothly. There are some great ideas here, none the less, and with more development, this could have been a much better album all around. There are a few nice surprises though, but for the most part, the music is dense, yet minimal. But other than that, nothing much stands out here. It is a good album, but doesn't really rise above that average level.