AMYGDALA

Amygdala's debut album does not sound as close to the strict confines of Zeuhl as I've known it to be thus far, straying a bit into what sounds to me to be a bit more along the lines of avant rock music. One thing that is surprisingly about the band is that there are only two members, and that only the bass, guitar, and vocals are not synthetic. The rest of the music either emerges from keyboards, or is programmed. This includes the drums, which, while at time sound obviously precise, for the most part are very well done.

The music contained on this album is generally dark and complex. The music slowly builds in intensity and layering, often culminating in a dark, dangerous sounding climax, although occasionally contrasting this with a change to a more light-hearted sound (as on the third track, Bernoulli's Organ).

Compositionally the music is quite strong, with the songs each developing nicely and always having a sense of going somewhere. The music is completely instrumental other than the rarest of vocals, making this the first instrumental Zeuhl music I have heard thus far. I really like the feeling too, it's dark without being overbearingly so, using tension to build up a sense of darkness and danger.

The only real complaint I can think of for this album would be that the use of more "real" instruments would improve the sound, but really the band does a good job of working with what they have available and the music is pretty strong as a result. Definitely an enjoyable listen, if not exactly what I expected from this sub-genre :)