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Pseudo/Sentai - Nature's Imagination (Chapter 2) CD (album) cover

NATURE'S IMAGINATION (CHAPTER 2)

Pseudo/Sentai

 

Crossover Prog

3.15 | 14 ratings

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colorofmoney91
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Progressive classic video game rock.

Pseudo/Sentai are (currently) a young quartet from Columbus, Ohio, an area which I've kept my eye on since fellow Columbus-based musician Cloudkicker made a name for himself. P/S, however, are quite different from the djent/post-metal/ambient style of the aforementioned artist, and instead create a unique mix of synth-based symphonic video game music and heavy progressive rock musicianship.

Nature's Imagination (Part 2) starts off with the emotional, brooding synth work of "Landmark of Vascular Catastrophe" that sounds similar to the music from Super Metroid for the SNES, but eventually kicks off into powerful anthemic rock and a beautiful cascading guitar melody. But one of the only real problems I have with this EP is on this song, and that is the vocals -- they're not awful, but they sound slightly off-key, but that might simply be a consequence of the home production -- but the musical arrangement makes the song enjoyable nonetheless.

"Photoperiodism" has an interesting indie music meets island music vibe to it that reminds me of The Spinto Band but with choir vocal effects that are reminiscent of Fleet Foxes. The quickly-played, playful guitar melody sounds like something Steve Howe might have played, and the swelling synths that appear halfway through the song, though subtle, create a surprisingly effective atmospheric climax.

"Oil Hurricane" brings back the video game music influence and is almost entirely dominated by aggressive 8-bit synth melodies, but heavy riffing also appears. It's a relatively short track that mostly serves as an interesting interlude before "Foliage Flowers" begins with it's soulful autotuned vocalizations and dusty piano melody. This song is also relatively short and serves as a (more) interesting interlude.

"Keeper of the Stars" has an interesting '80s new wave type of vibe to it, and is really quite relaxing and has an underlying spacey atmosphere enhanced by electronic sounds and the echoed vocals.

Nature's Imagination (Part 2) as a whole has a lot of interesting ideas crammed into a impressively short runtime, and (more impressively) it all works well together. The compositions are interesting without sounding like overkill, and they're catchy enough without sounding too simple, and though they sound completely different, these attributes are what made Rush such a great band, in my opinion. The only real criticism I have is against the production, but it's obvious that not every small band can get professional, squeaky clean production, but I'd also argue that this production style has a very rootsy, real kind of feel that has been either lost over time or reserved for lesser bands who like to operate under the "indie" genre umbrella. Pseudo/Sentai are an interesting young band, and they deserve your attention, so get at it and download this free EP.

colorofmoney91 | 4/5 |

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