LIQUID

35007's second (and arguably best) studio album, 2002's "Liquid", is an adventure that I have fondly nicknamed "the blind man's guide to space travel". It sounds rather silly, but once you hear this album you will know what I'm talking about. The layering of atmospheric textures and psychedelic fills just strikes me as mind-blowing.

"Tsunami" is the first journey on the album. All of the fading and exploding of the music reminds me of a vast wasteland with catastrophic explosions occurring every minute. Maybe in space? Well I'm not sure what the messages are here, but just the opening song in itself is good enough to warrant this as a masterpiece of space-rock. "Tsunami" can be whatever you interpret to be. If you want it to be relaxing and ambient, there are many parts for you to enjoy. If you want heavy, pounding drums and ear- shattering bass, there are also many high points.

"Crystalline" can be describes almost as the son of "Tsunami". Raised from its ashes, "Crystalline" continues the tempo while those pounding drums and ground- shaking riffs break out of their cages and just let everything loose on this track. The band does seem more united on this track, however it is a tad less adventurous as its predecessor .

Keeping with the theme of trying to make the album flow like a single track, "Evaporate" is formed from the explosive remnants of "Crystalline". Instead of the massive percussion attack like we saw on the first two tracks, this song takes a keyboard route, with keyboards dominating most of the first 75% of the song. Towards the end, a little bit of repetitiveness is evident, but it doesn't hamper the overall quality too much.

"Voyage Automatique" is the end of the journey, and the end of our circle around space. I call it a circle because if you listen close enough, you can hear the final sounds of "Voyage Automatique" carrying into the very sounds that opened the album on "Tsunami". Crazy, eh?

So if you have ever wanted to travel into deep space, but either couldn't afford the rocket or have intense motion sickness, that is definitely the album for you! I must warn some folks however, I would not recommend this album if you don't enjoy transitions from quiet to heavy pieces or If you want some more up-tempo radio-friendly music.

I took off one star because of the combination of repetitiveness at the end of "Evaporate" and the lack of power in the middle section of "Voyage Automatique". Other than those minor detail flaws, this is an album every space-rock junkies should make an effort to own.

4 stars for NASA's new soundtrack!

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