SPACE MIRRORS

Multinational and presumably studio based band SPACE MIRRORS have been around for just over a decade a this point. At this point in time the band revolves around the composing skills of founder member and keyboardist Alisa Coral if I understand their history correctly, as fellow founding member Michael Blackman left the band a few years back. "The Other Gods", released through Swedish label Transubstans Records, is the band's fifth full length production, and their second full length album following the departure of Blackman.

There are many elements on this production that intrigue, and quite a few details that fascinate me to boot. While I normally don't care too much about lyrics, I do find it charming to see a band that opts to create an album revolving around cosmic horrors in general and H. P. Lovecraft's variety of it in particular. The music is dark, also a positive point in my book, the band utilize keyboards and guitars as contrasting features that at the same time assemble into fairly majestic soundscapes, which is another details I tend to appreciate. That lead vocalist Martyr Lucifer has a deep theatrical voice and tends to opt for a talk-like delivery more often than not another details that normally is something I'd enjoy. Still, even with these details in place, this is an album that just doesn't manage to impress me.

Aforementioned lead vocalist Lucifer has a distinct accent that doesn't do his vocals any favors, at least not in this case. That he tends to opt subtly out of tune and generally prefers to reside within a melodic context different from and not in harmony with the instrumentation perhaps more of a problem, depending on just what kind of vocals you tend to enjoy obviously. But for me this combination tends to grate against my nerves and my brain both.

The crashing cymbals almost a mainstay throughout is another element less than charming to my ears, as are the monotone drum patterns and the dark, muddy chugging and occasionally grinding guitars. There are synthesizers and keyboards present here too somewhere, but dampened, indistinct and halfways buried in the arrangements. Cosmic surges and futuristic effects appears now and then, but the less dominant keyboard motifs, while audible, often drowns in a mix and production that to my ears is just too lacking in overall quality.

While there are a lot of aspects to this album that comes across as less than positive to me, I wouldn't say that this production is without a likely audience. The overall dark and oppressing atmosphere that is a constant presence throughout is one that will have a niche appeal, and the vocals of Martyr Lucifer does have a very distinct presence that will also come across as a positive feature to some. This is an album with a niche appeal however, and while I can't heartily recommend it myself I'd suggest that those who find the general idea of a disc filled with dark, brooding and doom-tinged cosmic metal to be an intriguing one to ponder investigating this one.

This fourth album of the international music collective lead by charming Ms. Alisa Coral continues voyaging trough hallways shadowed by heavy guitar walls and celestial synthesizer tapestries. Like their earlier record, "In Darkness They Whisper", the album has a compact theme, directing now to the cosmic horrors familiar from H.P. Lovecraft's literature. Stylistically the album blends some energetic heavy rock themes, spaced out tunnelings reminding Hawkwind's harder moments, and also some quite chaotic sequences of terror and dramatic confusion. Song durations run between three and seven minutes, final epic escaping over twenty minutes of length. This last suite "The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath" was my own highlight on the album, though the other songs are carefully composed and arranged also - I wonder if any other orientation would be even possible in this kind of remote music creation process. Though the album ventures slightly out of my own sphere of musical taste due the descriptive style of lyrics, heavy metal idioms on drums and guitar solos and latency of aggression, I am happy to hear what these talented musicians and kind people have been focusing to; This referred congregation of musicians assembles together no less than four guitarists, from them most familiar to me being Sparky Simmons due his group AcidFM - a group which shared a side with Space Mirrors on their split vinyl single. From the spaceship Hawkwind's crew this trek is joined by Alan Davey, convincing with his firm bass lines, and Nik Turner on saxophone, flute and clarinet, whirling the gust of old school space rock spirit to the troubling winds storming on this cosmic heavy rock record. Cyndee Lee Rule is also present with her atmospheric violin textures, and Martyr Lucifer earns his name with narrative vocal descriptions. Synthesizers are played also by Alen Welty and Bjørn Jeppesen in addition of Alisa, whose expertise on playing, project management and both recordings and electronic technics are evident trough the integrity of album's overall sound. She also has recorded the drums with electronics, and from my own subjective musical taste perspective this coolness shimmering frome machine-borne drumming lowered slightly the listening enjoyment. This solution worked very well on their second record, more ethereal "Memories of The Future", which has so far remained as my own favorite Space Mirrors album - though the albums evolve further musically, I believe this personal factor relies on the spacious vastness I sensed from that older record. About percussions, I believe that closer to organic progressive heavy music the approach gets, more likely there may be difficulties related to synchronizing real drumming for production realized in different countries. What I have understood from the promotional excerpts, there should be however mostly real drums played on the fifth Space Mirrors album been released on time of this writing, and possibly allowing yet more rewarding end results.. "The Other Gods" continues also studies of Lovecrafian sci-fi horror mythos. So I would recommend this album to listeners of heavier progressive space rock, and along with the recent record this band might be interesting group for checking out by any Lovecraft enthusiast.

This album is quite an octopus! Metaphysical, cosmological, lyrics branded with Lovecraft's occultism, space rock combined to epic prog and silvered with metal, an international line up with musicians from Russia, Italy, USA, UK (Cyndee Lee Rule on space violin) and Denmark, bits of stardust with members of Hawkwind (Davey, Turner) and so on! The list of performers is long and somehow the resulting collective work gives you an impression of overload. Add that the production also tends at times to the same, with too many things at once, tons of delays, echoes, whirlwinds of this and that, etc... You think it's the end? Well it isn't! Add again on top of all the previous long and unending jam-packed improvs! It's somehow a shame because there are good things out there, moments drowned in and struggled by the cosmic plasma; nuances, the balance of instruments in the ... huum can't avoid it .... SPACE!!, all this disappear in favour of the quantity of food cast at you ONCE with one huuuuuge tentacular spoon ... eat, eat, eat more and now eat! There's plenty of acid nutritionals .... enough to hollow your brain! When THIS happens, you may only have reached half of the record!!!! I give three stars but it would be more 2½ if this option was there!

With "Majestic-12: A Hidden Presence" the Space Mirrors have moved further in their musical journey, especially with the forms of compositions. Instead of hypnotic trance loops, there is much more altering in the song structures, and also totally cinematic ambient aural installations among the heavier tracks. The opener "Tunguska" is a good introducer to these more bizarrely twisting compositional turns. Musically there are also more dimensions and color, not least by the presence of Nik Turner on saxophone and Cyndee Lee Rule's with her violin.

The thematic body of this epic record is focused to the UFO conspiracies and legendary visitation events. The horror associations of these encounters of the third kind are in my opinion well present at some of the heavy rock moments, for example on the song "Roswell-47", where the moods go to quite oppressing levels from the singing and melodic perspectives. In addition of these more frightening sequences, there are also some quite beautiful synthesizer driven new age conjurations, these being in minority however. Musically the record felt to my slightly less balanced as the early record, but my own preference to more meditative music than complex aggressive and vivid rock operas possibly affect to this experience. I also did not like very much the harsher male vocals, dominating this album stronger than the record from 2006. But I believe if you prefer aggressive heavy music, you may add an extra star to my own rating. My own favorite moments were the ambiences and groovy loungings of "Krill Report" along with the powerful riff carpets of "Night Visit".

The recording is produced again very professionally; sound quality continues the ace standards of its predecessor, an awesome booklet has all the lyrics and information in an epic visual outlook, and the transparent CD case has a fine quality illustrations fitting to the UFO conspiracy themes. I liked the seriousness how these thematic matters are taken on this disc, even the introduction essay of the album booklet is from webmaster of Ufocasebook dot com. Thus this album is recommended to the cosmic heavy rockers and all UFO witnesses, and it is interesting to wait how the next album waiting its release on the time of writing will be sounding then. For me personally the recordings of this band have been a nice encounter with sympathetic musicians, who believe strongly to the things they are doing, and I wish them all success with their further voyages in musical cosmic exploration.

"Memories of The Future" is the second album of group Space Mirrors, a band built around Alisa Coral with help from her prolific artist friends around the world.

The overall sound of the record is quite trance-oriented and dominated by shimmering layers of synthesizers. For comparison to other artist I would associate this music with Hawkwind's "Alien I Am"-era sounds, but with more ethereal space sound textures and yet more hypnotic drone compositions. Drums support both this trance drive and the modern tones, and more earthbound elements are delivered by Michael Blackman's guitars and singing. The vocals are quite scarce; Alisa's quite echo-treated and Michael's being heavier growling - later being maybe the weakest link for me personally here, but not ruining the listening experience however. Some of the tracks are merged as continuous sonic entities, boosting the experience of ambient voyaging, underlined by the steady drumbeat. As the latter mentioned mingles with layers of distorted guitar, some industrial metal flavors are brought the album's sound also. The minimal composition elements are used for both building of tension, and cascades of instrumental textures. The long album has a good quality balance on the songs, so it is difficult to name a favorite or weaker moments from the tracks. The song titles and lyrics deal with ancient civilizations and mythologies, which have links to different mystic theories and dystopic impressions of the future.

This pleasant mixture of space rock and heavy metal elements are really carefully recorded and mixed, and the great depth and clarity of sounds united to long tunnel visions of the songs made this as one of the favourite listening for cruising with a car admits the dark winter city landscapes of my home country. I have not heard group's debut album, so for me this record released in early 2006 was the first touch to their cosmic music. Album covers are really pretty too, and I would recommend these lovely synthscapes and delicate aural UFO encounters for the fans of modern sounding heavy space rock and cosmic trance beats. Those interested of Von Däniken's theories might wish to check this CD out also.