BATTLESTATIONS

A last-minute attempt to sneak something else into the 2023 register by my favorite post-apocalyptic cinematic music creator from Bruxelles.

Line-up / Musicians: Monsieur Paraphon Battlestations

1. "Ravage" (38:06) more Blade Runner-like future industrial music. I'm not sure, however, if this one's pre- or post- apocalyptic; it's definitely not a soundtrack for Armageddon. I love the industrial drudgery, but the "love theme" inserted in the 20th minute is my favorite--where the emotional "meat" of the song really begins. Gorgeous dream-like whimsy in the 22nd through 24th minutes. Unfortunately, there's nothing else here too exciting or engaging: it's mostly a flow of background sounds of an urban town and its industries and parks, its activity and spaciousness; a wonderful testament to life in a town like Ghent (my favorite town in Belgium). (66/75)

Total Time 38:06

B/four stars; a wonderful "soundtrack" homage to life in industrialized urban Europe; highly recommended to all lovers of cinematic background soundtrack music.

Battlestation's 2023 offering gives us very profound and atmospheric electronic music evoking vast spaces. Mostly it is slow and minimal, but they really invested into the sounds, which always have life and depth, so that even droney parts breath and keep the attention up; you do need to be in meditative mood though. Some parts are mysterious, dark, and harmonically undefined, some others very harmonic and friendly. The third track Malaise is the only one that centrally features powerful percussive sounds (a little bit more of that toward the end of the album). Some others still have a clear rhythmic structure, for example RSYT driven by a piano motif, actually pretty much the only non-electronic element on the whole album. The two mentioned tracks are certainly highlights, the first one shaking the atmosphere of the album up a bit, the second one with a masterfully composed and developed chord sequence and moving development from beginning to end. Most other tracks rather have this meditative coming out of nowhere - going into nowhere feel to it. Another exception is the dramatic final track The Ghost of Lady Farewell.

Battlestation's electronic albums are all on top of what the genre has to offer, with great musicality and sense for atmosphere. I have to admit though that I often find the long form more appropriate for this kind of music. Battlestations used this on the previous 2021 Splinter albums. On Memoirs of Once, the tracks are maximum 6 minutes, often just around 3. Sometimes there may be a bit of disappointment that we're already done with one track and have to leave, and the next one will open up a different landscape of sound. The advantage is that the album, despite its meditative appeal, is richer in ideas and mood changes than other work of this kind. It took me some time to get into this, but ultimately the "vast spaces in short format" concept still keeps me on board, and kudos to the artist for developing their approach and not standing still, while still delivering to those like me who loved their previous offerings. 4.1 stars.

One of Prog's masters of storytelling through cinematic instrumental soundscapes is back with yet another illustration of his mastery of his craft.

1. "Aggravation" (5:15) Vangelis-like contemplative, cinematic beauty provided by reverb-bathed notes from a piano. (9/10)

2. "The disappeared" (3:40) treated wordless vocals over slowly progressing synth washes. (8.875/10)

3. "Malaise" (3:43) industrial rebellion. I like the arrival of layer upon layer as if the MATRIX revolution is mounting and ultimate. (8.875/10)

4. "Failing systems" (2:54) gorgeous chord progression of nebulous cloud synth chords (9.5//10)

5. "Quietus" (2:46) more cinematic chord progressions--this time coming from a youthful Ryuichi Sakamoto perspective. (4.5/5)

6. "Poisoned Ground" (3:26) much more on the subtle grounds of ubiquity and stagnation. (8.75/10) 7. "RSYT" (4:45) Satie-like piano (and synth) as if emerging from within thick fog. Spoken voices in the background add great mystery and confusion to the scene: It's like walking the streets of Ghent late at night while the fog of Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog wafts through the streets and alleys. Very cool. (9/10)

8. "The force of loss" (4:11) another song that could have come from a Vangelis soundtrack--perhaps even Blade Runner. The operatic voice sampled and used reminds me of the wonderful music of Wim Mertens. (8.875/10)

9. "Folded time" (4:44) two progressions of distorted, pitch-bent harp-like chord strokes repeat within a matrix of gelatinous-yet-crystalline, billowing musical walls. It's like walking through the hall of mirrors while drunk or high: nothing is steady or dependable, everything is fluid and amorphous. Genius! (9.25/10)

10. "The ghost of Lady Farewell" (5:51) with the twang of a stringed instrument involved within the nebulous mix from the start, I am reminded of older Battlestations pieces. But then the song shifts into a completely different form and set of textures with a pace and rhythm base to it while heavily treated electric guitar wails away in the not-too-distant background. At 3:08 the rhythm section actually solidifies and marches forward in a way that is quite reminiscent of the band's first three albums. It's nice, but it's been done before. The highlight is the fresh layers of synth-strings chords over the top. (8.875/10)

Total Time 41:18

While the music collected here sounds less conceptually organized, more like a collection of individually independent songs, the crafting is of the highest quality and caliber; the composer/musician we know only as "Battlestations" continues to grow and progress.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of cinematic progressive electronic music that every prog--and music--lover would, I think, be quite happy to hear (and own).

One of my favorite artists of the 21st Century continues to evolve in ways and directions that keep blowing my mind!

1. "Bruise" (23:45) Though this one started off a bit like some of Alio Die and Jon Hassell/Brian Eno's less engaging, more challenging music, it became one of the most gut- and heart-wrenching pieces of music I've heard all year! Those chords and incidental and glitch sounds in the fifth & sixth minutes are so beautiful, so ethereal, so engaging! Then we slowly transition into the incredible eighth minute and wow! a piano chord at 7:48 nearly makes my knees buckle! Ryuichi Sakamoto land, to be sure! The shifting synth-wash chord changes are killing me! At 11:30 there begins another slow, subtle shift, taking over four minutes of peaceful water's edge bar-do to fully reveal the next motif: stark piano arpeggi flying over the drone of the Earth's deep thrum with clouds and bird synths and, later, Middle Eastern human city flitting into the astral excursion. This is one out-of-body experience that I wanted to go on forever! (47.5/50)

2. "Receptor" (8:44) a very cool series of beautifully- and seemlessly-blended loops in which simple aural tropospheres are generated using heavily-treated, dream-like effects. Not sure if this one is more Blade Runner-like industrial Off-World or street-bound Earth during COVID dystopia. My favorite sounds are the human ones-- especially the whistles. (18.5/20)

3. "Vacrys" (5:38) I hear HAROLD BUDD and ROBIN GUTHRIE in this one. (9/10)

4. "Nydised" (9:24) like an ambient percussive exploration that PAT METHENY & LYLE MAYS would use--especially if collaborating on a HANS ZIMMER soundtrack. Incredible! Like waiting at a Far-tube stop somewhere out in the cosmos! (18.5/20)

5. "Jikan" (6:07) more piano-based floating. More Budd (and Battlestations) than Guthrie or Eno. Incredible chord changes! More hypnotically incredible! (9.25/10)

6. "Unelind" (6:39) beautiful waves of synth washes among a mix of celestial "sounds" and temporal atmospherics (drums). Gorgeous and transportive: like an Ed Unitsky album cover or a steam ship into the Galactos! (9.5/10)

Total Time 61:01

This man is an absolute genius! How/Why he's not getting more attention and fame I do not understand for he's merely evolved from writing the soundtrack of our times (war, degradation, and collapse), and our kind (hope amid brutish cruelty), to the soundtracks of our future (cosmically)! This is the kind of music that makes me so proud to be Homo sapiens sapiens! I can't get enough of his chord choices and powerful, deeply moving chord changes!

A/five stars; an absolute masterpiece of Progressive Electronic music--music for our infinite future! HIGHLY recommended!

One of Belgian-based classical electronicist Battlestation's two album releases over the course of 2021.

1. "Tremor" (43:08) Wow! What a wonderfully integrative journey! I felt as if I was among people--like I was sleepwalking--and yet it was also so dreamlike, so interplanetary and inter-dimensional! I could hear/sense Battlestations, but it was also so new, so heavily-treated and shifting so subtly, so masterfully. I absolutely loved the stunning eighth minute: it felt as if I were in an outdoor winter shopping scene with outdoor speakers playing old instrumental strings versions of Christmas carols! The next ten minutes sound like something BRIAN ENO and ROBERT FRIPP could have pulled together during their early explorations of the Ambient Music scene, while the third ten minutes sound so much like the first ten minutes of PAT METHENY & LYLE MAYS' "As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls" that I kept waiting for the human voice to step in and surprise me with numeric countings (even though that only happens near the end of Pat and Lyle's song)! After that it sounds like the soundscapes that I've been familiar with from BATTLESTATIONS, though I could also, from time to time, hear Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tangerine Dream, Alio Die, and yet it was all so fresh and exciting! A wonderful, beautiful 43-minute journey (even if the second ten minute passage drag on a bit too long)! (77/85)

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of dreamscape travel.

I had given the first part of the "Splinters" five stars and was of course very curious about the second part. Once more this is very tasteful, subtle, and atmospheric progressive electronic music with exactly the mix of structure, meditation, and sound experimentation that I love. The sound is once more amazing. It is surely rather minimal music, and nobody will cal it "rock" despite the post rock past of the band. There are rhythmic elements, but normally that's only a periodically repeated sound or beat, just to give the music some spine, but not in any way dominating. About half of the time there's no rhythmic sound at all. In fact we are surely not on solid earthly grounds here, one could either associate outer space or underwater with this music. Also it is very slow and requires patience and/or the ability to immerse oneself in meditative sound. Sure, neither underwater nor in outer space the human concept of time has much of a meaning. Still, despite the slow and minimalist proceedings, the music is more inventive than much that I've heard from the progressive electronic camp, and despite its experimental character, it is quite gentle to the ears.

Vol. I of Splinters had just a single track of 43 minutes. The second volume starts with the 24 minutes of "Bruise", which concept- and quality-wise is the legitimate continuation of Vol. I. On top of it we get five shorter tracks, "Receptor" and "Nydised" around 9 minutes, the other three around six minutes. Stylistically these are not different from Vol. I and "Bruise", however "Tremor" from Vol. I and "Bruise" together can be seen as the real five star masterpiece "Splinters". This music works best on the grand scale with plenty of time for and effort devoted to development. I do like the other five tracks, too, but they have a less elaborated and cohesive feel and lack the genius to really shine on their own as much as the two-part excursion of which only a third is to be found on the Vol. II album. They would work well as tasters to announce the magnum opus, but as things stand, we get the magnum opus first (including Vol. I of course) and then some more music that has a certain "cutting room floor" feel. No complaints really, but I ultimately end up with 3.7 stars rather than the 5 stars of Vol. I. Still I recommend this mainly for the very rewarding 24 minutes of "Bruise", to be listened together with Vol. I.

This is the first prog album I have bought from 2021, and as such obviously up to now the best. Furthermore it tops all I have heard from 2019 and 2020 and would ultimately be a very worthy winner of the year.

The Battlestations are listed as Post Rock because of their history but are for some time on a journey to progressive electronic, which on this album they have properly completed. There are no drums on this album and no guitar that sounds like one, it's all electronic including some samples, so based on this album hardly anyone would classify the as post/math rock.

Not only is the album electronic, it is excellent at that. It has the same experimental spirit that can be found in the early work of the pioneers of the genre, think of Tangerine Dream's masterpieces Zeit and Phaedra. I mention these two because from Zeit to Phaedra TD introduced the rhythmic sequencer, and Battlestations here balance more ambient soundscapes and rhythmic, more structured parts in a masterful way. Post rock sensitivity can be heard to some extent in the relaxed approach and the pleasant tonal motifs that make the album more accessible than more radical experimental electronic work, still avoiding anything like clear melodies or a traditional song structure.

Splinters Vol. I is just a single piece of 43 minutes. Sound generation amd sampling of course is done using twenty-first century standards, distinguishing the album from early electronic work. It is an atmospheric, slow developing work that features sound experimentation, meditative parts, but also sequencer-like repetitive rhythms and some harmonic material. It is richer in ideas than much of this genre; although the music takes its time to transform from one part to the next, there is plenty to discover. Something that sets this album apart is the musicality by which the different parts have been woven together; everything feels organic and smooth, but it is far from minimalism or drone. People may call it "ambient", but to listen to it like ambient music would mean missing much of what's going on. It is basically a more friendly and warm version of experimental electronic which in other work can come over as quite intellectual and cold.

Different motifs and structures come and go, held together by an overarching approach to sounds, always reminding us that happiness and sadness and all the often strange and unexpected but at some point familiar things in life are only a small and transient part of something bigger that was before we were and will still be after we have gone.

Approach with caution if you're not into electronic and experimental stuff, but I say 5 stars hands down.

This "Tremor" gives me a tremor.

2021 has opened the theatre curtain with BATTLESTATIONS' latest release whilst we expect another dawn under such a terrible pandemic situation. We are also amazed at their album "Splinters, Vol. I: Tremor" featuring only one suite "Tremor" because they have occupied Post Rock fans' inner mind for a decade. This long suite "Tremor" has slow and steady movements in the whole aspect like a kind of traditional Chinese exercise aka tai chi, and therefore it would be tough for some 'rock' fans to digest and absorb as music nutrition soon. In this sense every progressive electronic mania can accept this sensitive creek easily, I imagine.

Synthesizer-oriented keen soundpoints that sometimes prick our mind are also mystic. Repetitive surrealistic melody pillows drive us into a dreamy dream. The development of vibes and movements sounds like a feel flows. We would be immersed in the last phase filled with calm but unsettled tuning balance. Their soundscape in this creation is mysterious but aggressive. The electronic atmosphere around them is quiet but energetic. Their ambient expression, especially brilliant beautiful synthesizer works based on echoic monotone in the middle part, reminds me of the similarity to "Une Belle Journée" by a French electronic artist Nicolas Dick.

Not straightly recommended for every post 'rock' fan but good for progressive electronic followers, let me say. Ah of course, I love this album. ;)

A wonderful surprise from Belgium: Battlestations is not kaput! The band reincarnates to produce this Post Rock charmer.

1. "Silencer" (7:48) surprising Berlin School sequencing and lush strings "orchestration" over the first half is then replaced by a more industrial groove for the final three minutes. With Battlestation's usual heart-wrenching chord progressions . . . the "strings" and synth washes in the background are incredible. (13.75/15)

2. "Steeper Angles" (5:35) is like an industrial ambient wash of Brian Eno's "and Julie with"--but then it goes all Blade Runner! Awesome! (9/10)

3. "Carbon" (5:10) sounds as if the first half of Genesis's song "Duchess" had been taken through a meat grinder and turned inside out--and then, in the second half of the song, it turns Gymnopedienne (+ meat grinder). Beautiful! (9.5/10)

4. "Relapse" (6:46) is a kind of play or variation on one of the beautiful motifs from Vixit. Considering its source material, this can never be a bad idea. (13/15)

5. "Wavering" (6:26) opens with an introductory section of more futuristic, Vangelis-like, industrial sounds (non-percussive). After the 90-second mark, this switches to a steadily-driving juggernaut of multiple threads woven together gorgeously. At the end of the fourth minute a harp-like arpeggio joins in just before a powerful trip-hoppy drum program takes us into outer space. Awesome keyboard work on all layers here. Song ends with central chord progression of synth washes slowly fading out. Excellent! Maybe my favorite songs on this album. (10/10)

6. "L'abîme" (6:08) opens with a lot of "pond water"--music that sets up a mood, maybe an image, but doesn't seem to be going anywhere. (How does one do this?) It's not until the 2:30 mark that the camera begins a slow walk through the park. It's beautiful--even if my fever and dizziness is making everything shimmery and unsteady. "If you listen for long enough, you don't know whether what you're hearing is silence, or whether there's some kind of underlying sound, in the distance..." speaks the garbled gravelly voice as the song nears its end. The abysm. (8.5/10)

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of ambient Post Rock progressive rock music.

The Brussels, Belgium based post-rock act BATTLESTATIONS is one of those shy bands that chooses to remain mysterious and work behind closed doors to bring the artistic visions to the world. Little is known about the band except that they formed in 2009 and that they are from Brussels. While i've seen the name Reivilo Enoignor floating around as keyboardist and this very well could be a solo project, i've yet never seen any other names attached to actually play in this band and all the better since BATTLESTATIONS' mysterious demeanor has created a dark brooding and constantly shapeshifting form of post-rock that takes more than clue from the enigmatic sounds of Godspeed! You Black Emperor and teases them out into new atmospheric objectivity.

The band has released so far four full-length albums but it all began with this 2011 eponymously titled debut album that contains three tracks with a running time of nearly 46 minutes. This one so far has only available as a digital download. The three tracks are beautifully complex which sprawl out into epic journeys with two tracks exceeding the 18 minute run and one just shy of 8. The tracks all have proper titles but are broken down into sub-titles which delineate the shapeshifting effects into completely new musical motifs. In fact, these tracks are more like stitched together assemblages of sounds rather than actual songs and included various instrumental sections punctuated by field samplings and spoken word vocals.

This BATTLESTATIONS debut exhibits an icy cold ethereal post-rock style that mixes classical piano runs with dirty guitar distortion that provides an ever changing instrumental narrative that symbolizes the struggle between dystopia and hope. Cheerful piano melodies give way to apocalyptic bleakness created by a slow to mid-tempo beat with layers of guitar and what sounds like a string section only muddied into an extension of the sonic brume that persists while weaving a startling tapestry of the placidity with the dramatic and the textural sublime with the climatic. The album succeeds in the mission of the post-rock paradigm by taking the listener on a sonic journey that is utterly alien and exclusively focused on the emotional reactions rather than technicality.

I would say that BATTLESTATIONS closest musical relative is without a doubt Godspeed! The tempestuous tones and timbres resonate to rouse the living and portend a future that is ruled by the dead but finds resolution in the ultimate cosmic dance between the polarization. The difference between this band and others is that it takes a more liberal approach to creating a patchwork effect of musical motifs rather than the simple subtleties of ratcheting up the tension of a repetitive cyclical loop that accrues ever more variations and effects. While the dramatic atmospheric gloominess clearly emulates the great Godspeed!, the approach is quite different and for that BATTLESTATIONS succeeds in creating a dynamic display of post-rock prowess. Each work that this band crafts is different from the previous so this is defiantly a recommended band to explore beyond a mere release.

Track listing and breakdowns:

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Segment 1: No Survivors (18:57)

Segment 1 No Survivors - Life In The 21st Century - ADX Florence 23/24 Lullaby - This Empty Crowd - Caterpillar Strategy - The Useless Space - Dead End - After You Were Here - Fragile Failure - Dead End Reprise - The Autumnal Context

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Segment 2: The Taste Of The Kill (7:56)

Segment 2 The Tast Of The Kill - Harmful Layers - Memories Of Silent Response

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Segment 3: Accidents Of Ideals (18:36)

Segment 3 Accidents Of Ideals / Marked Passenger - Gone Passenger - Uninvited Memorial - The Needle In Your Eye - Death In The 21st Century