Sounding like a rock band that wants to score the next David Lynch movie, Orbit Service craft a handful of songs that start promisingly, but only lead to disappointment. The marriage of science fiction, psychedelic drugs, and grim detective story that composes most Songs of Eta Carinae is bled dry of any tension and meaning half through the record and by then the music has become an endurance test instead of an entertaining listen.
Beta-lactam Ring
A black, red, and grey cover spells out the mood that Orbit Service is going to paint over the course of this disc's near hour duration. There will be no happiness around the corner, no spot of sunshine splashing any of the guitars, and any synthesizers used will surely recall gothic fantasy more than happy experiment. Gothic describes some of the record, in fact, with the band drawing heavily on the appeal of moody atmosphere over consistent writing. While the first few tracks that open the record start with song structures in mind, by the half way point of many of them some of the music begins to sound dull, floating instead of propelling. Guitars moan and jiggle behind a haze of smoke at every turn and semi-menacing drones buzz further in the distance. Impending doom seems to be a musical theme on Songs of Eta Carinae, but the doom is never delivered. Instead songs just fizzle out so that new sets of sound can be introduced and then pointlessly ejected in a vacuum of silence.
There are some catchy moments on the record and the vocal delivery is a satisfying medium between flamboyantly dramatic and considerate understatement. But as the album moves forward the constant wall of sound the band builds begins to become annoying and the lyrics get lost in the overwrought production and obsessively dense arrangements. The eleven minute "Asphyxia" stands out as the finest song on the record. Orbit Service take a mulling bass line and let it rumble coolly beneath a storm of worm-like synthetic effects and a steady drum beat. Parts of it remind me of some of Portishead's more chaotic moments, but Orbit Service take the music in a far more cacophonic direction. It's a wonderful song that highlights what's so unsatisfying about the rest of the album. A little more breathing room could've made Songs for Eta Carinae much more entertaining, but due to the constant assault of consistently rubbery and/or muddled instrumentation, the album sounds far too packed. Details get lost in all the sound and eventually I just lose my interest, knowing full well I won't be able to pick out much more than a few intriguing moments. It sounds like the band has plenty of creative energy, but without being able to hear what they're doing behind that giant wall of sound, I feel like that energy is wasted.
On the bright side, the band has the only vocalist with a breathy, dramatic quality that doesn't completely turn me off. In fact, the vocals are very attractive, molded in the shadow of longing wails and softly spoken revelations. Next time the band should let their instruments sparkle and match the quality of that voice, instead of leaving them for dead behind effects pedals.
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