The man known as Thighpaulsandra could very well be the definition of a modern musical mad scientist—pure genius with a maniacal manifestation of sound. His debut Eskaton full-length release (don't get all semantic on me, this isn't his first full-length nor first Eskaton release) comes as a double CD of all new material featuring contributions from members of Coil, Spiritualized and Julian Cope's band as well as his mum.
The set is incredible yet difficult to swallow at once, with over 2¼ hours of music which can be as non-sequitur within movements as it is between tracks. He has drawn blood from much of his influencors, with elements of modern classical, jazz, art-rock and electronic composers swirled into a magickal mystical audio tapestry. The styles range from lengthy neo-classical half-hour tracks like each disc's closers to angst-filled songs echoing prog-rock masters such as "The Angelica Declaration" or "Home Butt Club." Deep drones provide background for the 13-minute "Optical Black" which features a spoken John Balance bit, sped up without a pitch increase while an intense improvisational-ish piece "Abuse Foundation IV" for clarinet, marimba, violin, percussion and processed electronics follows. Coil fans will definitely hear the characteristics of recent releases shining through electronic drones or glistening piano bits, yet they might be a bit offset by the general underlying free-form aesthetic, loss of congruency, or the creepy uneasiness which has caused panic attacks in one Coil fan from Los Angeles. Don't fear, however, it makes this disc an entirely different adventure from the more frequently travelled roads in the dark series and will prove to be a substantial release once it's completely digested and becomes part of your system.
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