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LEGENDARY PINK DOTS, "SYNESTHESIA"

Synesthesia serves as a companion to Chemical Playschool Volumes 11, 12 and 13, with eightindexed tracks, 57 minutes total, and 28 minutes worth of Premonitionssmack dab in the middle. Niels and Martijn are credited with horns,guitars and violin but there's certainly an absence of evidence toprove it. Like Ka-Spel and The Silverman's solo efforts, the dominatingsound is electronic via synths, samples and programmed drums and themajority of the album is instrumental sound pieces. 'Shining Path' and'The More It Stays the Same' are the two lyrical songs, delightful onesat that, but even they dissolve into audio experimentation. ThePremonitions are, as always, fantastic escapes. Numbers 26 and 28 rangefrom the faintest stirrings of mist and found sound to angry resonanceand rhythmic clickety-clack. The closer, 'Kalos Melas', features thecutest marching melody you'll likely hear this year. To my ears"Synesthesia" sounds very polished, much more so than the CP set,possibly negating the theory that these were the outtakes. It's justfurther proof, as though more were even needed, of two things: the Dotsare both song crafters and sonic sculptors and they're as creativelysound as ever.

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