RM74, "Reflex"

A few months back, I sang the praises of Ural Umbo, a duo that Reto Mader is half of. After hearing this album, and one from his other project, Sum of R, I can definitely say that it is Mader who is largely responsible for all of these bands creating work that is awash in a multitude of grays, and here it only slightly obscures a variety of approaches that are not necessarily as dark or as heavy as his previous output may lead one to suspect.

Utech

 

Now, don’t take that to imply that this is all Tangerine Dream and rays of light and all that hippy crap, not at all.The deep, sinister swell of Hell’s church organs that pervade "Early Morning Fog" certainly aren’t uplifting at all, and even when the bells come in to add a bit of levity, it still stays as a dark, undulating miasma of sound.The heavy sustained harmonium and rhythmic clicks of "The Human Factor" channel some perverse take on film scoring, but still goes off on its own singular dark tangent.

The remaining tracks are somewhat lighter in their approach, but again, not inappropriately so.The open guitar strums and field recording elements of "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" give an organic spaciousness that is definitely not as dark as it could be.The chiming guitar of "Incremental Shift" is a lot more buoyant than the percussive scrapes and noisy drone that surround it, but it stays the focus of the track, rather than the harsher elements."Temporal Resolutions" also focuses more on a soft, Mellotron type sound that are just slightly obscured by delicate static, with reverberated pulses and clicks above.As it draws to a close, it removes some of the layers and distortion to reveal the soft, textural elements that lay beneath.

Textural elements pervade the album throughout:"Organ-Origami" keeps dramatic elements hidden beneath a thin layer of digitally treated distortion to give it a distinct sound that suggests something more akin to noise, but with a bevy of other things going on underneath.When the noise spikes and then disappears, only the beautiful underlying sounds remain, like a storm coming to its inevitable end."Garden of the Lower Lights" puts shimmering icy tones alongside a tremolo laced bit of guitar to juxtapose the dynamic rhythmic swell with the otherwise leaden sounds.

The distinctly gray raincloud sound that characterizes Meto’s work in Ural Umbo and Sum of R is present as well, but on his own, he is more apt to allow the light to shine through, revealing complexities and melodies otherwise hidden.By no means is there an overwhelming sense of levity:it is still a dark album with sinister undertones.Meto’s careful construction of sound is what makes it unique, and thus its greatest strength.

samples:

• Organ-Origami
• Garden of Lower Lights
• Slowly Up and Digital Down...