More music from the moons of Neptune with each track named after one of the moons, except "shambal dreams surrounded by radial ruins and sessile on triton", although wouldn't that be a great name for a moon‽ Do they live here or does the neighbourhood of Neptune just happen to be a good vacation spot—or is it just an unusually long commute?
As a concept album, it's well put together, adhering to a theme of space, interstellar travel, moving away from Earth, slightly dystopic at times; maybe space isn't the universal saviour we pump it up to be‽ There's also a slight theme of someone missing their cat. A cat lost in space or left behind back on Earth. The meowing persists; maybe the cat was found or maybe they just can't stop thinking about it. This all depends on me not having misheard the lyrics, though, which has happened before.
Musically, it's like psychedelic space rock, shortly interspersed by happy reggae times, some slight dvar vibes, electronically decorated side-quests, and the featured singing of Renata Connors. Music for space as we might have imagined it in the '60s or '70s, like in some old television series taking place in space with swooping theremins. No theremins here, though. Also, more percussion together with the swooping, the meowing synths, electric guitar, etc… Maybe not so much the 60's or 70's skiffy as I first imagined. Still pretty skiffy, though. I find myself losing track of where I am, as if the whole album were just one track going on forever until it suddenly ends. Just like space‽
The one track that stands out the most, not only by title, is also my least favourite: Unfortunately, I'm not entirely a fan of Renata Connors' singing style. To me, it sounds shrill and distorted. This is highly subjective, though, I've come to learn; I think this about many well-established opera singers as well, and haven't yet met anyone who have agreed with me on that, so, yup, highly subjective and particular to how my brain processes sound—apparently. Her speaking voice is quite different, lower and not shrill at all. I would even say that I like her speaking voice—and not only in comparison.
my one lasting impression of Flavigula in general is that they make whatever they want to make in whatever way without a single care for how it's going to be received, an attitude I could subscribe to, or am I just projecting now? Slightly confirmed by this Bob Drake quote, though (found in the album description):
In my opinion a piece of music doesn't "require" anything except that it does what it does because whoever made it did it that way.
That's also what I like about them: I will never fully know what their next move will be: the next note, the next track, the next album. Still, I don't find it arbitrary. There seems to be coherence and a system behind it, like a theme or a method. This album is not a favourite of mine, but not too shabby either. Maybe I'm getting used to their style now… unfortunately? Or maybe it's just that my first, and favourite, trip to the yellow universe, "Kredenc Kopců", is hard to beat…
Footnotes:
- Still can't confirm that quote.
- the way Renata Connors performed parts of the lyrics, the catalogue thing(?), on the track not directly named after a moon, made be think of Broadcast and the title song of their album "Tender Buttons". That's where any similarities stop, though (although putting their collective head inside a cardboard box while singing is something I could easily imagine Flavigula doing).
