j o n b

The Dark Aether Project offer a brand of ambient spacey prog that is really not my cup of tea, normally. I decided to take a chance on their second album, however, based on some good things I'd read here an there. And while I'm glad I did from the perspective of broadening my horizons, I can't say that I'll book a return flight anytime soon. The Project produces an interesting mix of somewhat minimalist spacey foundations combined with 80s Crimson rhythmic patterns and Frippian guitar intensity. That feeling is helped, of course, by Adam Levin's Warr guitar work all over the album. The result is an album that has some very interesting moments and playing, but that overall simply doesn't compel me to listen to it repeatedly. The highlight for me is "Nightmare" which adds the vocals of once and future echolyn vocalist Ray Weston to an already very intense tune. It actually reminds me somewhat of a Peter Gabriel track, with a lot of emphasis on a dominant repeated rhythm with no real sense of melody. Yaman Aksu's guitar shines on this track as well. The overall effect is very good. "Nightmare" also shares one flaw with the album as a whole. When the music really starts getting intense, the overall color of the band is too thin to keep up. Other points on the album, like the bonus live cut of a tune off the band's debut disc, simply leave me cold, with sections that just seem to go nowhere and have no real energy to them. My overall impression of the album is that it was made by a group of very good musicians who share a pretty strong vision of what their music should be. Unfortunately, that vision just doesn't excite me all that much. I'd recommend this album to those who like a little less structure and more of a free form to their music. review by Jon Byrne — undated —

b o b

The second album by the "house band" of Orion Studios, home of Baltimore's Progressive Rock Showcases. The band features showcase organizer Adam Levin on synthesizer and 8 string Warr touch guitar, Yaman Aksu on fretted and fretless electric guitar, Hammond organ and guitar synth, Brian Griffin on drums, and new bandmember Ray Weston on vocals. This disc shows a Dark Aether Project who are a little more sure-footed than when they recorded their self-titled debut disc. Feed starts off with the lengthy track "Burnt Sunrise". This begins with a scratchy, 40s-newsreel type voice giving instructions on what to do in the case of a nuclear explosion, finishing up with "...get down!". After this, the first few minutes of the track are mostly wind sounds and a Tangerine Dream-ish keyboard line. Unusual for a band that isn't normally associated with keys to begin an album with nothing but synths. After this, the electric and Warr guitars play a mellow introductory section. About five minutes into the song, we finally hit a regular, repetitive bass and drum line. The electric guitar solo that starts at around the six and a half minute mark is nice - I particularly like the tone. The pace is still on the slow side; this song takes its time building itself up. Finally, right at the ten minute mark, the pace is quickened and the guitar lines start to pile up multiple interlocked melodies, similar to Crimson or the Gordian Knot disc. Around the twelve minute mark the drums drop out leaving the stringed instruments to repeat their patterns a few more times before coming to a sudden stop. Track two, "Nightmare", is aptly named. A deep, driving, repetitive bass line is overlaid with wailing, screaming feedback guitar. A very dark sounding song. After a couple minutes the guitar part starts to pick out the main melody of the song and the vocals begin. The lyrics seem to be describing a nightmare scene. It's hard to make them out though, because they're buried low in the mix. The song drones on for over eight minutes, becoming hypnotic in its repetition. I like this track, but think they let it go on a bit longer than it really needed to. "Stages" is next. It's another intricate arrangement of patterns played on the stringed instruments, again reminiscent of 80s Crimson. Yaman Aksu plays a tasty little solo in the middle of the song. Just before the four minute mark, the pace picks up briefly with a fast pattern on the low strings of the Warr guitar, but this soon reaches a sudden stop and then drops back into the interlocking patterns. There's something just past the five minute mark that cracks me up - I don't know if it was intentional or not, but the guitar suddenly plays a handful of chords that sounds to me like a certain song by the German hard rock band the Scorpions. I can't help but sing "Can't live! Can't live without you!" along to those chords. After wandering through some more patterns, the song comes to an abrupt halt about fifteen seconds shy of seven minutes. Track four is "Building the Worm". This song was recorded by Levin and someone named Markus Reuter using a home studio. They must have some nice equipment at home, because the sound quality is just as good as the other studio tracks, recorded at Orion. The song features the two Warr guitarists playing a twisting, atmospheric piece of long, floating notes. It slowly swells and builds in volume, but retains a directionless, drone-like quality throughout, until it hits its echoy ending around the five minute mark. A good song to meditate to. The last song of the album proper is the title track, "Feed the Silence". I have a love/hate relationship with this song - I hate the first half, but love the second half. The track begins fairly low-key, but after a couple minutes takes on a very "heavy metal" sound, complete with screamed vocals. This part of the album just doesn't work for me. Not only do I not like the music and vocals, bit it just seems to be missing something - it doesn't sound as "full" as the rest of the album. Fortunately, this doesn't last the entire 10+ minute length of the song. Around the six minute mark the song changes gears into a more melodic section, with nice multilayered vocals and a foot-tapping rhythm section. Drop the first six minutes of this track and you're left with a very good prog/pop song. The final track on the disc is a bonus live performance of "Dark Aether" from the first album, preceded with an improvised intro called "Out of the Dark". Another atmospheric piece, this time with a decidedly darker edge. Echoy, voice-like sounds float in the background while "honking" noises and distorted guitar jump out at the listener from odd angles. After about five minutes of intro the drums begin, and the song becomes recognizable as Dark Aether, which itself is another flowing, atmospheric piece. The performance is very good - the song sounds similar to the studio version. This bonus track was recorded during the TapTech II concert at Orion, directly from the soundboard to a 2 track analog cassette. The sound quality isn't quite as good as the rest of the album, but is still professional sounding. review by Bob Eichler — undated —