nederlands
englishAll content is © 2006-2009, Evening of Light.
Dave Colohan's Agitated Radio Pilot and Antony Milton's The Nether Dawn has planned this release for a while, but it finally saw the light of day in late 2006 through Antony's Pseudo Arcana label. Both projects contribute an EP-sized collection of songs, and the result is put together on a lathe cut 12", hand-produced by Peter King of New Zealand. The lathe cut is a special thing, it has a great home-made feeling to it, but it also offers less sound quality. The two projects have chosen appropriate low-fi musical material to compensate this.
The Ghost of Medb starts off with the dissonant and experimental "Leading A Small Ghost Home By The Hand". The whole is rather sqeaky and strange, more reminiscent of the experimental sides of United Bible Studies than Dave's regular solo material. "The Forlorn Hope" and "Wanderlands" are from the instrumental electric guitar works of Dave's, as features on releases like A Drifting Population and Imaginary East of Longford. Melancholic melodies with wordless vocals, but also here a rather low sound quality. The final and title track is also of this melodic style, but slightly more relaxed. All in all, the last three tracks form a whole in terms of mood and melody, which can be described as forlorn and otherworldly. However, in terms of both sound and composition, I don't like them as well as similar Agitated Radio Pilot material. The music, in this case, has many layers, but they just don't get the presentation they deserve in this lo-fi setting.
The Nether Dawn brings three tracks of quite a different character. Under Your Night is more abstract, atonal and droning than the A-side of this record. Creaky guitar sounds, static, manipulated wisps of vocals, and a vague organ drone make up the title track. "Sky Dust" is a more stark, ambient piece, with soft rustlings and sounds, and the occasional guitar string twanging. This shorter track fades into the main event of this side, the ten minute live track. This is a long droner, softly building up layers of half-melody, half-noise. I think this is the best track off the record, as it's very hypnotic; definitely worth checking out for fans of experimental dronish music.
The visual presentation of this album is very good, with high quality textured ink and paint stamping on the brown carton cover. The record itself is done in clear translucent acetate, which looks immaculate, as clear records always do. For that reason, it's a pity that the musical side doesn't completely match that level. For an exclusive release like this - limited to 60 in the first run, the second run of 50 almost gone now - I would have liked to see something more worthwhile. As it is now, it is a nice record for afficionados of both projects, or for obscure vinyl freaks, but not for a wider audience.
O.S.
The Ghost of Medb starts off with the dissonant and experimental "Leading A Small Ghost Home By The Hand". The whole is rather sqeaky and strange, more reminiscent of the experimental sides of United Bible Studies than Dave's regular solo material. "The Forlorn Hope" and "Wanderlands" are from the instrumental electric guitar works of Dave's, as features on releases like A Drifting Population and Imaginary East of Longford. Melancholic melodies with wordless vocals, but also here a rather low sound quality. The final and title track is also of this melodic style, but slightly more relaxed. All in all, the last three tracks form a whole in terms of mood and melody, which can be described as forlorn and otherworldly. However, in terms of both sound and composition, I don't like them as well as similar Agitated Radio Pilot material. The music, in this case, has many layers, but they just don't get the presentation they deserve in this lo-fi setting.
The Nether Dawn brings three tracks of quite a different character. Under Your Night is more abstract, atonal and droning than the A-side of this record. Creaky guitar sounds, static, manipulated wisps of vocals, and a vague organ drone make up the title track. "Sky Dust" is a more stark, ambient piece, with soft rustlings and sounds, and the occasional guitar string twanging. This shorter track fades into the main event of this side, the ten minute live track. This is a long droner, softly building up layers of half-melody, half-noise. I think this is the best track off the record, as it's very hypnotic; definitely worth checking out for fans of experimental dronish music.
The visual presentation of this album is very good, with high quality textured ink and paint stamping on the brown carton cover. The record itself is done in clear translucent acetate, which looks immaculate, as clear records always do. For that reason, it's a pity that the musical side doesn't completely match that level. For an exclusive release like this - limited to 60 in the first run, the second run of 50 almost gone now - I would have liked to see something more worthwhile. As it is now, it is a nice record for afficionados of both projects, or for obscure vinyl freaks, but not for a wider audience.
O.S.