Team Brick - Alogon



This epic is the kind of recording you’d expect from those heady prog days when songs fitted snugly on whole sides of vinyl rather than 2009… An indulgent hopscotch that’s in a league of its own, the tunes skip from loosely constructed frames of reference to more randomised, improvised constructs. The tracks seem to blur into one, a filmic escapade, as if a score for some autistic ballet. In places, brass elements give the album a distinct English tint, at one point the horns sound like a Trumpton cheer of plump policemen bobbing in unison…in others, fleeting glimpses of Penguin Café style strings can be found working their nostalgic magic from beneath.

The album’s action packed, with a scene that’s never complacent. Wilting signatures serve to tease you, jut against your expectations as they veer off in countless different trajectories, making you breathe in Alogon’s anatomy… Savour its keyboard skittles, screamed mania, aching drones and butchered jazz as much as the mellower perspectives.

I think, maybe there's a mathematical logic behind all this, the title and a few lyrics hint as much…. Division and symmetry… an order vs. chaos thing... but I’m not pinning this beauty to the wall in post whatever’s, I’m just happy to soak up those clanking chandeliers and sequined spine-lines as classical training mixes with a rebellious spirit to reveal a unique album that will hold it’s own long after ephemeral trends dissipate.

Comments

Charlie said…
one of my favourite records of the year, totally impressive and indescribably beauty, heartwrench...

the artwork is cool too.
Cloudboy said…
... i'll second that, MW has spoilt us rotten with this one...