Major Parkinson - Twilight Cinema - review
Major Parkinson - Twilight Cinema - review
Tracklist
01. Skeleton Sangria02. Impermanence
03. Black River
04. The Wheelbarrow
05. A Cabin In The Sky
06. Heart Machine
07. Beaks Of Benevola
08. Twilight Cinema
A review by
Ivor December 16, 2014
Twilight Cinema defies categorisation. You can call it progressive rock, you can call it avantgarde, or cabaret, a musical, or even a theatrical play. It doesn't really matter because it really is irrelevant what you call it. You just have to listen to what it is. It's a storm, a maelstrom, a tornado of musical ideas brought to life through a sonic experience... It's an album that lives and grows as it progresses through the music and time, both as an immediate listening experience as well as long-term over repeated listens. It can turn a new facet, show a new side, and peel another layer for you every time you turn to it. It's a never-ending bag of puzzle pieces.
Starting out quietly with an acoustic guitar and Jon Ivar Kollbotn's hushed singing, then playfully waltzing through the beautiful string melodies, it will grab you right from the beginning, slowly building up and strengthening its grasp as it goes along. It grows in beauty and expression, power and delivery, darkness and craziness with each subsequent song, really bursting to life in all its magnificence on the "Black River." From then on it just keeps gathering grandeur and momentum until the very end of the title track.
This album needs space and power to really come alive. Throw at it the best speakers and amps that you possibly can. Play it loud. Let it wash over you in all its glorious details for production is very bang on for an album this intricate. Experience all the nuances of Jon Ivar Kollbotn's and Annette Kathinka Servan's vocals, listen how all the instruments interplay with each other, hear all the clicks and sounds hiding in every moment, let the stomping power of guitars, bass and drums trample you, and let the atmosphere wash over you. Hear how this album plays with stereo image, at one time fading into the centre stage, at another assaulting you from left, right, above, and around you, then pulling back again.
There is no reasonable way to put this album into words. It's beyond mere words. Let it shine and it will transcend a simple listening session into an Experience powering the imagination. There are albums that are good, and there are albums that are great. An album like Twilight Cinema really comes along only once in a while making a profound and lasting impression. I know I've found a new exciting companion to go with me through life.
Comments
Comments:
6
Visited by
163 users
|
Posts: 3650  |
Posts: 3650
Once again you review one of my favorite albums from 2014 and it is spot on. (The other one was Lethe.) Great review!
---- I hate bonus tracks
Loading...
|
 Posts: 5289 |
Posts: 5289
Sounds like it may be your AOTY. I will try to check this - thanks for the review.
---- rekt
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 36 |
|
| !J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted |
|
| Frodd
Account deleted |
|
 Posts: 5722 |
Posts: 5722
A Bandcamp preorder link for their new album landed in my mailbox the other day and somehow–well that somehow is that I suddenly came to possess some extended commute time–I found myself re-listening to more or less their whole discography. Not the first time it happens but it's been a while. 11 and something years on and this album still speaks volumes to me. It's one of those that I'd underline multiple times, one that no matter how many times I hear it still manages to bring a sense of wonder and occasional goosebumps. I'd forgotten how much poetic praise I laid on it in my review but can't say that any of it was unjustified. I meant all of it back then and I still do. I don't have to be with this companion day in and day out but having listened to this album again in a while I can hear it unfold in my head continuously without another spin (at least for a while). There we go together, you and I, through the day and through my life... I.
Loading...
|
Hits total: 5214 | This month: 3