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Artist: Crown Invisible Reviews:
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Crown Invisible graces its fans of lush and rhythmic electronic music with a new release, CI 4: Cinema. It is, arguably, the finest recording from this enigmatically named artist on the Cursor Club label. Exploring new dimensions in electronic rhythms and polyrhythms, CI 4: Cinema is as fresh, adventurous and yet accessible an EM recording as you will probably find these days. As comfortable being played in chill-out rooms and on the dance floor as it will be on car CD players and in living rooms, the six selections on this CD weave a sexy sensual electronic web, filled with glistening dew drops of keyboards, thumping bass lines, soaring synth leads, and snappy percussive elements. In short, if you're a lover of beat-driven electronic music, yet you are weary of more drum 'n' bass, techno, or dub, and you have a fondness for a full-sounding arsenal of keyboards, hook up with Crown Invisible. Every cut is a winner, but if pressed, I'd say my favorites include "V 15 Panic" which opens with the most exotic percussion ever from this artist and soon evolves into classic Crown Invisible layers of EM bliss, amidst polyrhythms galore. I also love the next cut, "V 12 Medical Mix 2," which begins with reverbed high-hat and layers upon layers of keyboards. There is a melancholic grandiosity to the music - it sways but with a level of sadness and grief. Very very cool! The album also features still another remix of one of the best things Crown Invisible has ever recorded, which is from their first CD (this is, I think, the fourth re-mix of the song), the anthem-like "V 8." The track is an extended remix featuring post-industrial rhythms, distorted guitar, and thundering bass beats, eventually culminating in the emergence of the "theme" of the cut - powerful and ultra-cool music! Crown Invisible is, in my humble opinion, one of the least-appreciated and unrecognized electronic music artists of the last few years. Because he operates outside the normal channels (his CDs are never in jewel cases, many of them are EP-length, and all are limited runs and individually numbered recordings), he may not be reaching his (potentially) most ardent fans. But, if there is any justice, someday Cursor Club's name will rank alongside the biggest and brightest names in the genre - he deserves no less!
The Crown Invisible Remixes album is excellent. The revisions to the already fantastic EM of Cursor Club artist Crown Invisible add new dimensions to the music, resulting in new twists and layers of beats, break beats, and other tricks of the electronica trade. The CD also includes the original versions of the songs "V8" and "V13" and places them smack in the middle of the recording. I love what was done with "V8," which was my favorite cut off their debut album. The first remix ("Confessions Mix") adds layers of beats, along with sampled dialogue, (such as "I just can't help it"). The extra beats make this song a solid "crank up the stereo" number! At times, the rhythms approach the best stuff Enigma ever did, but comparing the two is ridiculous. For my money, this stuff is all over Enigma. It's the bomb! The first "V13" remix ("Radio Beams Mix, Short Edit") is good, too. The song itself is less menacing and more ethereal than "V8" and the added rhythms here elevate the song into quasi-Richard Bone territory. There are vocal samples in this song too ("He is guided by radio beams."). In addition to the beats in these remixes and the sampled dialogue, I also think they added more synths as well. The bridge in "V13" is very cool, as a whole new swirling sound was added. The last three remixes involve more new wrinkles to the songs. The "V13 - No Pad Mix" gets aggressively funky beats, pounding drums and synth vibes (Richard Bone again?!) that completely transforms the song. The "V8 - Instrumental Mix" has deep dub beats and scratches, and finally, there is a second long edit of the "Radio Beams Mix" of "V13." While I don't always like remixes, this release gets the nod for two reasons. One, the remixes are well-done by J.T. Hill, stretching the boundaries of the original songs, and two, "V8" is a flat-out killer song in any version. While I am desperate for the next original material release from Crown Invisible, until it arrives, this will do nicely!
The first release from Dome is like 21st- century music from the outerworlds of another galaxy. Heavily electronic in nature and also futuristic in tone, this is a very promising debut from a new artist. I found it to be extremely accomplished and also well-produced. The music itself is often beautiful and I was surprised at how unique it was. Garden variety EM this isn't. The first song (all the song titles on Cursor Club releases so far are fairly cryptic; on this release songs are titled "DR 5," "DR 1," "DR 4," and "DR 6") is filled with mild trance influences, some Middle-Eastern synth flourishes, and a brooding hypnotic pace that is mysterious and ominous. The second piece has a more serene and lush sound to it with an underlying bass synth, mid tempo techno beats, and synth washes that float in and out of the main song. The song walks a nice line between space and ambient dub music The visual effect is like taking a rapid flight over a future cityscape as traffic and people hustle far below you. On the third cut, a chorus of synth flutes resound and echo, joined by underlying synth washes. The mood is quite peaceful. Again, there is the feel of futuristic music here, as well. As the flutes dance around the washes, a floating element imparts uncharacteristic lightness. This time when the beats enter (at a slow to mid tempo pace), all menace or mystery has vanished and the image is one of a pleasant space trip at cruiser velocity. By now you may be able to discern that this is an extremely visual recording. Full synth strings and synth washes play a crescendoing and subsiding series of chords in the last song. This has a quasi-symphonic sound to it, at times resembling a massive church organ in a far future cathedral&emdash;the swelling of the chords seems to surround you. What a fantastic album closer! The music from Crown Invisible's first CD (they have a second one out titled, Crown Invisible II) starts with a song (once again, titles have no discernible meaning; here the three songs are titled "V4," "V3," and "V8") that is very full sounding, very progressive EM and even neo-classical in a Spotted Peccary style. Lush synth strings (even sounding a little like Patrick O'Hearn) are melded with fast paced rhythmic elements and sequenced beats. As the song builds, adding elegant synth chimes, this unique marriage of genres seemed to explode out of my headphones (which are a must, in my opinion, to get everything from this recording) with a vibrancy and originality that startled me. Like Dome, this is very visual music. Fans of Synergy should also strongly consider this recording. As all the elements gather their forces in this first cut, all I can say is that the results are very beautiful. By contrast, very alien electronic rhythms and sounds, joined by a synth piano melody line signals the start of the second song. Once again, other elements join in (e.g., cascading synth notes dancing up and down a scale) and a very full sound is achieved. Mid tempo in rhythm, the music fragments into diverse areas: the melody line, some synth-string choruses, and some extremely deep base notes. Tinkling synth notes sound like rain, but the rain on an Earth in the distant future, a rain not of life but of a strange desperation. Disquieting in its beauty, this is music that challenges you to not pigeonhole your emotions. As you are elated, you feel despair. As you soar, you plummet to the ground. In the final song, slower tempo techno beats meld with ambient-noir synth washes to create a very disturbing dance of sorts. Somber synth strings come in and I imagine a death march along a barren road. This release contains some of the most visual EM I have ever heard and should provide more than enough inspiration for lovers of cyber-punk or SF literature to lay back and close their eyes and picture any one of a dozen scenarios. Just with these two releases (short though they may be, but the quality you're getting more than makes up for it) we are witnessing the birth of a major force in electronic music. Diverse, technically brilliant, and filled with an emotional depth that only the very best musicians can bring to their work, the music from the Cursor Club label signals that the future of EM is headed for new heights. It may not need my saying this, but I give both these CDs my absolute highest recommendations to all electronic music lovers. |