| Polinski- Labyrinths |
| Written by Emma Robertson | |||
| Tuesday, 15 November 2011 10:00 | |||
![]() Instrumental post-rock band 65daysofstatic's Paul Wolinski (Polinski) released his first album Labyrinths a short week ago. Labyrinths is somewhat of a concept album for Polinski; his sound experiments with futuristic samples and an overall tone reminiscent of an 80s sci-fi flick.
Labyrinths' first track, 1985 A Quest is the perfect opener. Evoking a John Carpenter-esque tone, this song evolves quickly, fusing a super electro keyboard melody with subtle samples. The song is a journey and has a very sci-fi vibe; it tells an extremely energetic story that sets the pace for the rest of the album. Stitches came as somewhat of a surprise. As the album's second track, Stitches evokes the same sci-fi vibe as Quest in a very strong way. The element of surprise, here, is the addition of robotic voices (courtesy of California synth-pop solo artist Big Black Delta) – while the lyrics are repetitive, they help the track progress nicely. By the end of the song, though, there is a lot going on and the song's weight becomes somewhat overwhelming. With a mesh of samples and the chorus of robot voices all seemingly played at the same strength, Stitches is a lot to take in. Tangents, one of the album's stronger tracks, begins with a sweet piano riff, which is then fused with a hard synth-like beat that sounds strangely like static. The addition of a deeper, house-like beat mixed with the synthpop style creates a very unique blend of sounds. Still Looking has a much faster quality that plays with distortion and heavy beat. An almost glitch hop meets rock meets electro sound, this track has a distinctly progressive feel at the beginning before launching into a harder sound without looking back. Like Fireflies seemed to be the misfit of the album. There was a very distinct trance vibe at work, which, though it spoke to the 17-year-old trance lover in me, the song didn't quite work with the rest of the album. A tad too far on the commercial side, this track blends dated cathedral-like ethereal samples with a faster beat. It seems to lose touch with the futuristic vibe of Labyrinths as a whole, and plays to a sound that had its reign a few years ago. The penultimate song on Labyrinths is Kressyda. Starting out mellow and progressive, the song adds in the same robotic voice elements as Stitches and a strange but beautiful melody. Suddenly, the song changes direction very quickly, dropping a massive beat that gives it an almost happy hardcore tone. The strange melody can still be heard in the background, which makes for a very eccentric combination that really got me bobbing along. The album's closing track, Awaltzoflight was my favourite number. Though it starts out a bit roughly, the slow, bizarre melody progresses into an epic kind of uplifting sound that speaks to its title. Long, grinding movements give the song a harder edge that made it very unique. The album's overall tone evoked a kind of galaxy voyage, playing with futuristic qualities that gave it a distinctly avant-garde tone.
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