- Label: Self-Released.
- Year: 2008.
- Style: Dark Folk / Experimental Ambient.
- Format: CDR.
- Note: Limited to 250 copies.
- Score: 72%
: : :
THE PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL COMMISSION is a young project, where the label mates MRSIX and HOKANO has joined forces. HOKANO does have some albums out... I haven’t heard them, but I understand that it’s a dark ambient project. MRSIX is still to release his debut, one that I really look forward to after listening to his preview tracks on MySpace. It’s more of a dark / industrial folk project. So, a collaboration would be something in between dark folk and dark ambient - true? Very true. Like 50% of the songs sounds pretty much like what I’ve heard from MRSIX’s MySpace site, and the rest lay close to how I imagine HOKANO to sound.
THE PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL COMMISSION is very ambitious, something that’s pretty clear already after throwing an eye at the stunning layout. The disc comes in a super-oversized city-map, really interesting for sure. It’s also perfect to fit the thematics the album deals with. I quote from the project’s official site: ”Named after the Roman mythological ’Spirit of the Place’ the Psychogeographical Commission’s debut album attempts to explore further the Psychogeographical nature of our built environment and is therefore written to be played whilst interacting with a city, but it sounds equally great on a stereo.” - Seems complex, but you don’t have to, of course, dig that very deep into the subject if it’s not that attractive to you. Personally, I choose to listen to this as any other CD, and it DOES sound equally great on a stereo.
I can sense flaws in the production. The sound is very blurred and hollow somehow, which is not a biggie at all, but it’s prominent not least in the folk oriented tracks where the guitars and the vocals seem to be on the same level sometimes, making it quite hard to point out what is what and what’s going on. But I don’t like complaining about that sort of things, especially not when there is no expensive recording gear involved. I do instead turn to the variation, that’s certainly a side that could have been worked on. But I don’t like complaining about that sort of things, especially not when the music is that good as this actually is. An original approach to CURRENT 93-ish folk, with half-spoken vocals and a great usage of previously unused ideas plus the original theme is what makes the first half of the album enjoyable. The ambient tracks are also very nice pretty much all of the time, but they aren’t quite as original. Which is understandable, ambient will always be ambient, but it’s both creative and evocative so thumbs up!
After nearly one hour of experimental folk and deranged sound collages, the disc stops spinning. I’m pretty sure it will start all over again soon enough though! This is a fine release from far down the underground and it screams for you to go look for it. Considering what you get, those 5 pounds the whole package will cost you, it’s very much worth it. And why not get it straight from the source from which is came; from the band directly.
Tracklist:
- The fires of London
- Camden Book of the Dead
- Have you ever?
- Where roots think of the child
- Spare thoughts
- The Ones who Walked before
- Genius Loci
- Certain shifting angles
- OK commuter
: : :
|
