Title: Little Black Cloud
Artist: A Wake A Week
Genre: Ambient
Release Date: 21st January 2009
Label: Spectraliquid
Album Review
A WAKE A WEEK is a side-project of British Down-tempo / Industrial act DETRITUS with which founder David Dando-Moore has pushed out a triple of quite successful albums on Ad Noiseam which now launches its engaging ambient debut ‘Little Black Cloud’…
A ringing engine sound alongside echoing piano waves opens ‘House’ but with the strings emerging from the grey, a strong emotion takes hold we instantly feel through our speakers: A vague feeling of fear mingled with sorrow. Nothing beautiful indwells these strings; they’re only breeding tears and sullen feelings in our souls. ‘Little Black Cloud’ bears a feeling of numbing grief that naturally comes off the poignant strings grounded on what sounds like a hammer dulcimer, which firstly spreads a feeling of monotony, then when uniting with the strings crawls deep under your skin. The next one brings us right into the arms of chaos with a white noise-scape amidst a dramatic string section. ‘I’m always writing Endings’ and indeed it sounds like the end of the world as it’s going down in flames with incredible violence. Then it ebbs and we see, underscored by distant muffled piano and footsteps, the scrubby remnants of the glorious human race.
Lethargic I’m sitting in my room, imbued with saddening melodies weaved like fine threads with the sounds of the supposed dulcimer, while I’m staring out the window into grey, cloudy skies as a rain shower starts and the wind’s pushing a plethora of drops against my window. ‘Your Rain isn’t my Rain’, a sonic portrait painted in minor. Gently the wind is pushing ‘Leaves’ over the sidewalks and pavements and I imagine how it someday will carry away our ashes across the lands and with it all we once were, what we stood for, the hopes and dreams we had for ourselves. All gone! The symphonic, deeply emotional strings of the song put me into a deep melancholy time and time again and never loose a single ounce of their engaging beauty. Breathtaking! To a backdrop of playing children we get to hear a fairy-like voice sounding from afar and a magical but somehow other-worldly aura unfolds that keeps us intensity and luring effects on you as long as ‘Faerie Photo’ lasts.
A big emotional chunk is what Moore’s presenting us with ‘Little Black Cloud’. It’s music, you’re not just ‘listening’. It’s piercing through your skin and gets to you and sends you on an emotional trip with every new track. Highly recommended and hopefully not the last thing we’ll ever hear of ‘A Wake A Week’.
Tracklist
01. House – 4:54
02. Little Black Cloud – 4:12
03. I'm Always Writing Endings – 3:38
04. Your Rain Isn't My Rain – 3:23
05. Leaves – 4:03
06. One Take Away One – 4:13
07. Faerie Photo – 3:05
08. Beginnings And Endings – 5:47
09. Waking – 2:41
10. A Wake A Week – 6:09
Line-up
David Dando-Moore
Website
http://www.myspace.com/awakeaweek
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
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