CD Review: Saltillo - Ganglion

Written by Kira Kalinina Wednesday, 02 November 2011 12:59

Artist: Saltillo
Title: Ganglion (Re-issue)
Genre: Trip-hop
Release Date: 11th October 2011
Label: Artoffact Records

Album Review

“True, I’m nervous; but why will you say that I am mad? Listen, how calmly I can tell you the whole story”… These lines of Edgar Alan Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ surprisingly sound in your headphones when you listen to the ‘Ganglion’, the song ‘Blood And Milk’. Although, why should it surprise a listener at all? The atmosphere which one-man band Menton J. Matthews creates on his album is quite close to Poe’s stories.

Originally, ‘Ganglion’ was released in 2006 and reissued this year by Artoffact Records, this is still the only album by SALTILLO. The project is actually a reincarnation of the previous one called SUNDAY MUNICH. However, ‘Ganglion’ is a strange mixture of such instruments like violin, cello and piano as well as guitars and drums with electronic sound, lots of samples and male and female vocal parts. In general it can be called trip-hop, and will be a good tip for fans of MASSIVE ATTAK, UNKLE or if you’d like more underground examples: CONJURE ONE and DELERIUM.

It is also a high intellectual piece of work. Except for Poe, Matthews quotes William Shakespeare's ‘Julius Caesar’ (‘A Necessary End’), ‘Hamlet’, ‘Henry IV’ (‘A Hair On The Head Of John The Baptist’) and Edgar Guest (‘Giving In’), also a sample from ‘Apocalypse Now’ can be found in the song ‘A Simple Test’. Actually the album isn’t one of those, which you could listen on the run. It’s too complicated, full of little details and pretty difficult for understanding and perception. So if you have couple evenings when you don’t have to hurry anywhere and have nothing to do, just calmly enjoy this work. Then you’ll see, what spiritual rest is.


Tracklist

01. A Necessary End
02. Giving In
03. Remember Me?
04. A Simple Test
05. A Hair on the Head of John the Baptist
06. Blood and Milk
07. The Opening
08. Backyard Pond
09. Grafting
10. Praise
11. I'm on the Wrong Side
12. Denim
13. 002 F#m


Line-up

Menton J. Matthews III - Violin, cello, tenor, viola da gamba, piano, guitar, bass, banjo, drum-programming, pro tools


Website

http://www.menton3.com/ / http://last.fm/music/Saltillo


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 10
Total: 9.5 / 10