Artist: Blank
Title: Dark Retreat
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 9th April 2013
Label: Artoffact Records
Album Review
There is a time span of five years which is literally blank between the second album 'Impact Zone' and the new 'Dark Retreat' of Italian electronic duo BLANK. Since especially the electro genre has shown significant signs of stagnation in that time and even does today, the question was whether or not the new album could stand out of the shit storm of releases. The album's opening 'Subliminal Man' gives a straight answer to that question, going for a multi-layered approach avoiding all the flaws easily and creating a haunting piece of slightly danceable music that will definitely last longer than any pop song. Unfortunately, 'DioChemicals' fails to continue from there. It simply lacks everything that made the opening a killer track and instead delivers standard dance-floor fodder. This is actually a pattern that goes through the entire record. As soon as the tempo goes up, the intensity fades like ice is melting under the influence of sunlight. Take 'Dreamscape' for instance, drawing inspiration of ambient and even a bit of the drama of today's pop music to create a varied track that has a cohesive build-up and once it reaches a peak sustains the emotion until the very end.
For 'Lost Symmetry' BLANK enlisted the vocal talents of Elena Fossi of KIRLIAN CAMERA who that, albeit being placed a barrage of varying synth cascades are never in danger of being buried underneath but rather hovers above the atmospheric composition at all times. Buried is quite a good word to lead over to the next track 'Dusk Devil' bearing an omnipresent sense of danger, a disquieting feeling of fear that manifests as soon as the sun is beginning to set which is sort of like this track's mood is described best. The sun is kept in a state creating twilight all throughout the instrumental track. 'Dead Roads' is one of those tracks I mentioned earlier above, with one minor exception of the rule, it creates and maintains interest through the emotive piano movements and the vocals of ELENOR RAYNER. The final chapter goes by the name of 'Fallen' and is the BLANK Version of a ballad and gives a graceful end to an album which has just the right amount of creativity and inventive spirit to create something exciting out of well-tried and tested elements.
Tracklist
01. Subliminal Man - 4:53
02. DioChemicals - 3:36
03. ZeroTolerance - 4:58
04. Nothing You Can Say - 4:10
05. Dreamscape - 5:46
06. Eigengrau - 6:25
07. Lost Symmetry (feat. Kirlian Camera) - 6:29
08. Dusk Devil - 5:38
09. Weak Machine - 4:47
10. Dead Roads (feat. Elenor Rayner) - 6:01
11. Timespace - 5:03
12. Ocean Greyness - 5:03
13. Fallen - 5:51
Line-up
Davide Mazza (The Maze)
Riccardo Mattioli (Der Mate)
Website
https://www.facebook.com/blankinyourmind
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 8.5 / 10
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