Title: Blackfilm
Artist: Blackfilm
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 15th April 2008
Label: Spectraliquid
Introduction
The musician’s name behind the project BLACKFILM is as much unknown as is face is. He lets his music speak for itself. The mysterious man now joined forces with the Athens based label Spectraliquid to bring us his first self-titled album.
Website
http://www.myspace.com/blackfilmmusic
Track Review
01. Come & See – 7:04
The cold embrace of a dark nights is catching the senses when threatening collages of a sinister orchestra hidden somewhere in the darkness, cause an overwhelming shiver. Suddenly, the driving pace of what resembles a sampled or self-played live drum kit joins in to give you the unclear feeling of being hunted; and apart from that it’s quite unusual to listen to at first but it sound-wise it heaves the track on a different level , makes it loose the sterility many acts suffer from. Somewhere deep in the digital background of night, the haunting lament of a lost soul seems to send us a bloodcurdling greets from the great beyond and penetrates every layer in the song.
02. Interference – 7:13
With ‘Interference’ we’re entering a completely different chapter in the BLACKFILM soundtrack It’s like entering another time through a rift in time and space, the musician has composed, when warped and dulled piano dabs join the ranks of heart-piercing violins, breathing an unquenchable sadness, never heard before but captured in that very sequence. Soon as we’ll hear the drums coming in another attribute gets revealed. The jazzy quality of the drum intro and the complexity with which it was layered can only be addressed as brilliant; and for one single moment it arouses pictures of a smoky jazz club in a time long gone. It goes on quite down-tempo with alternating drum parts and tiny breaks in-between, imbued with ambient fragments.
03. Untitled – 2:17
Now let me take you back to another place, another time with the untitled follow-up to ‘Interference’ which is breathing the atmosphere of a street corner at night some time in the 20s. It’s almost like it was composed to bring such scenery to life with its swathes of piano and orchestral heights, disappearing just as fast as they were given life and casual drops of organic drums and break beat interludes.
04. Stalingrad – 10:11
The only thing I see before my mind’s eye when listening to this track is dreariness, decay. It’s like the sonic proof that something has happened that’s left indelible marks. The threatening strings don’t let any gleam of light coming through. Anything here is encompassed by swirling force fields of darkness, steadily carried on with the help of the trademark organic mid-tempo beats which, despite everything, emit a certain cold; you can rather feel than actually hear…
05. Sonar – 5:59
‘Sonar’ really has a strange effect on me. It makes me completely forget everything around me, while I’m getting dragged deeper and deeper into its sonic universe as it’s progressing. Especially this is because of the leading melody, drowned in repetitions, which bears a piece of loneliness and sad thoughts in each of its tones, keeping me under its spell. The emerging trip-hop rhythm is carrying the melody and supports it through network out of electronically generated beats, but also with percussion arpeggios
06. Five Years – 4:16
Sometimes the time appears like it’s a viscous amorphous stream, other times five years appear like a day. One blink and they’re gone and one’s wondering what they did with their time and they realize that it was all wasted through the deficiency of the own personality and that there could have been more.’ Five Years’ slowly moves forward like the viscous mass I mentioned above, stuttering at times, interrupted by glitches and enriched with strings. Sometimes it even resembles a heartbeat out of its step. As if someone’s fighting for their last seconds.
07. Eastern – 2:35
Another compact interlude, whose aura is breathing past, As if you’re watching an old movie with happy family that make you wistfully reminisce of times when life was still happy and uncomplicated. The crackling of an old vinyl comes in and even carries you farther back; a piece of music that could have been a little longer for me. I like the overall mood and can fully sink into its depth.
08. Midnight to 4AM – 4:36
There’s an eerie presence, harboured inside ‘Midnight to 4AM’, a voice that is calling you from the deepest chasms in cellars black as midnight. Then suddenly beats sounds in those corridors, resounding from the walls to make their way to surface as well, while being accompanied by short spherical string passages and the haunting sound of a violin; and when the last sound died away, it’s like awakening from a dream.
09. Mahabharata – 5:26
The ‘Mahabharata’ what may be translated as "the great tale of the Herat Dynasty" is one of the longest poems in the world and of an immense importance to the culture of the Indian subcontinent. Considering that background, you shouldn’t be surprised to find out that this track deviates a bit from the others and turns to other influences to draw inspiration from, such as the enchanting female vocals, seemingly coming from far away, appear to waft through a desert, to fade away in the distance, entwined with the luring beauty of a flute, drenched in thick layers of ambient ad complemented with deeply thrusting as well as a very laid-back beat to emphasize it.
10. Atlantikend – 8:03
With the epic closing tune ‘Atlantikend’ we’re becoming part of a journey, bringing us to the outer, abandoned regions of our planet, maybe it’s literally at the beck of beyond, we’re slowly getting carried towards on a smooth current of majestic minor strings and subtle high-quality rhythm accentuation. In the beginnings the strings are still somewhat hidden; but the more they swell up in the further course, the more we realize that the unavoidable end is drawing close and we get to see on what no man has laid its eyes on before…
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9
Conclusion
The music of this debut is indeed like a film which is able to take on every imaginable shape depending on the listeners and their very own and personal thoughts. It’s best suited for listening to it on the headphones or at night with a fine glass of wine to get lost in the world of BLACKFILM.
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