Title: Two Faces
Artist: Last Influence of Brain
Genre: Electro / Industrial
Release Date: May 2009
Label: Aliens Production
Album Review
It only took around 2 years for the Slovakian project LAST INFLUENCE OF BRAIN to come up with a successor to their acclaimed album ‘Inner Wars’. In 2009, however, they’re releasing through the Aliens Production label in their home country and now share the ranks with the likes of ANHEDONIA or DISHARMONY. The new album’s called ‘Two Faces’, something we can project on the music’s nature or that refers to an ambiguity in the lyrics? As regards the latter one I can’t give you a satisfying answer for due to the partly heavy effects on the vocals; the best thing you’ll get is catching a few lines which don’t give off much. So let’s take a look at the music and see what it can give us.
The record kicks off with ‘Smile’ to the intricate sounds of interlocked melodic and rhythmic structures ending up in a straightened pattern while plaintive layers flow across them giving the track the extra sorrowful feel. Inject a healthy doze of melancholia and you’ll get the exact mood, predominating ‘Seven Reasons’ combined with betas that put me in mind of the glory days of old-school electronics. These are committed in big parts to the 80s adding a fresh slice of modernity though. For the quite danceable ‘Three Holes’, all vocals are left in the closet, leaving it solely to the speech and movie samples to tell the story which can only be a tale of terror and fear according to the mood they suggest. Shattered glass and screams open the title track before light rhythms and more uplifting melodies lead into much heavier beats with painfully distorted vocals and later on even some cleaner ones atop. Otherwise the track doesn’t really stand out for anything. With ‘Influences’, we’ve reached the last track already. Peculiar for this track are its sinister atmospheric drifts going through it like breezes of wind. It goes without beats for nearly 2 minutes and offers only disturbing collages until the straight beat kicks in.
Having reached the end now, I still couldn’t find any hints on an ambiguous nature of the tunes presented on ‘Two Faces’. What I can tell you though is that the most recent effort of the Slovakian project is their most cohesive one thus far and hidden details are to find everywhere, even if the new material has become overly straight. If they could work a little more on the vocals for the next one I’d be delighted.
Tracklist
01. Smile - 5:02
02. Anabela - 4:54
03. Judgement - 4:51
04. Seven Reasons - 5:14
05. Revolution - 5:12
06. Three Holes - 4:12
07. Your Destiny - 5:28
08. Two Faces - 4:23
09. Recently - 4:04
10. Turn to Dust - 4:55
11. You make me Sick - 4:28
12. Influences - 4:52
Line-up
Solo
Blazena
Bop
Website
http://www.myspace.com/lastinfluenceofbrain
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10
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