NEW ALBUM RELEASED

Yes, it’s time for another Easter Islanders album, time to lie down on the floor and lose yourself in ten new slices of sonic texture. This album is low on the pop but high in mood, ambience and a touch of disquiet.

Opening with the gently, stately melodic Erstwhile Recidivist, the listener is perhaps lulled into a false sense of audio security, as the next track, Beyond the Border, strays into jittery electronica with ever-changing frantic beats behind skeletal skinny melodies.

From there we get the full seven-minute version of the previously-released single The Ultimate Fate of the Universe, a solemn, majestic squall of distortion with beautiful melodies fighting their way through the deep harmonics.

Next the chirpy, cheerful Names Beneath Lanterns which wouldn’t be out of place in a video game, and probably the brightest moment on the album.

Following this we go back to stately and orchestral with the melancholy Shareware Afterglow before hitting the upbeat but somewhat abrasive groove of Nobody Worries Under Majesty.

Now we descend into darkness : Crawling in the Shadows, the compositional starting point for this album, a brooding, slow menace of a song with occasional bursts of disturbing voices surging up through the mix.

A final brief stab at levity in the unlikely Elephantine, a jolly tuneful foot-tapper using what sounds like a sped-up kletzmer chord sequence.

Now the album comes to a close with these two contrasting pieces : the metallic industrial stomp of Inchworms at Inchon and the ten-minute dreamy ambient closer Oily Gel, the perfect palate-cleanser.