Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonMM Radio ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonMP3 ButtonForum ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Paul Baran - Panoptic [Fang Bomb - 2009]

For much of it’s running time 'Panoptic' mangers to summon up this wonderfully heady yet doomed feeling of 3am paranoia & sleepless-ness. It’s an album that somehow  mangers to sound strange & awkward, hypnotic, drowsy & bizarrely soothing often all at the same time.

Trying to define musically what is going on here is quite difficult as the album staggers so many genres, sonic disciplines & musical instrumentation. There are elements of doomed piano minimalism joined with gloomy jazz improv, that’s rubbed along by murky & tv flicking slowed electronics and scared by jagged yet charming folk guitar cut strums. See-saws of doomed gothic classical string down falls that nose dive into mis-firing analogue electronics while been ravage by high-wire junk band percussiveness. It’s all very lose, stumbling & often funereal procession like( but it can still sudden become noisy & clamouring) yet at the same time it’s highly focused with not a note or element out of place in creating this ramshakled paranoid sonic state. Baran has brought in a high grade of sonic collaborator to build Panoptic's doomed & jittering sonic cites of paranoia and break-down in the shape of : Werner Dafeldecker, Ekkehard Ehlers, Keith Rowe, Andrea Belfi.

Simply put a master class in sonic uneasy ,doubt &  crawling paranoia that slow but sure drip’s into you like poison lace honey or bad LSD in syrup. Don’t’ expect a quick hit of grimness & uncomfortable-ness here because 'Panoptic' builds it’s jittering, edgy & down-right doomed wonder over time & slowly swallows your mind in a hazy of crippling dread & doubt. One of the late coming highlights of 2009 & truly a must have item.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

Paul Baran - Panoptic
For much of it’s running time 'Panoptic' mangers to summon up this wonderfully heady yet doomed feeling of 3am paranoia & sleepless-ness. It’s an album t...
310710   Altar Of Flies - Permanent Ca...
310710   Heavy Winged - Spreading Center
300710   Terminal Erection - Putrefaction
300710   Dead Letters Spell Out Dead W...
290710   Visions - Summoning The Void
280710   Boar - I Can See Your Breath
280710   Jazkamer - Self- Portrait
280710   Marcus Obst - day in dwarfs c...
270710   Dead as Dreams - Their Steps...
270710   Corpse Candle - Swamp Curse
Latest Articles

Luasa Raelon - Dread Soacked Sonics
Luasa Raelon mixes up a horror themed sonic brew of dark ambience, blacked cinematic’s & death industrial along with  elements of noise matter and r...
300710   Luasa Raelon - Dread Soacked ...
070710   Jahrtal - Of Mossy Banks & La...
050710   Yen Pox - Blood And Dread S...
300610   Namazu Dantai - The Eye Of Th...
260610   Dead Body Collection - Onto t...
110610   Andrew Liles - The numerolog...
070610   Cages - Trapped in Folding Sp...
050610   Foul - Dark and Horror filled...
280510   A View From Nihil - To break...
230510   Neven Smrznik - The Zvukovina...

Newsletter
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

subscribe unsubscribe
Go Up
© Musique Machine 2001 - 2003. Mail UsBottom