Megalophobe — Megalophobe

Megalophobe debut release spans four tracks of somewhat unusual ambience mixed with synths, percussion and theramin. There’s a  vaguely musique concrete feel to the spartan nature of these recordings, that add a beautifully haunting nature to the proceedings.

Opening with the “A Field Of Wind Turbines In The Foreground” you are immediately met with the complete simplicity of this release. In fact I’d say the titles are more complicated than the tracks!  This is slow and deliberate, admittedly there’s not too much feeling to the track, and you do you feel the piece could do with just a hint of something else to lift it. The sounds of being slightly out of breath increase as the track moves forwards. That said, it builds nicely over it’s five minutes.

“Half Of The Support Cables Are Yet To Be Installed”, track two, opens with the similar sounds to the previous track. This is fine for a minute, until a drum track really spoils it turning this into an avant jazz piece that just fails on each level.

“Not While The Ship Is Docked” actually has more of a wind turbine feel to it than track one. Opening with the slow cycle of the sails this quickly morphs into a less active piece of almost motionless ambience as the fou minute piece ebbs and flows out of the speakers.

And finally “Some Positive Aspects Of The Eradication Of Balaenoptera”, a nine minute piece that begins like the end of a soundcheck from a Jesus and Mary Chain gig mixed with a wind tunnel.  And that’s a good thing! However, it doesn’t really fit with the EP as a whole. In fact whatever mood was being aimed for is blown away by this tracks overbearing sense of importance.

This is a mixed EP, and I’m note sure it really achieves what it set out to. However, each piece shows promise, and I’d like to hear more. The problem is one of direction, and the lack of it.