My Cat Is An Alien — For Tears of the Land Prayers for the outer space
The disc offers up nearly forty minutes of music with a suite of three tracks with two shorter introduction & exit tracks that hit around the seven minutes each & one large central piece that hovers around the 25 minute mark. The first track ushers in the release in quite an awkward & discordant manner with off-key acoustic guitar picks & strums, with later distant wavering high pitched male space moans appearing in the background; the tracks ok as a wonky mood piece, through it does grate somewhat after the first few minutes.
Thankfully when we move into the main & longer track all is forgiven as the pair offer up one of their classic sonic space rituals or mystical planet sound paintings. The track opens with static & space bound interference noise grain to which is added what sounds like piano string pickings, haunted & drifting space whispers and the odd spacey guitar zip. At about the four minute mark the static space fog cuts out & we’re left with the gentle, haunting and sombre mixture of piano string picking, space whispers; to over which are added by subtle at first organ sustains, then spacey synth curls & other subtle but building sonic matter. I won’t go into much more detail as it’ll ruin the spaced-out sonic trip, but the pair are certainly on fine form. The track to me has quite an air of melancholic & star wrapped loneliness about it & it rather brings to mind a lost in space Victorian feel with the piano string tones.
The final track feels like you’ve finished your trying & twisting, but sombre space journey in your Jules Verne or H G Wells like craft & now you stand on a strange & eerier new world. The pair knock out a slow & ominous ritual drum like rhythm over a haunting growing distant spaced electronic drone. A very effective & rather grim end to the album which really does induce a star bound shuddered.
On the whole another very rewarding & worthy space licked sonic trip from the Opalio brothers I just wished they’d left out the first track as it’s too long, wonky & discordant for it’s own good; through they more than make up for this slight sonic miss-step with the other two great tracks- so roll on vol two!.