Welcome to The Harmonic Series, a music review series - exclusive to Steemit - where I’ll be discussing music across many different styles and genres from metal, to electronic music, to jazz and beyond! I’ll be talking up exciting new releases, some of my personal classics, and anything else that I think is worth checking out. Some of the reviews I share will be brand new, and some will be from my personal archives.
As this is my first post for the series since coming back from a Steemit hiatus, I want to ease back into the rhythm of content creation, so this is an archival review of a really great prog chip album:
Brother Android - In Death a Dream of Color (Self-Released, 2012)
Genre: Electronic
Style: Chiptune, Prog, Ambient
[this album is great thought provoking conceptual chip prog with simple musical themes that give you juuuuust enough before moving on]
Recommended by my friend Mike Davis, this is metal and prog influenced chip music that's also apparently experimental in some way. I don't really know much of anything about this act but apparently it's one of his favorites.
The first track begins very staccato and rhythmic on a 5/4 groove. Things seem very simple and pared down until the melodic theme comes in and the percussion starts working in little fills, and the track has some fairly dense implied harmonies. What Happened??? Has a soulful and almost bluesy mood that I rarely here in this style of music. The third track moves through a few different sounds and styles and even has some blast beats.
One of my favorite things about chip music is that due to its limited, very characteristic, and idiomatic palette, the music is always very focused on the actual compositions and what they evoke. This album works well in that regard so far, with lucid and evocative melodic and harmonic ideas. During Holy Fear & Self Loathing, I suddenly found myself contemplating the idea of axioms and ideas that have for whatever reason stuck with me over long periods in life. In particular, "money is the root of all evil," which I can recall contemplating as a very young child, and which has become threaded through a lot of things I've thought about.
After the appropriately sparse and understated A Gateway; A Clearing comes the track Tree of Blood which is similarly aptly titled, as basically a chip black metal tune. The beat shifts subtly in a way that suggest more of a gabber feel at times (very high tempo electronic dance music for those who don't know). Things Get out of Hand speaks its title too, feeling like the realization or onset of a disaster. The title track seems like it's supposed to be the albums centerpiece, at 8 minutes in length and with several different movements. The end section shifts erratically between different previous ideas in a disorienting way, and after a brief silence we get to Holy Fear (Deconstructed).
I wonder if this track is actually compositionally related to the earlier track by a similar name or just conceptually. The titles on here are all very evocative and clearly tell a story even without the songs; a journey leads to disaster and death, and after that...afterlife perhaps? Here's What Happened ironically raises a lot of questions. Arbor Cruoris (cruoris being Latin for blood or gore I think) ties back to Tree of Blood and A Gateway; A Clearing. This album also seems like it may not be strictly chiptune, but any outside elements it does use are subtle and work towards the inherent structural strengths of chip music.
I think this album achieved what it was trying to very well. Its wordless yet highly evocative concept contrasts with the compositional virtuosity and dramatic statements of my main point of reference while listening (and which I recommended to Mike in turn), Zan-Zan-Zawa-Veia's album Fell Plot. This was much more impressionistic and abstract and seemed to tell a story more of ideology and philosophy than of events. I'm definitely gonna be listening to this a lot.
To buy/stream In Death a Dream of Color, head over to Brother Android's Bandcamp Page
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