mrstumcgoo
This album is beautifully crafted synth mastery. Essentially the components are very simple, but they are brought together in a golden ratio and everything clicks in to place perfectly.
"This album is the latest and long-awaited outpouring from the ever creative minds and hearts of Alec Wood & Jonathan Parkes. For those who know or indeed those who don't know anything about their previous output, it is eclective in a selective way, so who knew what to expect from Mutante.
Well, six, scintillating slabs of synthesiser music is the succinct answer. This is synth music in the Moog sense; ie analogue and vintage sounds and instruments have been widely utilised to a thrilling and always compelling end.
The album begins with 'Electromagnetic' which sets the store out with thematic certainty as the bass throbs somewhat ominously and everything oscillates nicely as this seven minute opener builds up to a 2001-ish finish. I say seven minute opener but all six tracks average out to roughly seven mins a piece, so you get plenty of Bang Boom Tschak for your buck!
This brings us neatly to the ever-present elephant in the synth studio, that of Kraftwerk, and so it is herein where the Dusseldorfian moments are those of homage and genuine longloved influence, rather than slavish emulation. I don't think I'd be talking too much out of line to venture and say with track titles such as 'Bioman', 'Electrical Activity' & 'Automaton', that this album in part can be seen and heard as a paean to the futuristic foursome.
Onto the aforementioned 'Bioman', man machine if you like,where surely Mutante's main intention is fully laid out for all to hear,as this is perfect film theme music, just screaming for a director to use it on a soundtrack. The piece is all minor-key slight menace coupled with a dystopian undertow, which brings to mind the work of John Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi amongst others, whilst retaining identity and originality enough.
Moving on with 'Automaton' the soundtrack vibe continues as the tune arpeggiates away in the grand tradition. As sometimes with such good music one feels that either you've heard it before, or that surely someone should have written it already. This is a positive thing.
Track 4 of 6 'Neon Portal' - good title - again brings to mind Radioactivity/Man Machine era Kraftwerk with added excellent Carpenter-esque melody line: another piece which should have film directors clamouring for it!
Throughout the album there are echoes of the work of such modern luminaries as Antoni Maiovvi, Tim Krog, Steve Moore and Walter Rizzati, the more restrained and less melodramatic parts of their ouvres, but again there is enough distinct work herein to set Mutante apart from the pack.
"Electrical Activity' throbs and pulses with glorious insistence as the current rises and falls. Here again a slight air of thematic dread, enhanced by minor-key melodies, but without overstating this, which sensitive writer can fail to bring such an undertow to their music in these seemingly downward shifting times. Having said this, the album seems to resolve itself with 'Dream Recorder', which as the title suggests, proceeds at a stately and peaceful pace. It bubbles and burbles along beautifully becoming mantra-like in form, echoing an almost Popol Vuh like soundscape. This could be music for Brion Gysin's DreamMachine as the piece fades serenely away and we are left with our thoughts and dreams of a hopefully better future for all.
Mutante is a seriously successful work by always excellent and thought provoking musicans who deserves our full attention."
Review from Slap Mag, Issue 77, Feb 2018 by Wick Rakeman
credits
released January 19, 2018
All music and art by Jonathan Parkes and Alec Wood
A must for krautrock-heads, just like yours truly. prog? yes, in a certain sense. but the trance-inducing kind, more in tune with your unconsciuos mind and the Jungian archetypes therein than with ego-driven technical dexterity. a bit of Meddle-era Floyd meets Tangerine Dream, Neu!, Harmonia, Hawkwind, a little Gong, some early Mike Oldfield too. the mind's eye swallows us into the multiverse, and it's oh so beautiful..no need to come down. Fernando Benítez