The least that can be said about The Gasman’s
second album, The Grand Electric Palace Of Variety,
is that it is a truly ambitious project. Thirty-four
tracks scattered over two CDs, totalling well over two
hours of processed beats, flamboyant orchestral moments
and delicate constructions.
Hailing from Portsmouth, Christopher Reeves developed
an interest for electronic music while at a very young
age, and began experimenting with tapes of old classical
recordings, slicing them up and reassembling them to
form intricate and often slightly dark constructions.
While Reeves’s first offering for Planet Mu, Remedial,
was assembled by Mike Paradinas
from a handful of demos, this new album demonstrate
a more focused approach. Still very much under the influence
of Aphex Twin and
µ-ziq, whom he
often references, Reeves is given the opportunity to
let his personally filter through more openly. The sonic
palette used ranges from deep isolationist moments to
beautiful melodic compositions to fractured beat constructions,
yet remains extremely consistent all the way through.
Often playing with loops and repetitions, Reeves creates
a series of disturbing pieces by using recurring themes,
from dissected choir and strings sections to melodic
patterns, which are occasionally set on a collision
course with more traditional electronic forms.
The tone is set from the beginning of Hump, which opens
The Grand Electric Palace Of Variety, and the
listener is then sucked deep into Reeves’s obsessive
universe and pushed from pillar to post as each new
track evolves in a new environment. If, on Bifidus,
Reeves sounds very much like a cross between Plaid
and Orbital, he turns
all isolationist on Fingis, evoking the earthy
mood of Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2, while
he injects a serious dose of humour on the tongue-in-cheek
Pirates Reeve and crafts a truly inspired moment
with Fridge.
This announced variety however ultimately plays against
the general focus of this record as Reeves rapidly looses
touch with substance. This album then becomes little
more than a pretty structure with very little content
to satisfy. Despite some interesting moments, The
Grand Electric Palace Of Variety is far too spread
out for Reeves to keep the interest going all the way
through, and each track eventually merges with the next
until this album becomes a blur.
Stripped of its excess baggage, with only a fraction
of tracks to concentrate on, The Grand Electric
Palace Of Variety would have been a true celebration
of Reeves’s talent and vision and an imaginative
take on a genre first shaped over a decade ago. As it
stands, this album unfortunately ends up feeling a tad
over-indulgent and heavy-going.
2.3/5 |
