Brainticket ‎– Alchemic Universe

BRAINTICKET play a music which has one foot in Progressive Electronic music and the other in a warm easy Lounge Jazz. And while there's little here to really challange the listener, they manage somehow to maintain an interesting edge to the music which others who have walked a similar path seldom seem to manage to do convincingly. It's a curious mix of styles - from a more beat 'n rhythm sub dance fare to a loose saunter through lush gardens with the rhythms almost lost to the overall charming atmosphere to moments when there's little more than silence. But they never seem afraid to experiment, especially where electronics are concerned. I could cut up a fair chunk of moments from this album, put them together and present you with something from the warmer end of Old School Industrial.

There's even elements of the DEEP FOREST / ENIGMA style of music - without the core of sampled Ethnic voice / Gregorian Chants / etc which reached a point where they sounded anything but how they had intended to sound (very clinical, very studio, as far a cry from the natural world as it is possible to get). Instead there's the calm almost whispered voices, the drifting harmonics and a smattering of flutes and non-drumkit percussion. And I've got to say, they managed to create the right atmosphere in almost every case.

They nod with respect to a more Techno style, with driving drum machine which hardly makes itself known before dropping back into the ethereal tendrils which spider out of the mix. It must be said that a large chunk of this album is instrumental, although it rarely misses the mark throughout. And when they stick with a dance groove, they Trance-Form it, making it into an Ambient wonderland of images, like some dream land alive with strange but benign creatures.

Atmosphere seems an important element to what they do - and even when it doesn't hit the spot perfectly, it suggests better to come. And it's usually right. There are moments when the sound is downright creepy, sounding like the more subtle scores from Hollywood Horror flicks.

Due to the experimental nature of this album, it seems to have far more tracks than it's allotted 7 pieces, with different elemets rising and falling throughout each song.

Originally reviewed for Metamorphic Journeyman