Escapade - Due To A Faulty Premonition

Year of Release: 1999
Label: Mother West
Catalog Number: MW011299
Format: CD
Total Time: 51:28:00

The only word I can find to describe Escapade's latest release is soundsculpture - or soundpainting. There is a strong sense of the cinematic, as this music could well be the soundtrack to a post-apocalyptic movie, or something on the order of Blade Runner. Though it isn't sci-fi music, per se, this New York based 6-piece do fall into the category of space-rock.

The tracks are dark, mysterious, and sometimes ominous, especially in the case of the nine minute "When A Squall Line Beckons." More hurricane than squall, this track builds slowly, fraught with tension as the percussion takes the lead. The approaching storm cloud looms ever closer, and when it hits, it is a chaotic and swirling mixture of drums, bass, and keys - a heavy, screechy, dark whirlwind that passes through you, only to leave you surprisingly untouched - but not unmoved.

"Singe" begins jazz-like, where again percussion takes the lead, sharing it with a guitar that honks and bursts - a role more commonly taken by a saxophone. A keyboard line almost quotes the Twilight Zone theme as another keyboard builds tension with a rising drone.

From such simple stuff are tension filled tracks made - the album intros with a gentle guitar and a mid-pitched drone (either voices or keys) - other guitar and keyboard sounds flit and float in. It is like the calm before the storm (above), as darker tones try to shove their way in.

There are moments when Escapade rock, mainly in a percussion context, but all with in an ambient/soundscape type structure. There are moments when I thought of the Beatles during the opener "Sound Trap," thinking especially of the fade out of "Strawberry Fields" ("I buried Paul" or "Cranberry sauce" depending on what you think you hear) And, I also thought of Mark Snow, the fella responsible for The X-Files' music. This is quite interesting and enveloping.

Due To A Faulty Premonition comes recommended.

Tracklisting:
Sound Trap (6:58) / When A Squall Line Beckons (9:00) / I See Things (11:44) / Singe (6:00) / Undoubtedly (12:45) / Postscript: A Flickering (5:41)

Musicians:
Paul Hilzinger - analog synths, sampler, Wurlitzer electric piano, percussion, real time processing
John Ortega - analog and digital synths, processed bass and other assorted processed sounds
Paul Casanova - electric and acoustic guitars, percussion, electronics, drums (3)
Joey Murphy - electric guitar, percussion
Russell Giffen - bass
Hadley Kahn - drums, percussion, analog synth (3)

Discography:
Searching For The Elusive Rainbow (1996)
Inner Translucence (1997)
Obscured Dialogues (1997) (ltd. edition)
Citrus Cloud Cover (1998)
Due To A Faulty Premonition (1999)
Remembrance Of Things Unknown (2000)
Rule #3 (2002) A Thousand Shades Of Grey (2003) (split w/Acid Mothers Temple)
If/Or (2004) (rec. live in '96, CDR)
But Distractions Abound (2005)

Genre: Electronic

Origin US

Added: February 1st 2000
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.motherwest.com/escapade/home.html
Hits: 3298
Language: english