Customer Reviews

Days of Mars

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yeah, I have to say this album pretty much rules. The opening track is absolutely hypnotic and, like the previous reviewer suggested, the entire album is very 'warm' throughout. I feel compelled to add, though, that all these Edgar Froese/Manuel Goettsching comparisons I've been hearing only go so far...

Clearly any such comparison, particularly when it spans three decades, falls short at a certain point -- but at this very point, it is NOT that the ascendancy of the earlier groups comes into focus, thus overriding the novelty and quality of "Days of Mars"; rather, it is at this point that one realizes one is listening to truly original and exciting music, with a texture all its own that I can't help but admit is much more compelling than most of the Tangerine Dream/Ash Ra Tempel stuff out there (excepting of course "Atem," "Phaedra," "Schwingungen," and Klaus Schulze's "Moondawn", all of which are pretty much infallible, monumental eruptions from the heady soil of 'Das Land der Dichter und Denker').

No, Delia and Gavin aren't German, but when the only substantial liner note refers to the fact that they custom-built many of the instruments used in the recording, it's clear that they've poked up their fingers into some sort of Teutonic tradewind. What makes "Days of Mars" unique and, frankly, much more inviting that your average T. D. album, is that this duo has taken a much-worn, much-abused template, and reshaped it so as to cut out the dorkiness, pretension, and boredom that almost inevitably gravitate towards this genre. They have made an inviting, engaging, rewarding record. More than that even, there is a contemporaneity to this music that is subtle at first but becomes increasingly pronounced, to the point at which I can see clearly why it is on the DFA label. I almost hate to say it, but this record is more even on the whole than the LCD Soundsystem album, even if it's completely different music that I imagine suits far fewer tastes than James Murphy & gang.

So, that said, I'm a little disturbed at how many used copies of this album are available, but ultimately I'm not much surprised. If you're not one to set aside the time sit down and allow your mind to connect with the music; if you expect your pleasure nodes to be immediately fondled like a quick three-penny prostitute, perhaps unaware of more deeply-submerged, cosmically tuned-in centers of expansive, real, and genuinely emotional pleasure, this might be an initially rocky listen. But, on the brighter side, I'm increasingly of the belief that this album has both the gravity (of old) and the refreshing playfulness (that comes with the new) in such an intelligent and immediate combination, that it's just not right(however well-intentioned) to say that the proverbial torch has been passed... The torch has been reborn.

A dreamy ambient journey, the last track is simply breathtaking if you love Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno and perhaps some of the IDM / electronic stuff out there like Boards of Canada and Plaid. However this is a very WARM sounding electronic group.

The other reviews here are very descriptive and on point, but I do like this album. This is organic sounding electronic music from the Steve Riech/Terry Riley/Tangerine Dream school. The band sets up loops which run track length, and then insert touches and nuances into them. It sounds very genuine, with artistic attention to detail. Never cold or mechanized. Good late night listening

I'd previously heard Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom from their contribution to the triple-disc DFA Compilation #2 that came out last year. Their somewhat amorphous analogue synth track stuck out a bit from the more dance-oriented fair on the album, and I wondered if the track of theirs was sort of a one-off trip-out piece or something more akin to their usual output. As The Days Of Mars proves, the two (who met each other in the in the art world and have done everything from video, performance, theatre, and visual art) are interested in creating beat-less worlds of swirling sounds that call to mind work from everyone from Vangelis to Klaus Schültze to Tangerine Dream.

At four tracks and just over 50 minutes, the problem with The Days Of Mars is that it's just too formless and unfocused to be very interesting most of the time. "Rise" opens the release with a soft wash of sound and soon layers on some very basic arepeggios and some very slight modulation, but ends up sounding like a slightly watered-down copy of one of the aforementioned artists while "13 Moons" is even more noodling, seemingly more obsessed with the sounds of the instruments themselves than creating anything that grabs your attention.

"Relevée" is easily the most successful track on the entire album, as it takes a slightly more aggressive (relatively speaking, of course) stance and piles dense arpeggios on one another for something that sounds like the soundtrack to a futuristic chase film while "Black Spring" is another long-form workout that mixes slightly creepy chords with ringing arpeggios and sounds that give it an almost John Carpenter soundtrack lean. As a whole, The Days Of Mars is going to leave a majority of DFA fans scratching their heads. While their are some fairly interesting sounds on the release (I've simply got a weak spot for analogue synths, whether it be twiddling the knobs personally and losing track of time in doing so, or simply listening to them), I have to say that work like Phaedra and Rubycon by Tangerine Dream are still much more involving, interesting, and even hypnotic to me.

(from almost cool music reviews)