CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX
The UK's very own purveyors of genuinely progressive music, Crippled Black Phoenix, are back with another full-length platter of cognitively stirring tunes. Just a year and a half has passed since their last album appeared, 'No Sadness or Farewell', although it seems they have yet another new vocalist in their ranks. Gone is the ephemeral John E. Vistic to make way for new boy Daniel Änghede. First off, I have to say that, while Vistic generally contributed well to the three songs on which he appeared for 'No Sadness...', his sporadically dissonant tones might've proved a little too much to take in the long term. Änghede, on the other hand, is more tonally aligned to erstwhile member Joe Volk. Certainly not a carbon-copy but definitely more of that ilk, and far more befitting of CBP's sonics. Also, Daisy Chapman seems to be back in the fold on piano duties + occasional vocals, so it seems CBP's lineup progresses as much as their music. However, guitarists Justin Greaves and Karl Demata, keyboardist Mark Furnevall, bassist Christian Heilmann, and drummer Ben Wilsker are all still present so CBP's core remains intact. And they've never been a band centred around a frontman; rather, singing is deployed as an additional element to the overall instrumentations within their compositions. CBP have never been a vocal-centric band, it's more to do with the overall affect of all elements.
And all idiomatic CBP elements are present once again on 'White Light Generator'. Press blurb would have you believe, courtesy of quotes from Greaves that this album heralds a more stripped-down CBP, whereby he describes the music as "more simple, just good songs which are more about feeling than musical prowess". Not so. Well, kind of not. It's all subjective of course, as are people's varying perceptions of all music, although the band's aesthetic has always been about balancing out feeling with musical prowess. And I can't really hear a tip in the balance here towards the emotional side of the coin. To my ears, CBP have succeeded once again in fusing, to perfection, the moods of the music with its technically proficient delivery. So "feeling and musical prowess" are given equal weighting which sounds, as it always does in their work, like a perfectly natural corollary of their combined talents.
Interestingly, the perennial CBP contraposition of mixing up the aural ambivalence of both optimistic/pessimistic moods within their songs is made more stark this time around by dividing the album into two "sides" (makes more sense on vinyl than CD, I guess, a format on which 'White Light Generator' is also being issued). So we have seven tracks grouped under the 'Black Side' and another six within the 'White Side'. There are meanderings between the melancholy and the upbeat within a single song although, generally, it's been dichotomised into darker/heavier music and lighter/mellower pieces. It's almost as if the 'White Side' is there to act as an aural cleanser for the darkness of the 'Black Side' although that's not strictly true as CBP engender as much mesmerising sublimity from heavy sonics as they do from their lighter moments. And the 'Black Side' isn't exclusively heavy and dark as the staple CBP contrasts run throughout its entirety.
It all sounds great too. There's a discernible retro slant in its production with a warm, analogue feeling throughout. They've always attained that to a degree but, here, it's more emphatic. Recording once again at Lincolnshire's Chapel Studio, it seems to now be a place they're able to use to its strengths (with assistance from its resident engineer Ewan Davies, of course). And while the retro, organic sounding production is ever so apt for the idioms of yore CBP pastiche in their compositions, it also works well for the more progressive, forward-thinking elements of their music. Again, CBP are all about contrast - in this case, retro with progressive - although as with every other contrasting dichotomy in their aesthetic, it's fused to perfection so never feels like a jarring disparity of opposing elements. As a whole, 'White Light Generator' is another winner from Crippled Black Phoenix. Music for the mind and for the soul.
And all idiomatic CBP elements are present once again on 'White Light Generator'. Press blurb would have you believe, courtesy of quotes from Greaves that this album heralds a more stripped-down CBP, whereby he describes the music as "more simple, just good songs which are more about feeling than musical prowess". Not so. Well, kind of not. It's all subjective of course, as are people's varying perceptions of all music, although the band's aesthetic has always been about balancing out feeling with musical prowess. And I can't really hear a tip in the balance here towards the emotional side of the coin. To my ears, CBP have succeeded once again in fusing, to perfection, the moods of the music with its technically proficient delivery. So "feeling and musical prowess" are given equal weighting which sounds, as it always does in their work, like a perfectly natural corollary of their combined talents.
Interestingly, the perennial CBP contraposition of mixing up the aural ambivalence of both optimistic/pessimistic moods within their songs is made more stark this time around by dividing the album into two "sides" (makes more sense on vinyl than CD, I guess, a format on which 'White Light Generator' is also being issued). So we have seven tracks grouped under the 'Black Side' and another six within the 'White Side'. There are meanderings between the melancholy and the upbeat within a single song although, generally, it's been dichotomised into darker/heavier music and lighter/mellower pieces. It's almost as if the 'White Side' is there to act as an aural cleanser for the darkness of the 'Black Side' although that's not strictly true as CBP engender as much mesmerising sublimity from heavy sonics as they do from their lighter moments. And the 'Black Side' isn't exclusively heavy and dark as the staple CBP contrasts run throughout its entirety.
It all sounds great too. There's a discernible retro slant in its production with a warm, analogue feeling throughout. They've always attained that to a degree but, here, it's more emphatic. Recording once again at Lincolnshire's Chapel Studio, it seems to now be a place they're able to use to its strengths (with assistance from its resident engineer Ewan Davies, of course). And while the retro, organic sounding production is ever so apt for the idioms of yore CBP pastiche in their compositions, it also works well for the more progressive, forward-thinking elements of their music. Again, CBP are all about contrast - in this case, retro with progressive - although as with every other contrasting dichotomy in their aesthetic, it's fused to perfection so never feels like a jarring disparity of opposing elements. As a whole, 'White Light Generator' is another winner from Crippled Black Phoenix. Music for the mind and for the soul.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Cool Green Recordings
Album
WHITE LIGHT GENERATOR
Review by Mark Holmes
RUNNING TIME:
70:48
RELEASE DATE:
17th March 2014
TRACK LISTING
BLACK SIDE: 1) Sweeter Than You; 2) No! Part 1; 3) No! Part 2; 4) Let's Have an Apocalypse Now!; 5) Black Light Generator; 6) Parasites; 7) ________
WHITE SIDE: 8) Northern Comfort; 9) Wake Me Up When It's Time To Sleep; 10) Caring Breeds the Horror; 11) You'll Be Murdered; 12) We Remember You; 13) A Brighter Tomorrow
WHITE SIDE: 8) Northern Comfort; 9) Wake Me Up When It's Time To Sleep; 10) Caring Breeds the Horror; 11) You'll Be Murdered; 12) We Remember You; 13) A Brighter Tomorrow
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
UK
"...CBP engender as much mesmerising sublimity from heavy sonics as they do from their lighter moments."
