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THE SPECTRAL SHIPS "The blessed in heaven will often walk to the battlement and look down and delight in the justice of God being properly carried out in hell." Mike Griffin from Hypnos seems to be on a winning streak as of late, in relation to bringing out consistently interesting releases. This one is a bit out of character with the other releases I have heard and grown to like very much over the last two years. Not to say that this is dull, it's not. Richard Bone tackles the eerie subject of ghostly ships doomed to sail on the oceans of eternal time, turning up when you least expect them and in the process no doubt giving you minor heart palpitations. Bone creates nine slowly unfolding , low key, funereal, ghostly and at times majestic soundscapes in regards to his subject. There are little if any vocals. Must say when he does record what I assume his voice, it's slowed down and processed to sound quite demonic. I've often like this effect in music. Sonar blips converge with slow and graceful ambient textures to meet in a swirling fog of sound, straight out of an Edgar Allan Poe story. The musical themes themselves are quite simple and a lot of this is based on repetition. What I really like about this though is the fact that Bone has chosen to keep this low key and not turn it into a big dramatic production, which many would have done. If you like your music darkly mysterious and unsettling, this may well be for you. |