Album: The Unquiet Mind
Artist: Temple Music
Label: Sombre Soniks
Catalogue no:
N/A
Tracklist:
1. An Unquiet Moment
2. Jungle in the Night with Tigers
3. Art in the 21st Century
4. Hatching Broods
5. Skyros Comes Out of the Clouds
A real pot-pourri of moods and atmospherics this
one, reflecting an adventurousness and playfulness that’s a welcome distraction
from the usual doom and nihilistic destruction I usually make a habit of
listening to. Add to that a certain old-school ambience into the mix, plus a
distinct streak of an ‘in the moment’ convergence of time, place, influence, and
mood, and you have an album that could have come from the, dare I say it,
‘golden age’ of industrial music culture – the 1990s. This isn’t so surprising,
as the gentleman behind the Temple Music project introduced me to Nurse With
Wound, Current 93, Lemon Kittens, Sol Invictus, and many others almost three
decades ago now.
The other convergence
apparent here, one of cultural influences, is tied up with the place in which these
recordings had their origin: Evia and Skyros, two of the Greek Islands. As the
press release notes, Greece at one time was a melting pot of humanity and
ideas, including the Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman, Venetian, and Albanian
cultures. This is most evident on the skirling, whirling album opener ‘An
Unquiet Moment’, a demented dervish high on a heady cocktail of ouzo, raki, and
retsina. Shades of ancient Eastern cultures abound here, flavours of Arabia,
Anatolia, Persia, and Mesopotamia weaving snake-like in hypnotically sinuous
strains. ‘Art in the 2st Century’ and ‘Skyros Comes Out of the Clouds’ remind
me somewhat of the sweeter and lighter moments of Throbbing Gristle, which is
no bad thing, ringing tones and meandering guitar melodies which superficially don’t
appear to go anywhere and yet conjure up sparklingly bright images of faraway
places where edifices of white marble shimmer in the heat haze, tantalisingly
close and yet unreachable. Here we’re only temporary visitors to this
Otherworld.
‘Hatching Broods’ scrapes
its way into existence and then flares quietly into a gentle sustained keyboard
that carries us along into clear air, blue skies, and even bluer water. Barely
audible accompaniments soar and flutter above, below, and through the ebbing
and flowing underpinnings, sharp white streaks of luminescence refusing to be
brought into focus. It’s the endless, cyclic flow of time and motion, the
seasons upon seasons, and the years upon years.
In complete contrast is
the second track, ‘Jungle in the Night with Tigers’ – a track with percussive
elements and bright stabs of colour that reminds me heavily of classic
Tangerine Dream/Edgar Froese. That’s definitely a big plus in my book as that’s
where all this experimental music exploration malarkey began for me.
If you like your
experimentation old school, quirky, varied, full of atmospherics, and above all
playful then I think you should give this one a go. Available at Bandcamp on
the link below.
Psymon Marshall 2019.
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