Ian Eccles-Smith - Apsilene

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Ian Eccles-Smith - Apsilene

Artist:	Ian Eccles-Smith
Title:	Apsilene
Label:	self produced
Length(s):	62 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2003
Month of review:	[07/2003]

Line up

Ian Eccles-Smith - everything

Tracks

1)	The Periselene Chart - Goldstemm Settles - Let Slip	7.59
2)	Apsilene - Shudderfold Parts 1 And 2	10.06
3)	Where Is The Point Of Freezing	5.04
4)	1st Skin Graft Issue - 2nd Skin Graft Issue	6.50
5)	PJGGraft - Periselene - Fildstone Awakes (And Is Jettisoned) - Perisilene Returns - Widows Walk	14.40
6)	Inn Mist - Some Grim. Ritual. - Are They Even Masks	6.30
7)	Bloodflare - Quarry Urchin - The Sea Arch Gained (By Error) - Tell The Kite - Man Thursday	11.33

Summary

A one man project by Ian Eccles-Smith who is usually more into soundtracks and has worked with Paul Sch¨tze. The typing of the titles took about as much time as listening to the entire record.

The music

The opening of the album is quite proggy, with plenty of loudness and organ. Then comes a much quieter, but also disquieting part in which concise acoustic guitar is combined with a fuzzy electric guitar. The music is dark and meditative, more in the line of a psychedelic band, a recent one, then what we generally call progressive rock. Most notably, the rock aspect is absent. Then we come to a more squeaky and lighter part sounding a bit like gamelan music.

The second track is the title track, opening with a slow disjointed gait. Instrumentally, everything sounds rather ehm occasional, with a strong bass line cropping up here and there and fragmentary programmed drums. All in all very repetitive, especially with all the piano runs. The second part is more up-beat and I see connections with jazzrock. This is mainly due to the beat and the presence of the organ. The sound can be quite harrowing at times.

Where Is The Point Of Freezing is the third one, and the only one which does not consist of multiple parts. It opens with spaceous acoustic guitar which are being plucked. Later some synths set in, but this continues to be a fairly friendly affair, with some echoes of No-Man (but without the vocals).

The next track is similar, also opening with plucked acoustics and continues to be quite dreamy, but the guitar sound is sharp. Then we suddenly come to a passage where the piano takes over entirely. I like this part with its weird side steps, and melodic main line.

The bleepy meandering jazzrock returns on PJGGraft - Periselene - Fildstone Awakes (And Is Jettisoned) - Perisilene Returns - Widows Walk (there's your mouthful). Although it has its moments, this sounds a bit too aimless to me. The squeakiness returns with occasional fragments all very subdued and understated. Again, I get the feeling we are moving, but not anywhere definite. For that it remains a bit too free.

The guitar sets in more adventurously in the penultimate track. This is more psychedelic and again the sound is full of high frequencies that make it somewhat hard on the ears. Later on the music becomes a bit more bouncy again with all kind of material cropping up, subsiding and coming up again. This wave like movement in the music is very apparent. The final part consists mainly of dark electronics, moody and atmospheric, but wait we in fact conclude with repetitive acoustic guitar.

The closer has some elemens of Happy The Man and a bit of the more complex side of Canterbury. The music sounds very accidental again, bits and pieces, often repeated, slightly varied. Later, the music becomes more disjointed again, a bit industrial if you like. At the end a sharp meandering guitar sets in for a typical jazzrock guitar solo, getting quite rowdy along the way. The song closes with acoustic tinkling and soft synths.

Conclusion

The music on Apsilene can be quite complex, but does not seem to be so at first glance. The main line is that we can get acoustic strumming or melodic piano with disjointed rhythms and sounds inserted into it. Some dissonance as well and although the music sometimes goes in the direction of jazzrock, sometimes to psychedelic music (of the more meditative sort) usually with a modern rhythmic approach. The main comparisons I could make were to the Canterbury scene (Happy The man, National Health), No-Man (without the vocals, and more unpredictable) and some Karda Estra in the quieter parts. To me, it meanders a bit too much on the one hand, and offers too little energy and power on the other to compensate. As a result, I can I say it is not bad (well crafted if you like), but also that offers me too little to latch onto. In that light I would have liked a few more accessible tunes.