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Parallel or 90 Degrees - The Time Capsule

Artist:	Parallel or 90 Degrees
Title:	The Time Capsule
Label:	Cyclops CYCL 074
Length(s):	72 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	02/1999

Line up

Sam Baine - piano, synths, electronic and acoustic guitars
Andy Tillison-Diskdrive - organ, synths, lead vocals, nylon string guitar
Jonathan Barrett - bass guitars and plectra, backing vocals
Lee Duncan - drums
Gareth Harwood - electric guitars, lead vocals on 3, backing vocals
Guesting: Guy Manning - guitars on 5, 7 and 8 and backing vocals on 3 and 8.

Tracks

1)	Fast >> Fwd	1.47
2)	Encapsulated	7.30
3)	Promises Of Life	7.49
4)	Unforgiving Skies	9.05
5)	The Sea, (parallel Or 90 Degrees?)	6.57
6)	Blues For Lear	6.32
7)	The Single	5.56
8)	The Time Capsule	22.26
9)	Aftertimecapsule	3.51

Summary

Long time no Cyclops. I haven't gotten something from them in a long time, but fortunately I ran into this band myself and they were happy to give me a copy for appraisal. This after a performance that rivals the performances of Spocks Beard in Tivoli twice last year.

The music

Fast >> Fwd functions as an introduction. Spacey with all kinds of samples like Adolf Hitler and many others, one might say a fast forward through the last century. Encapsulated opens with acoustic guitar Floydian style, the continuation is more like Roy Harper/Peter Hammill. By contrast it contains some really wild parts on the organ. A driven track, showing also that PO90 is largely what they were. Promises Of Life is a ballad, a bit dreamy and hazy with prominent basswork. Unforgiving Skies like Encapsulated opens in a Floydian fashion reminding me of If. Later on a menacing note enters the music and I have to say the music is very well timed. Tension is build where it feels natural to be built and such. Like Encapsulated there are some pretty freaky parts on the organ, but also some house/sample influences. Hence, quite modern. The Sea (Parallel or 90 Degrees) indicates where the name of the band comes from: it is the subtitle of a track by Bo Hansson and The Sea is a song based on a riff of this man. Like many of the tracks there is a certain up and down movement in the loudness and energy that is spent on a certain passage. A moody, sad track is Blues For Lear. A dispairing and touching blues with a corresponding guitar solo. The Single is a somewhat accessible track about singles and the fact that they are not ten minutes long. Although quite catchy, not the strongest track. The titletrack is a 22 minutes epic the names of the parts of which might indicate that some reuse of musical material has taken place. After a slightly classical opening (flutes and piano and some more) and soft vocals (repeating the lyrics of Encapsulated) we come to a more up-beat part (also from Encapsulated). The vocals sound a little far away here. Then the song takes a turn for the dreamy but with all kinds of samples thrown in. Very ethereal and getting close to ambient. Under the ping pong of a ping pong ball we come to a piano intermezzo and Encapsulated returns. At the end the music becomes quite positive and uplifting (but only for a relative short while). The album closes with Aftertimecapsule, written by the not overly dynamic (having watched the concert) Sam Baine. The track is a bit like: game's over, time to go to bed.

Lyrically the album has something to tell as well. It seems to be about how the future will think of us, how important we may feel ourselves to be, but how insignificant we will probably seem from a later date and only wars and tyrants will be remembered. Like they say: how can you expect somebody hundreds of years from now differentiate the Beatles and Duran Duran? I tend to like both actually, but not all of it. I mean Duran Duran at least had the decency not to make anything as horrible as Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da, but also nothing as good it seems as A Day In The Life or Elenaor Rigby, but Palomino does come close.

Conclusion

One might say that PO90 owes a lot of the Nice, VDGG and Floyd, but the fact is that when you heard them play for a while, their mix and their own additions make them one of the most original and recognizable forces around. Combined with their terrific energetic live show, certainly a band well worth checking out. The highpoints in their music are to be found on the previous album (Lifecycle I think is still unsurpassed), but on the whole this album is better than Afterlifecycle. A beautiful piece of work, sometimes slightly chaotic and maybe a rough and rowdy in places, but more the potent for it.