|
Bronnt Industries Kapital - Haxon
RATED: 7.2 / 10
|
reviewed by
Max Schaefer
3/13/2009
|
|
|
Through documentary, animation, and dramatization, Haxon, a fusion film originally released in 1922 to much outrage, sought to explore and rekindle this time of fear and hysteria, and is now being re-released in Europe, with Guy Bartell providing a new soundtrack.
Quite apparent from the beginning is that Bartell, armed with an array of instruments, from transistor organs, to mellotron, clarinet, guitar, tone generators, analog synthesizers and antique tape machines, isn't about to merely pander to pastiche or bombard one with predictable horror film motifs. Haxon is more a complex of complexes: it's often a haunting meditation full of strange sonorities, sometimes bathed in electronic distortion or gloomy, grinding grandeur, but at times it also recedes and becomes quite blurry, or recedes further still and becomes rather bare and delicate, only a quiet piano or organ tinkling below the light pollen from a synthesizer.
Compositions such as "Love Potion", utilizing restrained looped textures, full of shifting undulations, and wreathed with slow near-melodies on organ, even accrue some complexity and energy. These varied stylistic gestures give the album added dimensions, which together keep it from seeming clogged or overly rich. Bartell handles the tempo of the music well, enabling it to stand on its own terms, and effectively convey themes redolent of this time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
and 