Genre/Influences: Indie pop-rock, electronic, industrial-ambient.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: We all know Tyler Newman for his involvement with Informatik, but he was also a member of Battery Cage. Together with another Battery Cage member, Paul Savio, he set up White.Light.Monorail. Five years after their debut album “Welcome To Our Domed Future” they’re now back on track unleashing “The Gravitational Field Of Oblivion”. The EP “Oblivion” preceded the album.

Content: Comparisons with Informatik and Battery Cage are obvious on a few cuts, but globally speaking this album also explores different other fields. From the opening cut “Oblivion”, which has something indie-like to the instrumentals and more psychedelic driven “1984” and “An Infinite Timeline Of Pain And Suffering” there already is a serious difference. “Babul” again is something different being characterized by a sort of Eastern sonic sphere. Other cuts have something more ambient-like while driven by a slow cadence. Therefore, in the end this album sounds a bit like a sonic exorcism featuring songs the musicians couldn’t maybe use in other projects.

+ + + : Diversity is for sure one of the keywords to define this album. However, more than being simply a versatile work, the songs are well-crafted revealing several noticeable cuts. There also is an old-school electronic element emerging at a few songs, which I like. Some of the best cuts are the instrumental ones (cf. “1984”, “An Infinite Timeline Of Pain And Suffering”, “Airwaves”), but I also have to tip “Oblivion” for its cool chorus and “Silence : Transformed”, which sounds closer to Informatik.

– – – : A bit more vocals could have been a bonus for the album, but the main difficulty for White.Light.Monorail will be to conquer fans, the album being impossible to label as one established music genre.

Conclusion: “The Gravitational Field Of Oblivion” has something versatile, but revealing enjoyable ideas, which might appeal for open-minded lovers.

Best songs: “Silence : Transformed”, “1984”, “Frozen Fire”, “Airwaves”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist & Label: www.facebook.com/solidgreysky 

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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We received some good news from Tyler Newman (Informatik / Battery Cage). Five years after the release of their debut album “Welcome to our domed future”, Tyler Newman and Paul Savio return as white.light.monorail. While the first album was driven by instrumental retro-futurist jams, the new album, “The Gravitational Field Of Oblivion”, bears some similarities to the pairs earlier band, Battery Cage, with a considerably darker sound overall.

A first single, “Oblivion”, drops on November 26th and features 3 highly diverse versions of the title track, as well as one b-side “Continental Grift”. The album will be released on December 10th and there will be a second single, “Silence : Transformed”, early next year. You may expect in-house remixes and non-album b-sides for both “Oblivion” and “Silence : Transformed”. These releases will be the first material to appear from solid.grey.sky.recordings since 2017’s “Aerial structures”, and will launch a new series of album releases throughout 2020.

The video for “Oblivion” can be viewed below.

We spoke with Tyler Newman and Paul Savio regarding their new releases.

Tyler Newman: “We had been talking about the idea of making a record that was a bit of an homage to our early years making industrial dance music, using rules like ‘everything has to be based on hardware synths and samplers’ and relying less on software plug-ins. Something about working in that style really helped drive the songwriting, it gave everything a bit of a rougher and more aggressive sound, and led us towards some unexpected outcomes. Unlike our first record which was more of an aesthetic concept, this time we let the rules shape the music and I think we ended up somewhere that challenges the listener a bit more.”

Paul Savio: “We literally crammed my studio with at least 11 synths, 4 loopers, 3 drum machines, 3 vocoders, a couple of guitars, all kinds of pedals, and some really good mics. It’s so important to bring each instrument’s character to life in the best way possible. I think you can hear each one’s contribution on every track.”

More info soon!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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