Western, Creed, Spybey – W ands (Album – Cold Spring)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, Cinematographic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: “W ands” features a collaboration between three artists. Phil Western (Download, Beehatch ao) and Jesse Creed (The Passenger) shared their passion for analogue synths while Mark Spybey (Dead Voices On Air, Download, Beehatch ao) added his own, experimental, improvised touch to the work. But the major aspect of this album is of course that it has been released one year after the tragic loss of Phil Western.
Content: The album sounds as a dark- and dreamy homage to Western. The music has a very strong Cinematographic appeal inviting the listener to dream away. A song like “Two Of Wands” will hold you in its grip for more than 20 minutes. It slowly progresses throughout a mysterious atmosphere and noisey loops. Other cuts are shorter, but still built up with the same patience. Some tracks sound like the prolongation of the previous one, creating a very compact and homogeneous production.
+ + + : The work is supported with mysterious spheres with a strong visual appeal at some passages. But I especially like the inhibited mood hanging over this work. It has something frightening and yet personal. It all sounds a bit like you’re travelling towards the spirit of Phil Western… a supernatural adventure created by the strength of assembled noises and sound.
– – – : It remains an album characterized by strong Experimental passages so in the end it’s not exactly the most ‘classical’ Cinematographic opus.
Conclusion: There where he is Phil Western must be pleased to see his old friends releasing this album.
Best songs: “Four Of Wands – A Cause For Celebration”, “Five Of Wands – Time To End The Discord And Clear The Air”, “Two Of Wands – New Partnerships And Relationships”.
Rate: (7).
Artists: www.facebook.com/phillipwestern / www.facebook.com/mark.spybey.3
Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq
About Western, Creed, Spybey
Phil Western (born August 12, 1971) died on February 4, 2019. He was a longtime member of Download, the project formed out of jam sessions between Cevin Key and Dwayne Goettel that later narrowed to just Key and Western for its subsequent studio albums. Mark Spybey, a former member of Zoviet France and Download, has recorded as Dead Voices On Air since the 1990s. “W ands” brings the two together with Jesse Creed of The Passenger as a tribute recorded in the year following Western’s death.
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