Nostalgia
Arcana Publicata Vilescunt
Relapse
So, I thought this was going to be a CD on Relapse Records, but I was hoodwinked, as it is actually on “Release Entertainment,” some weird alter-ego for the folks at Relapse. I wanted brutal metal, and instead I got this Nostalgia. Oh well, I actually kind of enjoy it, even though I don’t consider myself a fan of the weird, ambient and otherworldly side of music, a realm Arcana Publicata Vilescunt calls home.
More than anything else, the music on Arcana is a feeling or a mood. The instruments are synthesizers, weird blips and beeps, nature sounds and spooky rhythmic patters; when they’re all thrown together, there’s something quite interesting lurking. I especially enjoy the low bass notes in “Solanum Nigrum,” which create a tune similar to a horror film theme, lowered one octave. There’s a definite mood on this track, one of an evil curiosity, possibly the feelings one has before committing a vile act.
The most enveloping track has to be the bizarre and uniquely human “Resurgo.” It starts out with unintelligible garble of human voices, mumbling about something, as keyboards sing in the background. An actual drum-kit plays a soft beat throughout, as a sea of swirly and wandering synthesizers play lines which seem to fly in and out of the recording. The strange voices return occasionally, here and there, babbling about something. Sadly, this is one of the album’s shortest songs, and it’s over almost as soon as it began.
The rest of the disc kind of reminds me of Enigma, without the overt commercialism. There’s a ton of atmosphere here, and when this music pops into my mind, I immediately picture fog and leafless trees. It really isn’t my cup of tea, but I could take a good nap to it, if need be.
Relapse Records: http://www.releaseentertainment.com/
