“Rythms that are held back just before they take off! This album is full of that...”
1 Sequence 8:43
2 Journey 7:49
3 Abstract 8:12
4 Fantasy 7:28
5 Mind 8:30
6 Senselessly 9:36
7 Voices 7:05
8 Unfolding Universe 7:22
9 Moments 8:18
(DDL 73:04) (V.F.)
(EM, Cinema, E-Rock)
Sequence puts us right away in the bath of e(M)otional (M)oments with a cinematographic opening. A layer of voices and alien voices gloating in a vocoder adorn this opening where impatient jumping marbles hop up and down. A rhythm sequence straddling the galaxies sets up a minimalist structure that is crossed by another more harmonic rhythm line with shy chords that are reluctant to touch the musical ground. Micado works in a way to fill this first track of its new album loaded of recited texts and synthesizer tears whose circular laments à la Vangelis give a futuristic flavor to the music. Without ever taking off, Sequence changes its sonic skin on a few occasions. There is a soft romantic piano that appears in the echo of the misty voices, 30 seconds after the 4th minute. A beautiful moment that progresses like a ballad and ends in the throes of a metal scream some 2 minutes later. The track then takes a slightly different rhythmic form which will also be interspersed by a futuristic cinema vision.
Welcome in the ultra romantic universe of Micado and its new album which proposes here a universe of collages of rhythms, ambient phases and melodies inside each track, like in Sequence. Being the very first time that my ears stuck to this universe in constant movement, I needed several listenings in order to familiarize myself with these structures which sail, explode, hover and return to the starting point to remake the same cycle while bringing the necessary nuances to captivate our interest. And at this level, the percussive and organic elements as well as the orchestrations, including the numerous passages of a romantic piano, are skilfully used and especially installed in key moments. And that is the strength of this e(M)otional (M)oments. Micado is made of Frans Lemaire and Koenraad Vanderschaeve, two musician-synthesists from the country of Syndromeda, Belgium. We are talking about EM with a clear tendency for a cinematographic vision that we feel inside each track that lasts on average 8 minutes. If, like me, the voice-overs, which always recite the word Emotion, and the narrations on vocoder horrify you, there are full of it on this album. They end up passing well and be part of the decor.
The Dream is over! This is what the vocoder of Journey announces, proposing a structure similar to that of Sequence. A structure that has several opportunities to fly away and nevertheless remains in the corridors of futuristic ambiences with voices suspended in the vocoder, staccato orchestrations and a small passage in the romantic piano. Arabian orchestrations on a rhythmic structure which moves sneakily, Abstract leaves and returns in another vision of movie music where a sibylline veil invites itself. Suspicious voices, strange chants and Babylonian percussions are on the menu of this track that fills our arms with goosebumps. The elastic beats that pierce the waters to reach our ears open the ambiences of Fantasy, a very beautiful track impregnated with those vocal riffs that we found in Tangerine Dream's Le Parc. Besides, everything around Fantasy, notably these fluty airs of Legend, turns around the ambiences of those two TD albums. The structure is circular, like an allegorical merry-go-round nimble with glassy tones, and bewitches throughout these 7 minutes and more. Mind enjoys the same orchestral privileges and develops around a minimalist sequence that sometimes plays on its echo to bring a rhythmic dimension that remains static, except for its last third. For the rest, it is a beautiful title which has its good moments with its carousel of limpid arpeggios making duel to a romantic piano. Offering a more aggressive structure, Senselessly uses its rhythm sequence to structure a circular approach that is at times fluid and at times resonant. Distorted vocals and filaments, as well as Z-shaped graffiti-like orchestrations, deepen the sound field of the track's shifting phases. We go from phases of abrupt rhythms, with percussions that are really hungry, to ambient and melodic phases. With vocal effects, prismatic synth waves, orchestral explosions and circling structures, Voices traps our impatience by exploding with a Jean-Michel Jarre-like EDM rhythm after its 3rd minute. Very good, while Unfolding Universe loosens the carcass with percussions inspired by the Revolutions years. Also inspired by those years, the keyboard chords are resonant in tone but anchor a percussive rhythm in an ambient environment filled with cybernetic narratives. In a futuristic tribal vision, Moments resonates drumming and shimmering arpeggios that intertwine in an ambient and intense journey. Just like everywhere else on this album, Moments develops some rhythmic structures with short beat bursts which are held back just before they take off.
Moments that are held back just before they take off! Micado's e(M)otional (M)oments is fueled by this from the first breath of Sequence. This astonishing concept highlights the intelligent touch of Frans Lemaire and Koenraad Vanderschaeve who manage to keep our interest throughout this album which is available for download only. A beautiful album that requires a lot of love, a passion for percussion and percussive elements, and attention for moments of melancholy and romance. There is all this in e(M)otional (M)oments, but not in the same order...
Sylvain Lupari (21/09/21) ***½**
Available at Micado Bandcamp
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