Search - Silverman :: Silvermandalas

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Katalizator | Redlands, CA | 03/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When not making up a sizeable chunk of the musical bedrock of The Legendary

Pink Dots, and surprisingly unprolific in his solo work by the standards of

that group, Phil Knight has been known to settle down to produce some

stunningly hypnotic recordings in his time. Following on from the

hypnagogic Dreamcell of the early Nineties, Silvermandalas opens with an

untitled track which shows a fascination for the watery sound of an

electric organ in the midst of a rising and fading wash of distended drums

and restrained electronic noise. As is to be expected, there's a cyclical

feel to the album, as loops are rearranged, entwined and revolved into

complex patterns which frequently end at a strangely distant, but conected,

point from their origins.

Sharing the same headspace as both Rolf Dammers and Holger Czukay's Canaxis

and the more reflective work of Coil (particularly "Is Suicide A

Solution"), the second track is a concoction of drifting, half-human voice

loops and snatched telephone conversation, making a particularly

disorienting piece of atmospheric ellipsis. The album is replete with the

hypnotic possibilities of varied repetition, taking minimal structures and

turning them into elongated variations on themselves - the simple tones of

mysteriously-derived samples and synthesizer sounds assume a crystalline

avian quality as a subtle bass presence makes itself known; an attenuated

tribal rhythm coalesces into the virtual sounds of impossible electronic

near-wildlife; a drone meets another as a reeded instrument sings to itself

before arrival of a phasing pulse-beat - there's an underlying feeling of

the ritually paranormal about Silvermandalas, thoguh never so gauche as to

be New Age, and too unsettling to be entirely Ambient.



By composing deeply mediatative music which draws inward before exploring

outwards into the realms of minimal psychedelic trance Electronica, Knight

has made a record which justifies its title - when the end finally comes in

a whirl of violins, rolling bleeps and gentle propulsive rhythm, it's the

culmination of a transfixing listed, like watching ripples from a skimmed

pebble which has disturbed the distended reflections of a smooth sheet of

water. Zen-like in its semi-transparency, Silvermandalas is the ideal

accompaniment to the half-sleeping state which, in some theories of

parapsychology, is when the incubi and succubi of the subconscious can

manifest themselves in modern minds as extraterrestrials. With the help of

this record, they can have a far better soundtrack than the usual

spooky-orchestral clichés they've suffered from over the years...

"