By: Mike Wilcox
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 04/09/2015
Label: Consouling Sounds
With an ambient soundscape complimented with well groomed synthesizer sounds, by the albums’s climax you wonder if you’re actually listening to Tangerine Dream. You can so easily get lost in the world and realms created by IIVII, but if you take to it with good intention and an open mind it just might open up a door that you didn’t know was there…
‘Colony’ CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Signals From Home
2. Colliding Horizons
3. Transmissions Illumine I
4. Transmissions Illumine II
5. Black Galaxy
6. On The Shores Of Markarian 335
7. Shaping Itself From Dust
The Review:
When I came upon the project that is IIVII and their latest release, “Colony”, upon reading the bio posted on bandcamp I was kind of at a loss to what to expect. It’s established that I can talk about early electronic and all of that but I don’t frequently find that crossing paths with metal. The solo project of long time Neurot friend and jack of all trades Josh Graham seems to bridge that gap. Looking at Graham’s previous collaborations with the likes of Tombs and Jarboe among others, and his founding background in Red Sparrowes and Battle of Mice, you know that you can expect some sort of Neurosis family vibe. It’s that thrum you clicked with when you listened to Drowning Horse but this however is a altogether different beast.
“Signals From Home” starts your journey through the ether, a word that comes to mind constantly when listening to this album. With an ambient soundscape complimented with well groomed synthesizer sounds, by the song’s climax you wonder if you’re actually listening to Tangerine Dream. “Colliding Horizons” creates shadows on the sound-space in such a way that I felt like I had dropped acid. There isn’t really a better way to say that. Following into the next tracks, “Transmitions Illumine I” through “On the Shores of Markarian 335”, you are taken through an astral journey, the whole time feeling like you are breathing ether… With elements of Trance and similar electronic styles you are shaped and moulded as you float through the universe that IIVII has created for you.
“Shaping Itself from Dust” takes the album out well, maintaining your trip while slowly dissolving around you until you eventually realize that there is no more track, no more album. It’s over. You’re back. You can so easily get lost in the world and realms created by IIVII, but if you take to it with good intention and an open mind it just might open up a door that you didn’t know was there…
