Mili never fails to disappoint with this latest album, building off some previous work while crafting fascinating new stories along the way.
My personal favorite songs would be Camelia and Summoning 101, but there honestly is not a song too dislike in this album. Each track has been beautifully composed in both its tune and lyrical flow as always. If you enjoyed songs like Ga1ahad and Scientific Witchery and Utopiosphere in previous albums, this album is a must-have.
Though he had the help of a few musicians, the Rah Band's first album was pretty much the project of multi-instrumentalist Richard Hewson, most famous as an arranger of noted recordings on the Apple label by the Beatles, James Taylor, and Mary Hopkin. In a limited sense, The Crunch & Beyond was ahead of its time, presenting instrumentals with dance rhythms centered around synthesizers. But while the title track got to number six in the U.K. (and was also a hit in several other countries, though not the U.S.), in other ways, the record sounds horribly dated at a few decades' remove. Much of the album presents basic early synth-pop riffs set to elementary dance rhythms, and these are often unmemorably cheesy, sometimes sounding like backing tracks that are missing the vocalist. Jazz fusion and disco influences criss-cross, as well as a slight layer of the kind of novelty associated with earlier electronic-based instrumentals done in hopes of cracking the pop market by the likes of Jean-Jacques Perrey. Some traces of reggae and dub (and, in "Woogie Boogie," rockabilly) are found in some of the more creative tracks, and this is a more serious and artistic endeavor than those by artists such as Perrey. Still, the material's not too substantial, and indeed enervating over in full-album dosage.
I am very happy with Black Marbles direction. I was pleasantly surprised to see they are continuing to put out solid work after the very good "A Different Arrangement" album. "It's Immaterial" is much more uplifting than ADA. If one would have told me that Immaterial was more positive I would have not been pleased as the darkness of ADA is what was so appealing to me. However, to me it works for Black Marble as they stay true to themselves. Although both albums are completely different they are not different that you won't enjoy them both in there own right. They just will leave you feeling different emotions. If ADA leaves you Cold or Mechanical, It's Immaterial will leave you Warm and hopefull.
