The Main Sequence: The Main Sequence

Fully improvised Ambient albums are scary things, often a collection of sounds more attuned to what the creators want to create, than what the listener wants to hear. Yet the opening twenty-two minutes plus of "Camelopardalis" on the debut self titled effort from The Main Sequence goes a long way to bucking that trend, a collection of long held guitar notes and loops engaging in a tranquil, spacey manner. As expected, it would be easy to imagine this wash of sound and emotion to be the backing for wordless travel through the stars, yet there's little doubt that you'd join the voyage every step of the way.

It's the pair of Joel David Palmer and Joshua Alan Weiner who are the originators of this clash of the free-form and the structured, for while none of the end results were planned in advance, the loops which form the basis of all four tracks in evidence, give a constraining feel that the conclusions may always have been inevitable. Although that in no way stifles the originality, or indeed the effectiveness of what has been achieved. However with the taste buds for this surprisingly touching expulsion thoroughly engaged, "The Star Of Courage" is far too restrained in both its beginning and end to be much more than backing music; unlike its predecessor, being all to happy to meander without purpose or meaning, rather than to punctuate sections with idea generating possibilities. "Triple End Sunrise" suffers the same fate, the "point" never even searched for, never mind located and when the pair have a combined running time of over thirty minutes, then there's little doubt that the attention wanders. In fact if I had this running through my headphones late one night, I can't hand on heart, assure you I'd stay awake for long... Add in the eighteen minutes of "Noon To Evening, Dome Sector 4", which for long periods makes the sounds that Jean Michel Jarre and his merry knob twiddlers do when they are tuning up before a show and after a hugely promising beginning, The Main Sequence fall into the trap of simply forgetting to carry the listener with them on their long journeys.

Frustratingly The Main Sequence have so much promise and so much to praise and yet ultimately, I just can't think of a time when this is the album I'd choose to listen to. If everything produced had been as engaging as the opening track, then it would have been another story entirely.

Track Listing
1. Camelopardalis
2. The Star Of Courage
3. Triple Indus Sunrise
4. Noon To Evening. Dome Sector 4

Added: December 27th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: The Main Sequence on BandCamp
Hits: 1615
Language: english

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