Bolton, Rose: The Lost Clock

It can't be easy living in the internet age when you are one letter away from sharing a name with a Game of Thrones character that is most known for flaying his enemies alive. As if Google searches weren't cluttered enough these days. No, we aren't talking about Roose Bolton, but Rose Bolton; longtime Canadian recording artist and film score writer extraordinaire. On this particular release, The Lost Clock, Bolton delivers 4 ambient electronic tracks that, according to her, explore "the relationship between memory and dreams, mortal perceptions of the inexorable passage of time, and an abiding sense of the profundity of life itself". Sounds a bit nebulous and pretentious to say the least, but the proof is in the pudding, so let's take a bite.

Ms. Bolton's work is largely concentrated in the film and documentary space, which makes sense considering the music found on The Lost Clock could barely be described as music at times. Droning electronics and sparse accompaniments are pretty much all you'll find here, and while that can certainly be a mood enhancer and an asset to a nature mini-series on whales, I'd be lying if I said any of the 4 tracks on The Lost Clock could be described as toe-tappers. In fact, everything pretty much runs together and sounds not unlike the white noise you'd hear in a hospital waiting room during a windy day. Beeps and bloops not unlike that of a cardiogram sprinkled with windchimes and the clacking of computer keys. Let me tell you, it really gets the blood pumping.

I have to be honest and say that this is clearly not something I'd sit down and listen to in my free time. Even when I'm doing something else or concentrating, some, or in fact ANY semblance of melody or tonality would be preferred over this random hodgepodge of noise. Ambient, in this case, is not only a genre descriptor but defines The Lost Clock in the most literal of terminology. This is literally what the world sounds like when you just sit there and soak it in. I don't feel any more emotion listening to this than I do when I sit in a book store and I'm treated to the sounds of shuffling feet, turning pages, and occasional slurps of overpriced coffee.

There is one last damning detail of The Lost Clock that I must share. As I sat listening to the entire album to soak it in, it took me at one point almost 10 minutes or so to realize that the album had actually stopped playing at some point and I was listening to the sound of my trusty Roomba robotic vacuum whirring away in another room and I thought it was PART OF THIS RECORD WITHOUT EVEN NOTICING. Perhaps I'm outing myself as a man with a very limited attention span, but I'm willing to do so for the greater good. We can all agree that taste in music is a matter of preference, but if I can't differentiate between your stuff and a Roomba... well, we have problems.

Like I said earlier, The Lost Clock is an ambient record, and it's clearly not meant to be jammed to on a Friday night or even be the sole focus of your attention at any given time. I'm sure there's an audience for this somewhere, on some planet, but I don't know why I'd ever even consider listening to this again. Sounds like a 1 out of 5 when I scroll up and read the bile I've been spewing throughout the review, but considering I'm not the audience for this and it appears to be competently recorded I'll throw it a half-point bone.

Tracklist:
1. Unsettled Souls
2. The Lost Clock
3. Starless Night
4. The Heaven Mirror

Added: October 30th 2021
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: Artist Website
Hits: 722
Language: english

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