blld is a collaboration between a multi-instrumentalist who goes by the name of 05Ric and famed touch guitarist / producer Markus Reuter. Their debut effort Materia Prima consists of seven tracks that aim to combine multi-layered drum textures with subtle sounding guitar atmospherics.
Initial spins of Materia Prima reveal a noticeable King Crimson-esque vibe running through these compositions, so it didn't come as much of a surprise to this reviewer to discover in the press release that the initial impetus for this project was born out of expanding upon the sounds employed by the double trio on KC's Thrak album. I think it should have stated that Crimson's live, improvisational Thrakattak album was the inspiration behind this project because Materia Prima definitely has that kind of feel to it.
In addition to being an incredibly short collection of music at around twenty minutes, the material also blows hot and cold. On the up side the performances here reveal Ric to be an extremely talented and versatile musician as he handles a wealth of different instruments including drums, bass, guitars, atmospherics and vocals. He's not only a competent drummer (his first instrument) but also a pretty mean Chapman Stick player as well. When you couple that with Reuter's improvised composition methods and stellar touch guitar playing on standout tracks like "OHM" (which also features a pretty cool drum loop from Crimson / Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harison), a sizzling Ric guitar solo on "Alter" and the deft percussive playing and guitar atmospheres found on "Indentify", Materia Prima appears to have all the makings of a winning collaboration. The only thing that didn't click for this reviewer are the one dimensional sounding vocals that are featured on practically every track. They did nothing towards further enhancing my listening experience, and in fact the rather cold sounding, almost monotone delivery ended up being more of a distraction.
Materia Prima certainly isn't as avant-garde in nature as a record like Thrakattakk and the fact that the performances are more song based is definitely a plus. I think what it ultimately comes down to though is whether or not these tracks offer the listener anything they couldn't find on one of Fripp's solo soundscape releases or one of Reuter's countless other musical collaborations. It's not a bad album by any means, it just comes across as something you've probably heard before.
Track Listing
1) Identify
2) OHM
3) Transition
4) Despair
5) Reverence
6) Alter
7) Resolve
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