Guaranteed Reviews

How I Feel About It *♥ 

We reviewed Di Evantile’s Inertia last December and I remember thinking that Beatrice Clarke went a little easy on it. It seemed a little too Animatronics, too machine-like and the keyboard sounds seemed too cheesy and overused. Even if it was superbly orchestrated (and some of it well-played) it sounded a bit hollow and soulless to me. So imagine my surprise when I drew Infrared Clock to review. I thought, “Here’s an excellent chance to set the record straight.” But Di Evantile changed some things, and for the better.

This album is dreamy and trance inducing. It’s the perfect music to go to sleep to, without actually inducing sleep. There’s something at once modern and primeval about it, and it urges the listener to dream on an epic scale without requiring epic amounts of energy to do it. This isn’t a work that I will ever feel passionately about because it’s only interested in the passion of dreams, which are usually distant from the dreamer, somewhat aloof and impersonal. Infrared Clock is something of an opiate.

What I Think About It 

Where Inertia had tightly knit arrangements with club-ish drums, Infrared Clock meanders. It meanders in the same way Peter Gabriel does with many of his songs and keyboard parts. It also has a world music feel because the drum tracks (especially track 8, Hidden Element) have a world beat tinge to them that Inertia lacked. It also has an element of Pink Floyd, especially the beginning of Shine of You Crazy Diamond, on the album Wish You Were Here. Last but not least, it shares some qualities with Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack and I even hear a touch of Jan Hammer in the mix.

The best part about this album is its pacing, the same pacing the Blade Runner soundtrack has, the same pacing as Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and Di Evantile rarely departs from it. If the pace changes on this album, it’s only for a very brief period of time. The pace, along with a wide variety of keyboard sounds, creates a fantastic sense of space that is hypnotic. Admittedly, some of the keyboard pads are obvious, like the female choral pad at the start. It’s distracting sometimes from the music when you hear a canned sound and you know what keyboard it comes from. (Personally, if a band is going to use a preset, I’d prefer it if it was at least disguised with some effects. Presets are for trying the instrument out in the store! It’s important for musicians to make each sound totally their own.)

The pace is what makes this album great. The slowness of it takes the edge off that part of the album which is obviously programmed. It makes it feel more human, and it has to be said that some of the playing on this album, especially the piano, is high caliber. I especially like the piano on the fist track, Intuition. The part doesn’t require great dexterity, but to brush the piano languidly over some pads and draw the listener in takes great taste, and Di Evantile’s broad taste in music is evident on this album.

This album should appeal across demographic lines, more so than Inertia. Its appeal is so obvious and Di Evantile’s skill so apparent that I’m left to wonder why no one from film or TV has explored Di Evantile’s capacities. I have no doubt that the mind behind this act could score a movie or contribute heavily to a TV show.  

Steve Perry (no relation)

http://dievantile.com/

My immediate response to ‘Inertia’ was, “Oh no, digital pitter-patter, this is going to be boring; all the sampled midi stuff is not really music anyway.” Then, right about the time I decided to put aside my often stuffy, somewhat elitist attitudes regarding the conventions of musical expression – you know, acoustical instruments, the sound of human fingers across metal or nylon strings, the nuances and timbres present in the fiber of skin covered drums, the natural decay of volume following a cymbal crash or the subtle overtones the ear discerns lofting from the metal alloys – I began to get drawn into a kind of haunting pull from this composer’s expression.

As I listened, I realized I was responding from a primal place. This composer has found an effective basis of form and expression that corresponds with human emotion. I do find that interesting considering the aural medium is digitally constructed. Di Evantile has a good grasp of the tools available to him and, as any good craftsman will, orchestrates the “voices” into a good marriage. I especially like his use of the glass bottle sound on the first track, ‘Inertia.’

As the fairly well studied percussionist I am, I figured I’d grow weary of the rhythmic ostinato and four-bar phrasing present in most all of the tracks. Things are kept interesting, however by subtly offering differing voices to color the texture. I think one call be lulled into a sense of over simplicity regarding the form, but I think that’s exactly why it works so well. There is breathing room in the phrasing allowing one to accept and really hear why the next change makes sense. This is especially true for the track, ‘Glassy Cracker’ and ‘Element of Happiness.’ There is certainly a sense of overall form to the CD as a whole and one could make a case for that, though that may or may not have been the intention. With the first four tracks in the key of A minor and the journey to the final track, ‘Decompressed’, a sort of hymnal sign off, I did have a sense of connection between the pieces; a kind of walk through someone’s dream.

If you are looking for mood music, meditative background with a lover and a glass of wine or a companion to exercise or road travel, you should get this CD. Even if you’re a bit of a stuffy elitist like me, you owe it to yourself to hear and appreciate what Di Evantile is doing with his tools of the trade.

- Beatrice Clarke