Album Cover

Arcana: Premonition



  1. Violence in Chinatown
  2. The Hurt Heels Slow
  3. Where the Shadows Lie
  4. 2nd Wave
  5. Smile


This band reminds me highly of early In the Nursery albums, very orchestrated, symphonic, and with many artificial woodwinds, or percussion instruments throughout the tracks. Very ambient. Violence in Chinatown works mostly with percussion bells, which rise & converge throughout the track. Very symphonic, and subtle. The Hurt that Heels Slow is a slow keyboard track, with an underlying sampling of a conversation in german, very dark & brooding, and the keys are slow and constant. Where the Shadows Lie breaks the slow mood, and rises into upbeat tempos of varied keys, synth work rising to a crescendo, and finally crashing down into the next track. 2nd wave picks up the silence with a very oceanic sound, watery samples, and is very orgasmic at times, the track ends with the sounds of a helicopter flying off into the distance.

Smile breaks from the tradition of the slow brooding pieces, with a very upbeat sound almost march-like. It doesn't fit very well into the gothic ambience of the rest of the tracks, and almost seems out of place. This is to be expected, because this demo is only 5 of 6-7 tracks that will be released on a forthcoming cassette EP, which I should be reviewing for next month. Overall, a very good release from a band who has been working on this release for over half a year. Expect good things to come from the finished product due out soon.

Arcana is: Brian Williams & John Phipps

Contact:
Arcana
1019 Lane St.
Kalamazoo, MI, 49008
(616) 342-9569
(616) 349-5146

E-mail: arcana@net-link.net


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