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The Capital Stereo Conspiracy

Half-life / The Catch Sequence

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kdornan by Kate Dornan July 11th, 2002

Point one: real cellos. A scratchy vinyl recording of real cellos being ricocheted around a canyon at night, if the opening minute is anything to go by. The thing about starting with a sound like underwater depth-sounders getting their hearts broken is that you have to go somewhere with it, and fortunately at this point we do get some singing. Could be a little more tender, perhaps, to provide some contrast with the backing, but distantly sinister and mental will do too. At this point I glance at the CD player and am somewhat surprised to learn we're four minutes in. Wait, the cellos are back, sounding a bit more lost and plaintive now. Fittingly, since that's the end...

The next track is an ominous 7:32 minutes and it starts with some pretty Satie-esque piano which unfortunately is being trampled on somewhat by a massive bass loop, and might not show up at all if I wasn't wearing headphones. Like that 'surfing' Guinness advert crossed with "The Piano", it is. There's a certain relentless quality to this, but I never quite make my mind up whether it succeeds in the category of 'instrumentals you can get lost in'. Circular can be good, but I tend to prefer it more... drifty... TCSC are an odd mix of hefty electronic dance sounds with diffident beats, a hybrid of music to move to and music to sit still and listen to that doesn't quite turn out as either. It sounds, actually, somewhat like a multimedia concept piece (!) I saw done by the London Sinfonietta the other month: haltingly eloquent and strangely autistic at the same time...

And then there's five random seconds of flatline.

You'll need to make up your own mind: just ask.

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    Kate Dornan's Score
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