Saturday, July 20, 2013

Blueneck - Epilogue

Blueneck. Not a new band, but one I'd not heard of before. And thanks to @ClassicRockProg, who mentioned in a tweet that the band is giving away their most recent album, Epilogue, for free (but not for much longer) I've now become a fan. So much so that I've gone back and paid for my free album.

Blueneck album coverEpilogue: short and sweet, eight songs, half an hour long. But each and every song is filled with atmosphere. I always describe what I do as textures, full of synthesizers creating rhythm and, well, texture, through careful building, blending, and layering. What Blueneck does on Epilogue though is atmosphere. Starting from the simple piano line of the opening track, Apogee, what they do is create atmosphere rather than building texture. It starts simple, and it stays simple, but somehow by the end you're swept away in lush beauty that you never noticed until you find yourself in the middle of it. 

So Epilogue is nothing at all like what I do, but at the same time it's exactly what I do. It's as if we've taken two completely different paths yet ended up at the same place, or at least very similar places. Epilogue feels like something I might have written and recorded, except after Brian Eno got his hands on it in the studio. Quiet yet loud, slow yet fast, rock and roll yet symphonic. I've had it three days, and played it over and over.

No idea what they're other albums are like, but give me a little time and I'll find out as you can stream them all freely on their bandcamp page. And they're also touring if you're in Europe. 

I guess I'll keep this short and sweet as I pretty much know nothing about the band. They do have a web site with a brief bio, but somewhat amusingly it's only a single paragraph in which they call themselves post-rock and leave it at that.

So, Blueneck. Their album Epilogue is a free download but only until July 21 maybe. Highly recommended.