7D Media 2022
Particles Of The Infinite
Fathoming his red nightmares, Argentinian six-stringer steps forward to refine an endless dream.
“He plays my guitar parts better than I do”: this Robert Fripp remark may seem to flatten Alex Anthony Faide’s creative curve and cast it towards a cover version cachet, yet imitation is the sincerest form of flattery for lesser artists than the Buenos Aires-born player whose solo debut doesn’t find a place for mediocrity. Reframing his influential friend’s frequently frivolous fierceness and refracting half-familiar riffs to flood their fury with fresh flavors, Faide unfolds a tuneful tapestry – a triptych of triplets, summed up by the fractal-like image of Robert Fludd’s “Primordial Fires” on the record’s sleeve – trying out fascinating performance techniques across different patterns and motifs.
As a result, the figures that at first feel almost like free fall fade into fiery filigree and flaunt their folksy fragrance of “Pt. III” as if to defy the frenetic forays into futuristic fever and faux symphonic flight that will follow. Fractured fixtures are featured here from the off to the finale, forming a frayed, feral fantasy which Faide’s four-string rumble keeps alternately afloat and aflutter, but forever fastened to the groove courtesy of Matt Chamberlain and Pat Mastelotto – the former flaying the skins on “Pt. IV” and the latter facilitating the subaquatic swirl and uplift of “Pt. II” – as well as Alessandro Inolti, laying down the mental metal on “Pt. V” and further on. The frantic delights roll on until the end – through the triumphant “Pt. VIII” where the music’s very fiber is shaken and stirred, except for “Pt VI” where crystalline diaphaneity is mesmeric, and peak on the album’s fabulous farewell.
As far as debut albums go, this attempt to measure the infinity should be considered a success.
****3/4
