Mega Dodo 2015
New Start
Delicately spiritual trip from Belgian dream master with Pot Head Pixie on hand.
Caught in the circle of the BOOK OF AM project and inspired by Jainism and the birth of his son, Will Z. finds an envious levity at this stage of his life. Elevated enough to open a new page of it without adhering to ascesis the religion prescribes, the multi-instrumentalist infuses “New Start” with a delicate opulence which laps around your ears in “Jain Devotion” that bookends the song cycle and rises from there to a higher ground. Tinged with musique concrète of cosmic kind and tightening acoustic strum into a raga-kissed twang where flute and tentative riffs lurk, the five-part epic calls to “take reality as it is” and turns hypnotic even before soft vocals add weight to its misty vibration.
Amplitude amped, a stately piano shatters “Namo” to create a psych hymn on the bass bedrock, while “Evil Namo” negates the harmony and gets ironed with Daevid Allen’s glissando licks. Yet the overall drift isn’t spaced-out here, and though guitar cuts up the Indian percussion of “Nefle” to create tension, “Greek Loop” thrives on crystal sonics and distant slivers of female voice – like a nebula being shaped for a palpable perception. The pieces are pregnant with Big Boom here, giving the album’s title a fresh slant but, despite the finale’s rise in loudness, it’s an inner universe that’s rebooted with these grooves. A mind-blowing experience.
****4/5
