Dialog> - Music For Imaginary Movies

[abasio]

 

Artist: Dialog>

Title: Music For Imaginary Movies

Label: Dialog Music

Released: 2006

Style: Ambient, IDM, Breakbeat

 

Tracklist

 

1 Blacklist (3:49)

2 Abandoned (6:48)

3 Into the Light (6:28)

4 Mindeep (6:04)

5 Low (5:18)

6 Nautilus (7:26)

7 Angel Trap (6:57)

8 Glitter (5:02)

 

Dialog> is Andy Smith from London and Music for Imaginary Movies is a nice albeit short album which touches on ambient, IDM and breakbeat with dark atmospheres. some great melodic leads and bits of glitch. This album as the title suggests has a real cinematic feel to it. Filled with atmosphere and real feeling there is a lot to keep your mind alert while being open enough for the listener to add his or her own details to the story. There are some very nice ideas here and well executed. My favourite track is Low with its beautiful atmosphere and grand feeling. My least favourite is Glitter which feels out of place and has too much rock in it for me. My main problem with the album though is its length. There are only 8 tracks and non of them are particularly long so the album is over far too quickly. I would very much like to here more from Dialog, hopefully a new album with more tracks or longer tracks. For more info go to http://www.dialogmusic.com or click on the album cover for samples.

 

1. Blacklist

The first track is an atmospheric, glitchy ambient track. The drones in the background build a dark, midnight atmosphere whereas the glitchy sounds make me feel like I am standing in the middle of a building site at night with huge machinery looming over me. A very nice start.

 

2. Abandoned

The second track is more upbeat with a nice simple breakbeat through it. The background is littered with trippy little noises my favourite of which sound to me like small imaginary creatures hidden from human knowledge except for their light chirping at night. When the beat breaks down the first time we are treated to a real atmosphere building melodic synth drone that has a real cinematic feel to it. Add to this a lush melody that sounds like it has come out of a mid nineties acid trip and a similarly originated vocal and we have a real gem of a track.

 

3. Into The Light

This track has a more trancey feel with a 4-4 beat, early progressive psy like sounds and a warm simple melody. The bassline carries the track well giving it movement while the shuffling sounds under the beat make it feel like it's stationary, as if the music is vibrating on the spot or dancing in the middle of the room. Stationary movement only made possible by music. Another grand sounding synth drone gives a lot of atmosphere. I imagine myself in middle of the dancefloor waiting for the beat to kick back in. When it does it's a nice old chilled yet trancey breakbeat. Another top notch track here.

 

4. Mindeep

What's on your mind? The inquisitive sample that repeats through the track has a dark almost melancholic feel to it and does exactly what a vocal sample should to music, it adds a human touch to help the listener relate the feeling of the track to a visual scene. I can picture a scene with 2 men who have met in a poorly lit parking lot, one of them clearly nervous so his senior asks him to share his troubles. I am then free to extrapolate the story into a tale of paranoid delusions or real conspiracies.

 

5. Low

A heavy bassline and a subtle yet bright melody sounds like an ethereal ray of light glimmering in the dark night air. As time passes the glimmer becomes more visible but the night gets darker and darker. The bass growls deeper and from the dark night comes a standout melody. This melody definitely catches your attention from the first listen and is for me embodiment of deep atmospheric movie scores. Such emotion has come through this sound which started out as a small glimmer in the darkness but ended up lighting up the whole world.

 

6. Nautilus

It would have been hard to follow Low with a similar track so I think this much heavier, upbeat track was a good choice. They are very different and therefore avoiding the disappointment in a track despite its obvious merits. The beat here is a little heavier than I prefer and it does have a tendency to dominate the track distracting from the nice synth work and psychedelic sounds creeping in and out. Although it's very different it does seem to flow nicely from the last track, like a different scene in the same movie.

 

7. Angel Trap

With the tempo dropping and the atmosphere a little more open I get the feeling of a winding down. As if the tightly coiled tension of the bulk of the story is now reaching the natural conclusion. The melodic sounds float through the air as does a strange oscillating sound. A not so grand but still very nice cinematic drone covers brief stabs of chime and melody giving a kind of ending feel to it.

 

8. Glitter

This final track does not have quite the feeling of finality that the penultimate track has. It is more upbeat and cheerful and it makes me feel like the second track played on the end credits so when at the cinema some people get up to leave while others remain until the lights come on. The beats are big with an almost rock feeling to them accentuated by the electric guitars. The track is so far divorced from the rest of the album which has such a lush almost orchestral feel to it that it can only be end credits. This is probably my least favourite track on the album. There are some nice elements like the piano keys and soft melody but overall it's too abrasive for my taste.