Cult Of White Noise - Utopia Deferred

Looking on the bright(er) side of this weird situation in which we find ourselves, I suppose it gives creative types more time in which to be...well, creative. Case in point; I had a message from Andy, guitar wrangler supreme from Psychic Lemon, who has been experimenting in more electronic stuff, specifically the darker side of ambient. (He also mentioned that Psychic Lemon are on hiatus due to the bass player Andy having dislocated his shoulder...speedy recovery mate, that must have smarted!) The aforesaid experimentation has led to a rather fine album of deep, dark drones and claustrophobic soundscapes.

The album spans 4 tracks and a mighty 45 minutes but figures are kinda irrelevant as time seems suspended for the duration as waves and waves of cavernous drones wash over the listener, immersing and enveloping in a malevolent cocoon. Opener 'Chthonic Attack' sounds like exactly that; the denizens of the deep rising up and declaring war. The drones are accentuated by some tense oscillations and the spectral wails of a 1000 trapped souls. It is always hard to write about dark ambient without referencing Lustmord, the 'overlord' of the genre, but this track could have seriously been lifted from his canon of work. 'Metaphysics Of Nature' appears to be initially more positive; the drones are lighter and the synth washes give it all an airier feel but as it progresses the darkness creeps back in in the form of plaintive notes sounding out against the deepening drone, becoming ever more lugubrious. 'Rays and Waves' is a triumph of dystopian soundscaping...the ever-present pulsing drone plays against a backdrop of muted clunks and echo laden sweeps. It conjures images of a malign, industrial landscape..like 'Bladerunner' but with more menace. 'Early Eoscene' starts in a very optimistic manner, the darkness of the preceding tracks is dropped for a more sunlit sound with positively bouncy synths playing off each other and creating something that seems to say that maybe, just maybe, things will get better... as the album title suggests, maybe Utopia is just deferred for the time being but we gotta keep hoping.

'Utopia Deferred' is pretty damned good..Andy has created something special here. I don't want to say that he can give up the 'day' job as I am hoping for many, many more Psychic Lemon albums in the future, but he has proved that he can create and build an album with intelligence and a lightness of touch that belies the fact that this is just 'experimentation'. It has a solid narrative that steers the flow of the album and musically it hits all the marks...impressive stuff indeed!

The album is a 'name your price' download on Bandcamp here...but you know the score - support the artists eh!