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Priority, Light is Decomposed into Fragments (Musea)
Certainly not the kind of album I normally would associate with Musea,
who supply the world with many much-needed and rereleases of French prog
masterpieces, Priority's album is an intriguing but ultimately disappointing
foray into guitar-oriented ambient music. It's not really that surprising
that Priority don't sound like the bands I normally associate with Musea,
since they're Japanese and current (I assume Musea's begun expanding their
horizons, I haven't been keeping up with them lately).
Each of the nine tracks on the album are supposed to represent one of fragments
which light is decomposed into, except for the first and last tracks, which are
simply entitled "Invisible." The first of these "Invisible" tracks is probably
the most interesting piece on the album, as it creates a dark, disturbing
atmosphere that manages to stay consist but in a state of flux. Most of the
other tracks on the album don't achieve this nice balance, though -
generally, Priority seems to overemphasize consistency without providing any
motion or progression to keep things interesting (ok, ok, it worked for
Tangerine Dream on Zeit but it doesn't seem to here). Most of the
tracks seem to follow the same general pattern - a brief introduction by bass
and/or percussion with some slightly concealed drones. This is good part.
Then the guitar begins to embellish upon the atmosphere, which is still a
good idea. Then things start going down the tubes, because after some
inventive embellishing the guitarist seems to get bored or something and
start soloing, and suddenly the song begins getting more and more tedious,
with only my dedication as a reviewer stopping me from hitting the next track
button. This pattern is followed on basically all of the tracks, with only
variations in the length of the 3 sections ("Yellow," for example, goes
almost immediately to the boring solo part while the aforementioned
"Invisible" barely gets there before the track's over).
However, for the part or so of each track, the album's pretty great.
Maybe Priority thought that the extra time was needed to cement the mood of
each track (I'm not really big into ambient music, so maybe dedicated
listeners will appreciate this). Even so, I'd approach this album with
caution, but at the same time keep my eyes on the 3 lads in the band, because
they appear to have a good thing going for them - they just need more
polishing and refinement. ~Jon Murphree~
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