BLINDHÆĐ- Laguna Sunrise

Mystery Sea

OK, let’s get ready to rumble, as ring announcer Michael Buffer would have it. Abstruse project name with symbols to be found in the depths of Windows Vista’s bowels; check. A cipher designing the aspirant artist (in this case, “S/”); check. Already existing title; check (“Laguna Sunrise” is a Black Sabbath piece; apparently, a direct homage). Geared up to annihilate, here we go. Well, wait a minute. This CD is not appalling – on the contrary, certain sections do not displease at all, with particular reference to “Segment II” – enchanting pseudo-choirs in there – and “Segment V”. According to the liners (and my ears), this assembler from Belgium likes to mesh field recordings and electronic influences into near-monochromatic patchworks, with a general tendency to the same grey of that country’s skies; a commonplace, maybe, for I’ve never visited it. Given that nothing caused divine visions during the playback, the truth is that this stuff is neither aggravating nor ostentatious. It unfolds without excess of ridiculous artifices, occasionally waving for our attention via sudden (de)materializations of reality and potent growths of subsonic drones. Not haunting, but at least decent; perfect for a mix with the understated echoes of this first summer night, as the outside crickets mingle with the bottomless underbreath of “Segment 54”.