Artist:
Estradasphere
Album: Palace of
Mirrors
Year: 2006
Line-up:
Tim Smolens:
contrabass, electric bass, surf guitar, keys, mouth harp
Jason Schimmel:
electric & acoustic guitars, organs, lapsteel, keys, fuzz bass
Timb Harris:
violin, trumpet, electric & slide guitars, mallets, orchestral
perc., mandolin
Kevin Kmetz:
shamisen, electric guitar
Adam Stacey:
accordion, piano, clavinet, rhoder, tack piano, melodica, organs,
synthesizer
Lee Smith: drums
Label: The End
Records
Estradasphere is an
interesting USA-based band of multi-instrumentalists that were most
active in the early 2000’s. To best describe their style would
probably be to compare it to those of bands such as Secret Chiefs 3
and Mr. Bungle – indeed, they are one of those bands that, when
asked “what genre of music do you play?”, answer with: “all of
them.” This of course makes for some wonderfully demented if not
utterly insane musical experiences, but the album I will be talking
about now is probably their most restrained and stylishly consistent
one (although that’s not saying much when it comes to this band).
Released in 2006,
Palace of Mirrors
is the band’s fifth full-length album and at least for now the last
one they made. The first thing that comes to mind when listening is
that it is very cinematic. The album very much resembles a
soundtrack, just without a movie to go with it. This does not make it
feel incomplete, however, as the listener is free to imagine their
own film to go along with the music. It’s actually quite uncanny
how visual some of the songs are in this way. The amazing title
track, for example, would of course be the main theme of the movie,
heard alongside slow camera pans of the scenery in which the film
will be taking place (the first 40 seconds or so would be heard on
the DVD menu).
A
few songs evoke the work of the great Ennio
Morricone, which somewhat explains
these soundtrack-like feelings I get from the album. But it’s not
like Palace of Mirrors is only repeating film music tropes (although
they are in there) – the band very much makes its own twist on
things. The absolute standout track for me is A
Corporate Merger, which starts off
groovy but restrained, and in the end takes a sudden (and awesome)
turn into metal in the last repeats of its main theme. Another very
memorable track is Smuggled Mutation,
which sounds like a metal band found themselves at the rehearsals of
a violin virtuoso, and just decided to start playing along. The
weirdness of Flower Garden of an Evil
Man also reminds us that this is indeed
no ordinary soundtrack album.
Palace of Mirrors
for me hits a sweet spot in keeping its tone consistent while also
exploring a huge variety of moods and musical styles. Just pop this
into your headphones and transform any boring walk through town into
an interesting cinematic experience.
The title track on
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Io220_J2I
Written by Those Who Know
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