Somnambule - Writing About Music

Chevron ~ Everything’s Exactly The Same

“Everything’s Exactly The Same”. Could be talking about television or the local high street, popular culture in general even. Teeming, ever different, ever the same. Maybe. In Chevron’s world everything’s bright and shiny. And noisy. And everything’s (mal)functioning, but gloriously so. Like an infinite number of monkeys making music that makes some kind of sense.

Running Out Of Time sounds like Vangelis mixed with a bit of Rob Haigh (Omni Trio)’s beatless outings for two minutes or so. Then a fine old phaser blast scorches its preening surface and releases an extremely angry djinn surfing on the crest of hyperkinetic breaks. The whole thing feels as unpredictable as tectonic plates shifting beneath your feet. The tempo motors up and down, back and forth, mostly refusing to settle at any point while synth chords zoom overhead like restless jets. The reverbed plastic harpsichord on the fade signs out with a nice taint of the psycho.

Cyberia is all operatically arranged depth charges plunging down high-rise caverns to explode before impact with the street. London maxes the synthetic bass, maxes the stuttering rhythmattack weaving like a suicidal guerrila in the face of small arms fire. Optic Realisation returns to Vangelis land, specifically the Bladerunner soundtrack. It’s a lovely place to be. Bathyscape is spectral, haunted, again the beats kick in just when it seems that the track’ll be ambient through and through. Rudi The Techno Pioneer roughnecks We Wish You A Merry Christmas complete with ragga vox and accelerating breakbeats. Later, Polyphonic Ringtone maxes the cheekiness with a cheeky quote of Kraftwerk’s Tour De France.

Keywords: naaasty, noisy, shiny, in-yer-face, virtual, brittle, cathartic, mischievous, fun.
Colin Buttimer
March 2005
Published by Milkfactory