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Friday, December 21, 2012

Diagonal- The Second Mechanism (Rise Above Records RISECD149)


The UK band Diagonal is back with their 2nd record. We saw them play 4 years ago at the Roadburn festival and they were great. They are slow to make their records but they are cool. The first instrumental number will remind people a bit of Astra with its heavy layers of synthesizers and basic sound. These Yellow Sands starts slowly with the horns taking the lead in this slow mellow spacey build up. At 2½ mins it really takes off with the guitar leading the way with a very melodic solo as the horns compliment the groove and spacey keyboards. It has a very intense and complex ending. Mitochondria starts slow and spacey with horns and piano and is quite haunting. With this song title, I wonder if anyone in the band is a biologist like myself? At the 2min segment it really pick up and starts with a great clarinet solo. Another very complex track with great guitar and horn dynamics. All the members are credited with vocals but not a peep our of anyone yet! Maybe this track? Hulk starts with some intense drumming and then the vocals! The lead vocal is by Nicholas, the saxophone-clarinet player. There is very little singing and they just get down to the track at hand. Capsizing the last track, starts really spacey and floating. The slow building bass line driving the track forward before the drums come in and the pace picks up. The clarinet takes the first solo followed by a trippy saxophone solo with a lot of reverb and other horns mixed in as well. This is a very melodic track and the mood changes completely from the way it begins. Another very cool record.

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