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CD Feature/ Psychic Space Invasion: "Pendulum"

  Tobias

Most people think of Drones as static and immobile, but that is really a misunderstanding. With few exceptions, they always have an inherent pulsation, a sort of intrinsic bowel movement caused by its own frequential capacities or soft filter modulations on the part of their creator. Because artists from the genre have a tendency to prefer drinking green tea over black coffee, this usually goes by unnoticed by the lesser trained pair of ears, but not so on “Pendulum”.

What Ian Holloway of Psychic Space Invasion effectively does here is condense the oscillations of his source material to a point where they retain their atmospheric timbre, but start approximating a clearly distinguishable rhythm. Think of a wide yet flexible wave being sent through an ever smaller circular tube until it starts biting its own tail. Claustrophobia, dyspnea and tension are natural side-effects of this state and they are the main moods with which Holloway works. This might seem an awfully restrictd repertoire as well as a predictable one, but the Psychic Space Invasion have been around for some time, allowing the project to mature and bring its simple elements to full fruition. In the background, imposing walls of harmonics rest silently within themselves, while the propulsive ondulations keep thickening and morphing in the foreground. In the meantime, the distinction between major and minor chords is never decisive and subject to constant change. While some pieces may start off in a sweet and warm dreamstate and end up in unsettling hypertonic nightmarkes, others begin in a bizarre stellar overdrive only to slowly find their peace over time. The process is one of putting several coloured tinctures into a glass of water and watch them flow into each other, while an invisible hand randomly stirs the spoon.

Definitely an album to be listened to attentively, instead of yet another flowery aural wallpaper. There are six pieces on “Pendulum” and even though all of them are driven by the same logic, their development remains immensely interesting to observe, simply because their parameters are never the same. As Elvis Coffee Records, the long-time home of Psychic pace Invasion, changes its name to Quiet World, getting stronger as we speak, Holloway’s rhtyhmical drones may soon penetrate the scene like a sword of fire.

By Tobias Fischer

Homepage: Psychic Space Invasion
Homepage: Quite World Records/Elvis Coffee Records