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Cynic: Carbon-based anatomy
14/11/11 || Smalley
PLEASE stop teasing us already, Cynic. Please? No, I don’t begrudge you the 15 year wait in-between “Focus” & “Traced in air”; after such an accomplished, revolutionary, visionary debut, I can understand needing to take a break to try out other pastures, and the brilliant ’08 comeback “Traced” earned them additional credit. The thing is, they’ve been teasing us ever since with half-measures like 2010’s “Re-traced”, a generally dull, restrained EP of remixes, and while “Carbon” is satisfying by 23-minute EP standards, the simple fact that it is an EP is disappointing in itself.
No doubt, I do still like this, and appreciate that it’s at least compromised of all-new material (unlike last go ‘round), but it’s still at least 2 “real” songs shorter than it should’ve been. That might not sound like a lot, but considering 3 out of the 6 tracks here are basically just interludes (if pretty ones), we aren’t left with enough material to really sink our teeth in, and that sucks, since the 3 fully-formed songs here are genuine, well thought-out evolutions of Cynic’s style, and not just stop-gap songwriting. I’d love to hear a new album full of this shit.
Ok, enough whining; we open with intro track “Amidst the coals”, which has some soft, ambient-y guitar work, and a woman singing beautifully in an Oriental-sounding language. Pretty, but we really get down to biznass on the subsequent title track, when it kicks in with the signaturely intense, groovy, lively percussion & bass work we’ve come to expect from Cynic (aided by the band’s addition of a 2nd(!) bassist), and greatly enriched with spacey textures from background sounds, and what the other guitars are playing. Vocals-wise, Masvidal is still utilizing the less-stiff vocoder tone started on “Traced” (good, since I never liked its autotune-y sound on “Focus”), along with some nice, quiet, natural moments, and eerie echo effects that make him sound like a chorus of lost, tortured ghosts (didn’t I see that in Harry Potter…?). NICE.
Anyway, it’s a beautiful, beautifully ambitious song, and very effectively sets up the generally softer, more introspective nature of this record. Yes, there is a little bit of the expected energetic, virtuosic soloing and funny time signatures, but there’s less of it than before (and no growls either), as we see a definite shift in Cynic’s style. A welcome one, by the way.
Anyway, interlude “Bija!” then returns to the Eastern influences with subtle sitar usage, bongo-like percussion, and Middle Eastern-y female vocals, followed by the beautiful chanting, methodical pacing, and nicely obscured vocalwork of “Box up my bones”. Some of Masvidal’s singing here does have this unwelcome, emo whiny-ness to it, but it’s hardly enough to ruin the whole deal, and “Elves beam out” (METAL!!!) is another blissful, spacey offering, with sound effects that really give you the feel of drifting endlessly through some eternal void, with some particularly good lead guitar work to boot.
Unfortunately, it’s the last real song here, as “Hieroglyph” closes us out with some ambient noises, echoing chanting, and aimless spoken-word parts. Kinda nice, but still underwhelming. So again, besides the interludes, the basic music on CBA is great, and an interesting, satisfying twist for Cynic to take, but there just isn’t fucken enough of it. It seems like Cynic’s all ready for the deep waters of another full length, and they’ve had over 3 years now to get ready for one, yet they keep insisting on wading in the EP kiddie pool; it’s simply baffling. It almost would’ve been better if they hadn’t teased us like this so tantalizingly, and had just stayed quiet until a new album was ready. Almost, as I still enjoyed the hell out of the handful of real songs here, so the score below is mostly due to the shortness, not the actual content. “Carbon-based anatomy” was nice, but please, no more dicking around, ‘kay Cynic…?
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Season Of Mist
- Website: www.cyniconline.com
- Band
- Paul Masvidal: vocals, guitar
- Sean Malone: bass
- Max Phelps: guitars
- Brandon Giffin: bass
- Sean Reinert: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Amidst The Coals
- 02. Carbon-Based Anatomy
- 03. Bija!
- 04. Box Up My Bones
- 05. Elves Beam Out
- 06. Hieroglyph
