This last year, 400 Lonely Things was reviewed twice in Vital Weekly. Frans reviewed ‘Apophrenia’ just a few months ago (VW 1434), and about a year ago (VW 1391), I had the pleasure of reviewing the previous release on Cold Spring, which was ‘Mother Moon’. In that review, I used the words ‘[Mother Moon] is an absolute beauty. Almost 80 minutes, with deep drones, minimal melodic lines, scarce structural sounds (no rhythms), ambience and, on occasion, a mesmerizing voice preaching solitude and melancholia.’ The ultra-conceptual conception was only slightly off-putting, so I was curious about what Craig Varian did this time.
The album counts 11 tracks with a total playing time of 77 minutes. The concept this time is to create an album based on sounds found in and meticulously plundered from 70’s and 80’s horror movies. The rust is a loopy and dreamy ambience with very dark undertones. Sometimes, it has a few words, a melody line (“VHS-MI55”), and the closing track, “Take Me To Your Secret World Again,” is almost a song with guitars and works, Reminding me a bit of the 1974 track ‘May Rain’ by Sand. It’s hard to capture that particular atmosphere, but 400 Lonely Things does it well.
I can’t tell you how the titles relate to possible sources; probably, there is no one-on-one connection, but that’s all in the artist’s mind. Going towards 60 myself, I must admit I’ve seen my fair share of 70s and 80s horror flicks over the years. And so, for me, this album is more about atmospheres than it is about, for example, the creepiness of FX or storylines that those movies are famous for.
One of my favourites from that era is the ’81 release ‘The Beyond’ by Lucio Fulci. People at that time labelled it a zombie-flic, but it was way, way more than that. Despite having a bit of everything like zombies, ‘general’ gore, satanism, science and more, it was so powerful that it wouldn’t fit any particular genre except for the obvious “Horror”. The piano melody from that movie still plays for free in my head. I still don’t like giant spiders, and I honestly think it still is a really, really good movie.
‘The New Twilight’ is the best I’ve heard from 400 Lonely Things and a great example of what you will find when combining dark ambient, experimental electronics, psychedelic, drone, soundtrack and plunderphonics. As with a horror movie, don’t restrict yourself to one thing; you’ll get bored. The many layers on this album will keep you occupied for more than one listening. The tagline from ‘The Beyond’ fits this release perfectly: ‘And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein that may be explored.’
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