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Celldweller
Wish Upon a Blackstar: Chapter 01

FiXT

Posted: Saturday, October 10, 2009
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Considering that the debut Celldweller release was more than six years ago, some would perhaps like to accuse Klayton of procrastination or laziness; the release of Wish Upon a Blackstar: Chapter 01 provides the ultimate proof to the contrary. Available as both a standard and deluxe edition, the two-track single release acts as more than a precursor to the second full-length Celldweller album. The standard release offers up the two new songs, "Louder than Words" and "So Long Sentiment," which by itself should help to satiate the fans' thirst for new material. Indeed, "Louder than Words" is just the type of song we've come to expect from Klayton, full of cutting-edge synthesizer arrangements meshing perfectly with heavily manipulated but still guttural guitars, yet again combining alternative rock modes with varying electronic genres like house, new wave, and trance. Klayton's voice is as crisp as ever, never above delving into angst-ridden screams, but ever possessing that melodic tonality that distinguishes him from many of his contemporaries. "So Long Sentiment" follows suit with highly stylized drum & bass breakbeats underscoring what could have easily turned out to be a simple excursion into melancholy emo; once again, Celldweller's music taking chances and juxtaposing divergent musical styles into a cohesive package. The deluxe edition includes instrumental versions of the tracks, which is typical of a Celldweller single release, but the real treat comes not only with the addition of the Beta Cessions for both songs - a collection of the various demo versions that preceded the final release - but two commentary tracks in which Klayton guides the listener through the songs' evolution as snippets of the demo versions give rise to the final song. Besides offering us a glimpse into the almost obnoxiously perfectionist and extensive creative process that goes into making Celldweller's music, which helps us to understand just why it takes this artist so long to release new material in the first place, but it gives listeners a welcome taste of Klayton's humanity as he delves into more than a few moments of his self-deprecating sense of humor, topped off with the occasional vocal effect or glitch to make it just a tad more interesting than a musician "blabbing away for 15 or 20 minutes." While the man jokes that the full-length release for Wish Upon a Blackstar will drop "sometime between now and 2050," it's gratifying to see that he will at the very last still provide audiences with just enough of a taste of what is brewing in his creative cauldron to sate their anticipation and keep them begging for more. Also, if "Louder than Words" and "So Long Sentiment" are any indication, expectations are high that Wish Upon a Blackstar will indeed be a major benchmark for underground electronic music.