REVIEWS

Celadon
Post Industrial Delicacies

Posted: Tuesday, February 13, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

Celadon's Eric Maia messes with so many different styles on Post Industrial Delicacies, it's no wonder that none of these tracks stand out over all. There are definite hints of IDM and glitch music, most notably on Wodan's remix of "Sisyphus Has Laid Down His Stone," which starts off with abstract electronics but also includes some vaguely Oriental plucked string effects as well as painful scraping sounds. "Good Ole Boy" is more minimalist, with sampled hillbillies and anti-racist protesters processed and layered over modulating electronic tones and seemingly random beats. Maia's work exhibits none of the overly clinical polish associated with experimental techno, however, and seems just as inspired by the old-fashioned noise of early Coil and Psychic TV as by the modernist electronic underground. "Whisper in My Ear" is an unlikely blend of swampy background noise and deliberately tinny synth chords, and the aptly-titled "Curiouser" throws in a little of everything, from sampled laughter to creepy music boxes to guitar feedback. At times this album gets a little too eclectic for its own good; the campy electric organs and reedy-voiced spoken word of "Lie With Me" fail to do much other than interrupt the album's flow. Much better are the more naturalistic pieces. "Earth Abides" incorporates outdoor found sounds like birdsong with a slow, tribal-influenced beat. It's a piece that could have very easily slipped into cornball territory, but it works out well here, as does "In My Winter," which finishes the album in a blur of multi-layered electronic loops, chattering insects, clanking rhythms, and wordless female vocals. These more impressionistic pieces show Maia at his most promising, and if he focuses on this side of his work rather than the more lyrically-oriented pieces, he'll be able to take Celadon in some quite interesting directions.