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Phantom West
Aleph Null

Sistinas Music

Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

Timothy A. Clark's new Phantom West album doesn't have a whole lot in common with its predecessor, The Rain Expedition, an EP that consisted mostly of remixes from some of southern California's finest underground noise artists. For one thing, there's a lot of singing, and Clark is actually quite good at it; there were hints of his voice on The Rain Expedition, but they mostly emerged dreamlike from a morass of synthesizers and effects. Here, his voice is the centerpiece on a majority of tracks. There's "The Rain Expedition," of course, with Clark doing a soft falsetto over a warm, fuzzy house beat, but there's also "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," a multi-layered and unpredictable piece that places twangy synthesizers and bombastic piano chords in counterpoint to Clark's singing, as well as a smart cover of New Order's "Doubts Even Hear" that builds slowly from symphonic strings. Clark really shines, though, not as a singer but as a producer, and on Aleph Null he handles himself admirably in a number of genres. "Aurora" is a moody, downtempo instrumental, all minor-key pianos and ominous trip-hop beats, while "Singularity" summons the depths of space with chilly synthesizers and then warms things up with a rock-inspired backbeat. Clark was a guitarist before getting involved in electronic music, and unsurprisingly, some of this CD's best moments feature the guitar. "Construct of Elysium" is a bittersweet 14-minute pop epic, and instrumental "Valles Marineris" evokes the opiate bliss of latter-day Cocteau Twins. Finishing the CD is "Obsidian," a slow, dreamy number that trails off into gorgeously mellow guitars, ending the album with a perfect sense of wistfulness. Aleph Null won't necessarily appeal to fans of The Rain Expedition who discovered Phantom West through the power noise scene, but anyone who appreciates sincere, carefully crafted music in the vein of The Cure and Depeche Mode is sure to appreciate this album.