Blind Divine - Desire To Destroy
1 rating since posting on Thursday, December 20, 2007
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Overall Rating based on 1 rating |
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STYLE Hauntingly beautiful female vocals and trip hop instrumentation. Delicious electro-organic textures scratch and shimmer in the background whilst a delicately dark montage of pianos, chimes, guitars and synths support Paula Catherine Valencia's vocals. Desire To Destroy has a powerful balance of interesting noises and effected recordings against layered melodic patterns. The drum tracks are inventive restless, dreamy downtempo affairs that frequently shift from the full tonal range to crunchy muted manipulations - languid, shadowy. Paula's vocals are laid down in elegant restraint - for the most part low key, sensual, vulnerable - the perfect counterpoint to the music. At times, however, this interesting singer shrugs off the fetters and allows her voice to soar, bringing a fragile angelic quality to the mix. There spoken passages, multilayered sections, ethereal vocalising, up-close intimacy almost whispered. There's a classy range of intensity spread across the album too - at times thickening into a prowling gloom, then dissipating into thin airiness, warm washes or gentle bliss. Beatless piano and vocal arrangements, touched by attractive strings and textures leave the listener almost floating. MOOD Blind Divine's music has come to inhabit that appealingly dusky attic world of the imagination where heavy skies, collected ephemera and romantic painted landscapes are given the timeless treatment - everything has fresh antique texture and sepia/grey hues, very modern yet bathed in nostalgia. Possessed of that same gothic aesthetic that presents broken dolls, dramatic architecture and old films in a fresh context - Desire To Destroy manages to bend assorted sounds and words to its own purpose and vision. ARTWORK The band has a dark image that combines diverse motifs and graphic swirls with photographic content. An aged monochrome portrait fills an oval vignette on the front cover laid upon an antique texture that imitates worn edges and cracked spines. This is digipack that opens into three sections - inside one section contains lyrics and credits in black lettering on red background - the next section is given over entirely to one of Daniel Martin Diaz' artworks - the third carries the disc itself.. OVERALL Blind Divine have matured wonderfully since their previous 2005 release Devouring The Beautiful - their crepuscular trip hop now possessed of a classy grace that lifts this album way above the crowd. The musical elements have a cinematic quality that has led to their tracks being used in a number of film and TV projects. The guitars are still present from earlier material, but now much reduced - here they form just another colour in Daniel's rich sound palette. WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM This is an album to listen to if you enjoy tasteful electronica and female vocals - if you're in doubt, try the samples on the band's website. I think fans of Delerium's more moody pieces, Shelly Harland and Falling You will love this music. - Morpheus Music , posted 12/20/07 |
Blind Divine - Desire To Destroy was recommended for:
- Tribe: Delerium
- Tribe: Morpheus Music