Tom and Gavin, lovers of dEUS, Dels and delay, have been working on a long play for a while and here it is. ‘Arrivals’ has arrived. It has come at a time of transition and re-transition (possibly) for these two young men, so its title is tellingly fitting, though may not be exactly what you would expect… or maybe exactly what you expect. Which is a problem.
As an ambient album, it is a worthy piece. Staccato beats bubble and pop as synths swirl up and samples echo down dark alleys, creating a air of the sinister and the mellowing. Beats emerge slowly and rise and fall, great dance leviathans in an electronic sea of sound. Tracks like ‘Evil Man’ invoke images of subterranean cathedrals, while ‘Pissing About’ and ‘You’re In My Thoughts’ sound skeletal and telegraphic, an SOS to the darkness for sanctuary from the light. But it is all implied and uncertain, this lurking in the darkness – the electronic counter measures to this gloom remains on top of things – it’s dark like FSOL but dancy like The Egg.
There’s a good deal of messing about with things too – samples of Siegfried Sassoon poems (‘Evil Man’), stretched and distorted to sound like a service announcement; Gavin breaks out his bowed guitar at the drop of a hat (‘All Things But You Are Silent’ and ‘You’re In My Thoughts’), each part of the album is puntuated literally (interlude tracks ‘.’, ‘..’ and ‘…’), new age and trance get a good seeing to (‘Im A Crooked Man’)… it’s not exactly ground breaking stuff, more like the less visted parts of a well known theme park – like the Dancing Fountains at Alton Towers. Or, less abstractly, think Orb circa ‘UFOrb’ or ChrisT.
The problem I have with it is that ‘Arrivals’ is missing something. The music is pure ambient, so there is no real climax or peak to the thing – it’s all anticipation, which is a bit of a disappointment because… that’s not what they’re about, or at least what they should be about. worriedaboutsatan used to crown their ambience with penetrative guitar, creating an almost sexual juxtaposition in their music. All that confrontation is gone, and I am sadder for its absence.
‘Arrivals’ is about as apt as it gets – you’re waiting either to arrive or more likely waiting for something to arrive. The joke is on us as something interstellar arrives just at the end of the album on the titular ‘Arrivals’, but we are yet to see what this transport of delight holds. In the meantime we are left kicking our heels and chilling in the name of.
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