Dorsal Fin is a sonic dive into deep blue space, though not the uncharted reaches of the cosmos but the vastness of the ocean. Future Museums, aka Neil Lord, has built a discography founded in light and life; songs owing a debt to classic Komische and Berlin School, while accentuating the genre with his own personal touches and musical eccentricities.
His latest and first release with SFI Recording sees the Texas-based musician creating and album-length ode to the ocean and it's ecological universe. It also extends to man's evasive nature when it comes to the waters that surround us. Dorsal Fin shines in electronic buoyancy; shimmering synths, crystalline guitar lines, and a sonic positivity that relishes in the beauty that surrounds us.
What you notice with Neil Lord is his ability to capture the feel and vibe of classic 70s German electronic music. On past Future Museums releases Lord touched on ambient and New Age vibes; guitar and synth meshing together into bell-like tones, cascading vibes that hummed in meditative solace. The coming together of organic and synthetic bliss that offered a warm and inviting spot to chill. Dorsal Fin, while no exception to the rule, is weighted in a kind of ecological mission. There's a heaviness in the work here; a mission to open our eyes as well as our ears to the world below the surface and appreciate its importance, and the life living there.
"For Violet Sage(Preface)" opens the album, a slow build of wavering electronics and vast sonic space. Lord knows his way around all kind of instruments, and he uses those skills beautifully here by setting the tone of the trip we're about to take. Simple, yet evocative. "Lemon Verbena" builds up slowly, sparkles of synth notes shimmering in the vastness of the ocean blue. You can almost envision floating along the ocean floor, finding debris both natural and man made littering the path to some next great unknown.
Elsewhere "Frozen Undertow" has a touch of melancholy to it and hints of darkness. "Elephant Mask" elicits early 80s Tangerine Dream with a prominent buzzing synth while cascading tones rush over it like a sonic waterfall. "Photograph of a Falling Satellite" goes into ambient territory, bringing to mind artists like Billow Observatory and solo Jonas Munk. In fact, there's definite sonic connectivity between Dorsal Fin and Munk's excellent 2012 album Pan.
Dorsal Fin is a gorgeous electronic record that exemplifies Future Museums knack for both technical proficiency and engaging compositions. It's an absolutely stunning bit of work, which is par for the course for Neil Lord and Future Museums.
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