Search - Neptune Towers :: Caravans to Empire Algol

The paraphenelia is optional

E. Mitchell | Cercarian Amniotics | 01/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Released in 95, by Fenriz of Darkthrone. Neptune Towers "Caravans to Empire Algol" is an LSD inspired meditation into the deepest transfixed nebulaes. Produced with a mixture of studio effects, analog synthesizers(as a synth player myself, he's using some pretty old modular equipment VCS3, Moog, ARP2600), organs, and step sequencers..Fenriz melds a myriad of textures for the mind to experience. Sine people would call this CDs to be Sound FX, as according to Satan Stole my Teddy Bear...

"The journey" is a 24 minute piece consisting of two main themes, where a highly flanged organ plays the melancholic solos and a bassline which sticks in your head. Although I heard this album long before Tangerine Dream's "Zeit",Klaus Schulze's "Dune", Lustmord's "The place where the black stars hang"..This album is very comparable to the 70s ambient space music, there are no vocals or drums(and if there are drums, they are minimalistic)...This is not for the part time raver astrology kid, as it requires both active and passive listening nor is it for the black metaller. But if your spaced while listening to this, it enhances the experience I am told...But I don't do ride the celadon jatryptollichid. and it tripped me out.



THE TOWERS WILL ONLY APPEAR WHEN YOUR MIND IS OPEN

"

Continues the ambient music tradition

death metal and black metal | Austin, TX | 02/02/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Most people have no idea how to write a review of this album. It's hard enough to describe the music, but most of its fans are coming from the black metal camp, and this album in no way resembles black metal.



What it does resemble is older Tangerine Dream, even to the point of being like a tribute. These are longer songs without percussion, composed of noises and notes from multiple instruments with an emphasis on drone. They develop like an opera or poem, slowly unwrapping a theme concealed beneath multiple motives. They require an attention span but have some of the most intense and beautiful moments in music Fenriz has ever composed.



Comparable attempts to make complex ambient music without pop song structures come to us from Fripp and Eno, the aforementioned Tangerine Dream, K.K. Null, Maeror Tri/Troum and Biosphere. If you like any of these, you may enjoy this album. Additionally, I find similarities to the music of Claude Debussy and Ottorino Respighi, but I'm hard pressed to put details into words.



This first Neptune Towers album, "Caravans to Empire Algol," is my favorite of the two. It is a transcendental journey in sound. Whether you like black metal or not, if you have an open mind toward what qualifies as music, this is an intense aural journey with few peers."