ive been here long enough to know stop asking questions, seriously its dangerous to keep going like that, I know and in dividends i'll live among the escapists finally finding the exit strategy.

let these skies and the mountains never cease i can show you the most unbelievable spot in the sky, high up where mere mortals can't be we can dance above them. and like the ether flying around us at wind we find the gaze just a bit too red-flagged to boggart.

"please bear with us as we experience some turbulence" a great gale did wind it's presence upon us with that cold darkened, cool to the bone, each spoke iced and hanging as if the sun can't quite see them.

among them sun-gazers, we are such a stupid lot as if we understood the supreme power exerted by the greatest of energies that can be fathomed for even lightyears to come, our little ball of fire, come let's get close and i'll light the pyre.

overcame by the loss of light, i can't quite see straight like the failure of selves was transited by a gaping lack of understandings. i'll die before it ends, but just so you'll know…

"Stay with me As we cross the empty skies Come sail with me" eventfully low as we progressed forward, each step without a bated breath / nevertheless we'll find a way to explode or figure it out as if these things were only mere illusions, no! it is as real as the stones beneath us or the skies above. ive seen this one time before, like in a way ive done all these things in another life, can't quite see there or can't get there from here, not sure light the pyre.

i'll always appear where the light exists, meaningful and luminous a gaze to the sky would see a splendor if only it weren't so polluted with all these suppurative lux and i can find the way daunting. became another overnight as i found myself again in the darkness, feel all of your blood bleed back in with all it's warmth trickle by trickle drop by drop we see it engulf and take plunge fortunate enough to have caught the high tide…

Sep. 16, 2024

Plini - Impulse Voices (2020)

Prog-metal, Rock, Jazz fusion, Instrumental

Obverse. Obverse

🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

FFO: INTRUMENTAL PROGRESSIVE HARP ROCK! / LISTEN

Do you know the Muffin Man? How about Harp Lady, the internet's busiest harpist and effect pedal aficionado? Emily Hopkins (aka Harp Lady aka emilyharpist aka emilyharpist2) has teamed up for a surprise collaborative EP with Chris Allison, most notably recognized for his work with jazz-fusion outfit Plini, and Dan Briggs, the low-end groove technician of Between the Buried and Me fame. Together, this harp, bass, and drum trio offers up a fresh and ethereal take on instrumental progressive-ambient-harp-jazz... metal? Yeah.

Obverse certainly does not aim to overwhelm with distortion or speed. In fact, I often found myself pining for a bit more growl in Briggs' bass tone, but the rhythms in which Obverse (the entity) create still exhibit a knotty sense of technicality that seems obvious considering two-thirds of the members' progressive metal backgrounds. Fingers are swift and precise; time signatures tend to leave you holding on a second longer than you expect, but it's all so chillllll. Playful really is the key word here. Briggs' and Allison's rhythm work is astute in its virtuosity, no doubt, but they are here first and foremost to set the stage and provoke reactions from Hopkins' electric harp, and they don't make it easy for her. Briggs and Allison collapse entire suns for Hopkins to dance around like a butterfly with wings made of cosmos. She does so with grace and fluidity.

Hopkins' harp is a technicolor joy that takes on many forms throughout these four movements. Of course, such a wide array of frequencies combined with the ability to run specific note ranges through separate effect chains would create such a diverse and shimmering show of lights. This is where Hopkins' extensive pedal collection absolutely comes in clutch. The tones on this EP are just dripping in boutique reverbs, fluttering echos, and sunburst fuzz. Special shout-out to those ASMR popping sounds near the middle of "Obverse II” that sound like the rippled implosions of tiny stars; you'll know when you hear them. Hopkins' harp lays atop the rhythm like a living, breathing organism, exhaling atoms into the breeze, and Briggs, who sounds equally opportunistic in his shapeshifting, must have also shared in the plunder of Hopkins' pedal stash. Allison's drumming speaks for itself, of course; his dance is intricate and plays a vital role in linking the pieces of Obverse together, but sometimes a perfectly timed and warbled string pluck over a cymbal hit does give the impression of mutual metamorphosis.

Late to the party, pretty sure Spotify called me gay again