Categories
reviews

Crystal Shipsss – Dirty Dancer album review

Berlin based musical mastermind Jacob Faurholt is back with his newest creation under the moniker of Crystal Shipsss. This is a fairly lengthy affair, spanning 13 tracks in length, and will be available September 23rd.

Crystal Shipsss seems to revel in schizophrenic isolation. The displaced quality of the vocal track in the overall mix would seem to bear testament to this fact. There are times when the vocals are swimming in a sea of aural chaos; lyrics such as the oft-repeated ‘I’m not crazy’ further reinforce this understanding. As with all other instances, the insistence on the sanity of the protagonist would appear to underpin the notion that sanity is in fact not within his grasp.

Musically, the aural aesthetic is an extension of the last album. There is a lot of reverb and distortion, but whereas a metal band would use the distortion and reverb to elicit a type of bludgeoning force, the use of distortion is much closer to the concept embedded in the name, while the reverb supports that sense of dislocation and questionable mental fitness.

The use of distortion as an effect results in a type of aural obscuratanism, a blurring of instrumentation and definition, something almost psychedelic and deconstructed. This might explain the overarching emphasis on sanity at different points, because this is in fact the musical rendition of a mind on lysergic, the soundtrack to a mind-blowing peak.

The thing that ties this bit of neo-psychedelia together is the sense of melody that was in evidence on the last album. In a very oblique way, the melodic element in Crystal Shippps’ music is similar to the melodic devices employed by Albert Ayler- simple, diatonic, catchy and singable, a perfect foil to the sheer trippiness of the rest of the proceedings.

By Paul Paradis

Paul is a musician, writer, and teacher living in Tacoma. When not engaged in the endless task of raising his six year old whirling dervish James Sparhawk, he spends his time creating music, pursuing a bachelor's, working out, and living. He is originally from the east coast: Worcester, Mass. born, and Providence, RI bred. Having traveled around some, the Pacific Northwest tends to feel more and more like home with each passing day, Very similar to New England in some ways, but different in a way that is refreshing. Rock on.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.