Beta-Lactam Ring Rec.
Whitelodge (US,2005)**°
White Lodge start on this album with a neo-folk style comparable with some UK and German/Austrian groups mostly. There’s lots of gothic piano and doomy dark sphere keyboards hanging around a few chords of movements of amplified guitar with over-sad vocals. This creates a slightly tiring night mood. An instrument like fender Rhodes of course adds an extra moody aspect, without at first bringing us really out of the doom very easily. With this are some attempts of making it musically a bit more interesting, with moody passages, like on "White Fountain" or like the differently arranged "Song for Kalyx", a track beautifully carried by slow fender rhodes, or with some partial improvisations, but most of this is until this slow change, like most gothic and neo-folk, all done relatively simple and without uplifting the energy much. At the point where the music thoroughly evolved to "My Passing Through the Golden Apex" I begin to like the group much better. Here the fender rhodes, bass, acoustic and electric guitar create a nice spherical continuity bed for the whispery vocals. This approach of creativity is continued in "Father Time", a track which goes a bit in the direction of Legendary Pinkdots. The mood like this becomes freer with its calm water fender rhodes wrinkling its music. On "They are seven" the musicality is experimental, ambient and pulsating, like colors on a magical painting. Especially the song "Vision" and perhaps "The Emperor's Orchid" are mixed and produced well too to give a more enjoyable effect for listening pleasure. Also the last track, "Illumination of the sylph" with different and more interesting sounds and arrangements, I like better. It's a track which goes a bit further in the direction of Legendary Pinkdots and Use Of Ashes, which I personally find very positive.
In general the Whitelodge is an album still leaves me with an ambivalent feeling ; there are still moments I appreciate better than others, even when in general it is rather enjoyable.
