Bluetech : The Divine Invasion
Bluetech : The Divine Invasion – A Review.
I first tuned-in to the creative work Evan Bartholomew (Bluetech) after his release of collaborative album Dreamtime Submersible (Steve Hillage, System 7). Fascinated by his intricate beat-scape of clearly classical, perhaps Bach inspired use of melody phasing in a modern Psybient context I awaited his next with some interest. Phoenix Rising was soon to follow but oddly, good that it was with a message that this was a “bridging release” of some sort before the final album was released in early 2009. The wait is now over but the question is, “Is it really that Divine?”.
Although similar to psytrance’s emphasis on maintaining non-stop rhythm throughout the night, psybient is far more focused on creating a vast soundscape that can be experienced over the length of an album, focusing less on beatmatching and allowing for a myriad of tempo changes.
The Album starts very well with beautifully crafted and fascinating interplays between various rhythms and harmonies this is truly classic Bluetech style and nothing particularly new. However this doesn’t last and near the middle the quality plummets reaching a nadir with Swimming In A Feverdream which features musical themes reminiscent of 1980’s electronic children’s toys and if he’s trying to be clever its not working here, its just annoying. The standard does however improve steadily after this and by the time we reach The Light we are in blinding foot-tapping form once again as the last few tracks of the album prove to be by far the best.
Overall it’s a good album but not quite a great one. There is plenty to enjoy here and lets face it most mainstream artists insult their fans with only one or two listenable tracks per album and you get a lot more than that here for your money but after calling your previous album Phoenix Rising you set high expectations and I feel that The Divine Invasion is slightly more Divine Hubris than Invasion. So much potential there but not quite realised this time around.
Listen to Album Samples
Bluetech Website/Order CD Online
You can also listen to a sample of Living Time below…
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Hmmm. Not stuck on that for just listening. All very samey. Might be great when on the exercise machine though.
What happened to your a or l article? I did a link as it looked what I would say myself if I wasn’t a lazy old git and you had removed it.
It’s a genre that’s designed specifically for background really, it originates from the club scene as relaxing background music in the darkened chillout areas where people could relax and chat. Interesting while the ’90s dance scene which spawned it has died a death it has found new life of its own and people are getting very creative with it.
I decided to take down the previous article for now as it needed improvement. In the interim here’s some salient reading :
Enjoy the rally while it lasts
This is Not the 1930’s Depression, Which Means High Inflation to Come
most mainstream artists insult their fans with only one or two listenable tracks per album
I suspect part of this is the labels being greedy.
Very good stuff there – I like that ulra-polished, lots of tiny edits sound. See also Telefon Tel Aviv – but without their latter’s over-reliance on electric piano.
I’m guessing you’re somewhat into the Goan side of things, but that notwithstanding I’d like to point out that the last two Black Dog albums (Further Vexations and Radion Scarecrow) are superb.