A few days ago we reviewed the opening track form 555’s newest release, Solar Express. The track, “Rainbow Death,” is an ambitious agglomeration of lucid synth-pads and swinging percussion from a TR-606. This linear track offers us a preview of things to come on the seven-track album.
Void of conventional song form, choruses or refrains, 555’s writing style is one that’ll take us on a journey, entrancing and spinning the listener as if the music were made for a dream. But his music is more than a soundtrack to a dream sequence. The second track “Ultralight Survey Malfunction,” features a warm and shaky sounding jazz synth, much like the signature tone of the Doors’ keyboardist, Ray Manzerak, working off an underlying lounge beat. This song falls nicely into the slow-motion track “Mirror Heatstroke,” which glides and shimmers, the shifting pitch never allowing the listener to even think about exiting through the wall of sound. “Poor Tide Judgement” is a somber minimalist middle point on the album before we reach the high watermark, “IED Intercept.” The track starts with a tribal drum beat which falls out of time and back in time before returning to the vintage drum sounds heard on previous tracks. The track combines everything definitively of Solar Express in an epic six-minutes. “IED Intercept” also acts as a transition into the closing two tracks of heartfelt and unconventional accomplishment.
Solar Express is out now on Moon Glyph.
