Deadliner - Virtues of a Wandering Mind

Just three days ago, Deadliner released a bit of a companion piece to his upcoming album, Luftschiff. Now, if there's one thing that Deadliner should be known for is his short instrumentals that can both bewilder and astound in simple two to three minute sets. And Virtues of a Wandering Mind continue up with those trademarks.

Absolutely riveting and perfect (And by perfect, I mean there is not a single flaw that I can find within it), the opening track The Trouble With Revolutionaries is by far my favorite track from this man that I have ever heard. A splendid synth works its way through with piano keys ringing out, with a third set of electronic keys moving it forth. It's so simple, but so well assembled that it left me in both shock and awe. This will be a track that'll stick with me for quite some time.

Wiping the tears away from my eyes as the beauty I just encountered was far too much for me to bear, I moved into Hydrophone. While I do say it's going to be hard to ever top the intro song, this had a harder, quite metallic approach to it. Machinery came to mind when listening to this track, and was definitely a wonderful listen.

Opening Hostilities was a slower paced track; the sounds of glass shattering was ushered into the song along with a beat that registered well with drum effects. A nice backing synth covered it all.

And then another quite beautiful melody waltzed into my ears. Queen Draga was classically inspired, and stood that way throughout. There wasn't much of an electronic presence in it, but that was quite alright to me. A little neo-classical song brought forth from this mind is certainly acceptable; especially when it's written so well.

Mary Explains Herself continues that trend with a somber melody; it's almost as if it should be played right after the tragic death of a loved one in a film. Hell, when I die, I wouldn't mind this being played at my funeral as my eulogy is read off by an inspirational pastor.

But, then came back the electronic shenanigans with The Black Hand. A good rhythm accompanied by modest tunes made for another nice instrumental to add to this man's list of, well, nice instrumentals.

Next came forth The Devil In The Rain, which began off with some static before cutting out and delivering another strong beat. Layers of synths present themselves off a solid and sturdy , but slow drum line that hit pretty well.

Methods Of Traverse offered a lighter beat and actually had some samples in it around the two minute mark. Odd, as I don't often hear samples in this man's works; then again, I haven't checked out his whole back catalogue, so I'll have to listen to all that before making a real conclusion on that statement.

Dead Reckoning was the next song to come up, a quiet version of it. This track is also coming up on the next release; but, either way, it was definitely quiet. And that silence to it made it a bit of a striking song to get through, kind of creeping me out in a sense. Nice and lovely, however.

The Places You Go ripped out a piano piece that was served well. Nothing hard, nothing too fancy or fast paced; just a personal song in which the keys rolled off the fingertips and was served on fresh, hot platter. Nervosa played out the same way, just with a different feel to it; perhaps one that was a bit happier than the previous.

And, the final track was an alternative mix of Static Coupling which came off of Wardenclyffe. It features vocals from UCNX, and this version is still just as angry, perhaps less bass heavy and synth ridden. I like the original more than this one, but it still served a nice purpose.

And, now that the journey is over, I can say that I enjoyed my ride through it. It began off on an extremely high note with a wonderful song, and though the rest of the album couldn't quite live up to it, it managed to carry the momentum to the very end. Quite well done, and a great teaser for works that are to come ahead. If you haven't listened to any of this man's music as of yet, I suggest you do; he's become one of my favorite instrumentals based on his talent alone. Jul 30 2014