Neonsol - Ecliptic

Now, I've just recently taken a look at Neonsol's Citadel and came off it with a pretty good response from this trio consisting of Nina and Jesper lo as well as Frédéric Scarfone. And, now, they've announced the release of their debut full length release, Ecliptic. Coming out in October, the released will contain ten tracks, including the single released earlier, as well as two bonus remixes from both Leaether Strip and Iszoloscope.

Sonus Solis is the first to start off the album with a nice dark ambient flair in the beginning, a nice piano line with a coming and disappearing wave of sound coming in. Little chimes are added in as a man speaks over about sound waves and the sun behaving as a sound source. There was a lot of, what sounded to me, like science fiction rants going on, but it was all so enthralling and entertaining. The song moves into soundtrack territory, as if should play alongside to the intro credits to a film. That lasts for a bit before hitting harder with a steady, more electronic beat. Either way, the touches of classical instrumentation to modern electronic waves was met with high regards.

Jumping into electronic dance territory, Poisoned Land inserts a few samples here and there, and Nina's lovely chords come in first with a faint echo added to them. I felt as if the music was a bit loud at times, which sort of muffed out her voice, but the overall combination was easy to put me in a lax state.

The whispering in Lights Out put in a very good feel along with the reversed sound effects, and a slower hitting rhythm formed from it. The little electronic tid bits thrown in all over the place were nice, and Nina once more solidified herself as a great vocalist.

I don't think there's need to go back into hardcore detail about Citadel, as I've covered that in a prior review (Check the link for it in the first paragraph), so I'll just keep this one short and say that you should really listen to it. Plus, it's the first time on the album that Jesper's deeper chords are paired next to Nina's and it works well.

Your Dead World played once more with the idea of Jesper and Nina both singing in the same song. Another slower beat, this time not interrupted by so many electronics as before, this song was simpler, and made for more of an easy listen.

With a very nice and ambient build up, Black Sunday really used it's cinematic intro to a good effect, and managed to blow me away. Perhaps the first time where the synths really took a major stance, the drums standing alongside them made a very nice flow to the whole shebang. Great work, and perhaps my favorite track on the album.

I wasn't too huge a fan of the sample bending in Manipulation, which had the title of the track stutter in the song itself, but, other than that, it pumped out another great hit. The militaristic tune that began off Road to War was perfect, but was quickly cut off after a few seconds. The sample placement and instrumental work was very well executed, and served up a wonderful track.

The digital vocals including in Exoskeleton with the choral effects playing through allowed for a very nice, slower beat. Also, this is the first song where both Nina's and Jesper's vocals sung at the same time, and once I heard that happen, I immediately thought that it should have happened more so than not in the album. The final song, Guinevere (named after the Queen consort to King Arthur) had a pretty folk-like touch to it which fit the overall theme very well.

And, that's where the album ended. This was a joy ride to get through; each track let out a pretty decent work of both instrumentation and vocal work. Some were more appealing and far different than other tracks, allowing for such songs as Black Sunday and Road to War to really stand out in a grand way like no other. And, I'm impressed by this act once more, and can only wish them the best as they move on in their career. Sep 08 2014