Psy'Aviah - Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars

I caught myself in a moment that I rarely catch myself in while looking at the tracklist for Psy'Aviah's seventh album Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars. That moment I caught myself in was where I paused, took a deep breath and said out loud, "Fuck. That's a lot of talent." Seriously, go take a look at the tracklist to the right of this text for a moment. While some of those names may be familiar to yourself and others may not, there's no denying there's some kind of magic going on when you see names such as Mari Kattman, Miss FD, and Diana S.. To say that this album is the highest benchmark in Psy'Aviah's career after such a long time of producing music is a little hard to believe, but you'll need to listen to the album for yourself to understand what I'm saying. 

The title and beginning track on the album is kind of misleading as it is an ambient work featuring who I believe to be Diana S. of Junksista fame. It does sound nice and is quite relaxing, almost like a song that would be played in a fantasy video game. But the rest of the album doesn't follow this sound at all; the rest of the tracks dive into anything from dance, to electropop, to some industrial based material. 

Mastermind Yves Schelpe's musical production mixes and matches with a handsome plethora of vocal talent. Kyoko Baertsoen of Lunascape is the first collaborator on 'Alcubierre Drive'. It's a slow, building song that has slight trip-hop elements intertwined with electro settings. Synth and dance oriented music moves and grooves on 'Face To Face' which comes hand in hand with the energetic chords flowing from Roeland van der Velde of Model Depose. Electronic and industrial musician David Chamberlin of ENTRZELLE shows his softer side on 'Looking Back'. The track is another soft spoken, smooth electro track with an underlying EBM bassline. 

Electro/trip-hop artist Mari Kattman (also long time friend/collaborator of Psy'Aviah) makes an as-usual gorgeous appearance on 'Lessons From The Past'. This song is a criss-cross of music that wants to make you dance as much as it makes you just wanna lay down and enjoy the tunes. Bernard Feron of the strict EBM outfit Combat Voice provides his grittier voice for 'From Another World'. While we have seen plenty of dance friendly and delicate songs on Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars thus far, 'From Another World' is tougher with a more powerful EBM influence. 

Not one to experiment with all different types of genres, Schelpe even contacted indie pop artist Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette to feature her on 'Never Look Back'. While I do think her lyrical delivery was at times a bit too fast for the slower music, she nonetheless killed it on the track. Alternative rock artist Pieter Van Vaerenbergh of Metafuzz provided his talent for work on the slower piano melody 'Opia'. This wasn't one of my favorite tracks on the album, as Vaerenbergh's voice wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I pushed on past this one. 

Andrew Galucki on the funky and genre spinning 'Frozen' was a bit of a neat surprise, if not a track that didn't really fit with the rest of the album. But, hell, the next track was an all out dance massacre. 'Liberosis' picked up the album from slower songs to fast, fun dance tunes and featured Alvin River on vocal duties. Following up on that, Psy'Aviah threw in a his own instrumental without the influence of anyone else. It kept up the quickened pace. Arguably one of the album's better hits 'Not What I Expected' featuring Fallon Nieves was another club song with attitude combined. 

If you think that Psy'Aviah wouldn't have Pop/Barbie Metal musician Addie Nicole of Halocene  on this album, then you are mistaken. This is bound to be another club hit, and I can't wait to drive through the city at night with this song on full blast while sticking my head out the window (and hopefully not crashing at the same time). 

I think that Miss FD's collaboration with Psy'Aviah was by far my favorite. While the songstress normally puts out her voice like a delicate flower, Miss FD matched the industrial and electronic rhythm with nasty and dirty attitude and overpowering lyrics. I would love to hear her shout off like this more often, as I think it's a pretty fucking awesome approach. Lastly, Diana from Junksista leads us out on an outro song with her lovely voice that matches the intro song called 'Starstruck'. Only this time there's is less ambiance and more melody to the track. 

The only problem I had with the album is that the tracks sounded like they weren't connected with one another. This sounded more like a collection of songs that belonged on a compilation and not as an album done by a single artist. Then again, when the songs sound so good there really isn't much to complain about. I guess I'm kind of arguing my own criticism. The critic criticizes himself. Who knew that could happen? 

All this being said, with the amount of talent on Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars, there is bound to be something that you will enjoy. If not, then you might just have a serious lack of taste. Go buy i
Apr 18 2016