XTEMPORA

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http:///pp.kpnet.fi/amihassinen/jukebox/xtempora.mp3″]XTempora (sample)
[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http:///pp.kpnet.fi/amihassinen/jukebox/bubastis.mp3″]Bubastis (sample)
[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http:///pp.kpnet.fi/amihassinen/jukebox/glacialis.mp3″]Glacialis (sample)

Review from SMD

Shimmering tones, some being fairly melodic, mix together to form a tranquil beginning to Part One of the three-part title track. Little sequences start to bounce along on the back of some excellent body moving rhythms. Melodies can be heard lower in the mix but they form more of a supportive role to the syncopations rather than being a prominent feature. The Second Part is still rhythmic but calms things down a little before morphing into quite a groove with some absolutely gorgeous little space guitar licks. We surge into the final part. Initially the guitar departs as more wonderful but delicate lead lines come and go but it then returns being even more effective than before. What a superb way to start an album!

’The Silence Speaks’ begins with what sounds likes heavy breathing rising up from the bottom of some dank, water-dripping shaft. Cold metallic pads replace the previous sounds but the feel is just as bleak as before. A sequence starts to solidify, mutating all the time as other percussive loops join it in an ever-shifting sea of pulsations. A steady pattern is eventually maintained and lovely little melodic touches are placed over the top. These melodies become stronger and more uplifting as we progress. It’s another fantastic track where it is best to close your eyes and let the music take your mind where it will. The amazingly high quality already set continues with ’Dream Transmission’, a track based round some exquisite melodies using a superb mutated tubular bell type sound. ’Bubastis’ starts with a short repeated melodramatic melodic motif. A rapid sequence surges forward, a killer drum pattern following quickly on its heels. Delicate melodies bounce over the top acting as a foil to the power underneath. Gentle rain heralds the atmospheric ’Largo’, and all rather peaceful it is too, acting as something of an interlude before ’Huygens’. The rhythms are cranked up again, though not to silly levels. Growling guitar effects give a slightly ominous edge but then a lovely bubbly bouncing sequence enters lightening the mood once more. More sinister sounds keep returning however keeping us on our toes, never quite knowing in which direction we are going to be taken. In the third minute yet another brilliant lead takes centre stage before being replaced by an apocalyptic organ sound.

’Beryllium’ takes us to a futuristic swampland full of unsavoury beasties. It’s as if we are on the edge of a feverish dream with half heard echoing vocal effects. A very faint percussive loop starts up with a slow melodic sequence soon joining it. A lovely delicate lead line arrives just before the fifth minute completing the mutation from nightmare to soothing, relaxing sleep. ’Im Anfang war…’ tricks you into thinking it is a laid back, though a rather ghostly number. Suddenly there is a surge of sound introducing some spoken text in German then in English ’Welcome to Hell no pity here’ then ’Welcome to here no Pity in Hell’. All rather menacing stuff! ’Prometeus’ returns us to more conventional EM. An excellent no nonsense sequence strikes up along with lovely mellotron backing. Another sequence comes into play, quite melodic this one, taking the lead line role. Things then start to unwind for a peaceful finish. ’Sub Vesperum’ is a completely different kettle of fish concluding this first CD with a short harpsichord / mellotron duet. Simply beautiful.

The second CD is subtitled ’Glacialis’. In my opinion this CD is (until the last part of the final track) in complete contrast to the first. So much so in fact that I wonder why it was packaged with the first CD in that it seems to have very little musically in common with it. This isn’t to say that it is inferior in any way to the first, just exploring the more atmospheric and ’ambient’ side to Nemesis. We start with the twenty-minute title track. With such a name I rather expected it to have an icy cold feel but instead it starts with what to me sounded like warm soothing shimmering pads. Gradually some sonic spacey effects are also introduced drawing the mind out of what was becoming quite a hypnotic state. More sounds and drones are gradually introduced but without ever overcrowding the soundstage or intruding on the blissed out atmosphere.

’FlowoIF’ gets a bit stranger with a couple of ticking loops providing a rhythm, of sorts, to which are added various windy effects then another two note loop and very faint sequence. It has to be said that it is all a little experimental but fascinating dark moody stuff nevertheless. ’Pittura Metafisica’ takes us on a train ride (complete with chugging steam) through a hot foreign land. To start off with all is relaxed and tranquil but by the second minute the train has departed and we seem to have been left in a very ominous dark setting full of gurgling effects and other spooky sounds. The seven-part ’Behemoth’ is an incredible thirty-seven minute epic. The First Part starts with water droplet notes, some echoing gorgeously into the distance. Weird sounds start to intrude on the serenity and things take a slightly ominous twist. The Second Part surges forward with a multi layered cacophony of drones and effects. It’s all rather intense stuff. Part Three calms things down a little especially when a lovely mournful flute makes an entrance. The melancholy continues with some heartfelt tron playing. It all has a rather early seventies sound to it.

Part Four provides a peaceful couple of minutes of spacey drift until footsteps intrude just before we move into Part Five. Rumbles can be heard sounding almost like some extra deep bass kettledrum or Satanic heartbeat. As with all the tracks so far it’s extremely atmospheric- in a disturbing sort of way. The mood does lighten nearer the end however and this continues through to Part Six. Lovely little guitar licks mix with more lush mellotron sounding just like something off an album by RMI – absolutely wonderful. The last part is liked some refugee from the first disc. A stunning sequence rumbles forward. More note runs are added as well as, of course, the return of the mellotron. The pace slowly increases as do the layers of sound and pulsation- plus we get more wonderful guitar. Again the most obvious comparison is RMI but this time at their most turbo charged. Mere words can’t do this nine minutes of brilliance justice- probably the best section over the two CD set. What a way to finish!

So, except for those last few minutes, two very different albums in one package. Some will like the first CD, some will like the second. BUT as the two CD package (at the time of writing) retails at a single CD price you are getting good value whatever the case is. If, like me, you appreciate both you are getting a fantastic deal. (DL)

*****

Review from Electroambient Space

While I still consider Nemesis’ 1999 release Sky Archeology an album difficult to top, I can’t rave highly enough about Xtempora, a 2-CD set of material culled from 1995-2005. Xtempora is actually the name of “CD A,” and “CD B” is called Glacialis. Xtempora is very similar in style to Sky Archaeology, danceable at times, with heavy bass and backbeat melding to cool electronica. This is definitely more forward than retro, though those elements are there if you listen. The three-part title track chugs and grooves along for over 22 minutes, an awesome mover to get the blood circulating. “The Silence Speaks” is another great intelligent dance number, more relaxed but still with that great Nemesis rhythm and bass. Even more laid back is “Dream Transmission,” as it slowly shuffles forward on a cool groove. Mellower still is “Bubastis,” moving into the realms of pure space music, complete with astronauts speaking in the background, or something of that nature. Only “Im Anfang war…” doesn’t do it for me, a German narration piece. The rest is fantastic throughout, virtually impossible to pick a favorite. As for disc two, as Monty Python would say, “And now for something completely different.” Glacialis is icy drifts of smooth ambience, floating dreamily along. The title track is 20 minutes that I never want to end. It doesn’t go anywhere, and yet it takes me everywhere, some of the best space music I have ever heard. The cleverly titled “Flowolf” is basically cold wind and a single electronic sound warbling up and down, with little clicks and water-like effects for added texture. “Pittura Metafisica” sounds more like Biosphere than Nemesis, minimal and abstract. The remainder of disc two is “Behemoth,” a 7-part set totaling over 37 minutes. Among many good moments are great Mellotron strings in part three. It is largely a textural work, save for part seven, which features not only rhythm but scorching guitars as well. I can scarcely believe that these 22 tracks are unrelated pieces recorded as much as ten years apart, they go together so well. Xtempora is fantastic.

*****

Review from Deadearnest

Now this is just superb – no word of a lie, it’s two CD’s of top quality, attention-riveting, gorgeous sounding multi-synths music. What makes it so good? Well, let’s take CD 2 first – apart from the very last part of the album’s thirty-seven minute epic track ’Behemoth’, the whole seventy minute CD is the sound of cosmic synth music from the seventies. Many bands have come and gone producing ”berlin School” music with sequencers blazing, trying to recapture the glory days of the seventies, but noone’s really captured the feel of the times by producing purely rhythm-less (or as good as) synth music. What makes it work even better is that, at no time, do you feel that these guys have gone out and created soundscapes like this deliberately – it all sounds so natural, as though this is simply what they do and how they do it. I listened to the whole CD in one sitting, absolutely hooked and transfixed by what I was hearing – and as I said, only on the last passage does a guitar and a sequencer rhythm come in to join the shifting, swirling drifting, soaring sounds of mellotrons and synths that pervade the rest of the CD.

By contrast, CD 1 is all rhythmic and you know – it’s not what you might think – it’s better!! With hardly a nod towards T Dream, the whole FEEL of the thing is heavily seventies influenced in terms of its soundscapes and layers, but in terms of its rhythmic constructions and use of tonal colorations, we’re talking classic Orb territories only without the dub factors and with much more analogue warmth to the compositions, all of which seemingly flow as one vast seventy-two minute organic unit. So, if you imagine a much more ”synth” oriented Orb or a less ”Berlin School” more mellow Namlook/Schulze, then you’re about two thirds of the way there. Note that nearly all the main foundations of the rhythms are what you might call ”electro-percussively based”, but throughout, it’s solid yet languid, and absolutely spot on in keeping with the whole feel of the CD. The soundscapes are always changing shape, always something going on and always full-sounding, a spellbinding set of synth-ambient crossover tracks that, once again, you just have to hear from start to finish, once you put it on the player – it really is that good. Overall, then, one of the most ENJOYABLE synth music albums I’ve come across in ages – highly recommended.

*****

Review from Palasokeri

Tämä kokkolalainen ambient-elektro –yhtye on toiminut jo jonkin aikaa, mutta tämä tupla-CD-R on heidän ensimmäinen levynsä, joka on käsiini osunut. Yhtyeessä vaikuttavat kova Hawkwind-fani Ami Hassinen, Jyrki Kasman sekä Joni Virtanen. Kolmikko on Xtemporalla onnistunut luomaan vallan mainion elektronisen ja psykedeelisen äänimaaston käyttäen isoa läjää analogi- ja digitaalisyntetisaattoreita, kitaraa, bassoa ja sampleja. Ohjelmoidut rummut ovat mukana osassa kappaleita, mutta mitenkään kovin rytmiseksi ei musiikki missään vaiheessa kasva, vaan pääosin leijutaan mitä oudoimmissa avaruuksissa. Mieleen tulee välillä Tangerine Dream, Tim Blake tai Harvey Bainbridge. Todella kosmista tavaraa, siis… ”Im Anfag war…” korostaa saksankielisen narraation (Knut Gerwers) avulla linkkiä saksalaisiin konemusiikin pioneereihin. Ensimmäisellä CD:llä on mukana hieman kulkevampaa tavaraa, kun toinen on sitten täysin ambientosastoa kokeellisella, välillä aika minimalistisellakin otteella. Levy toimii hyvin rentoutumiseen ja pistää mielikuvituksen juoksemaan. Tuotanto on ensiluokkaista ja levy kuulostaakin todella hyvältä. Sanoisin, että Nemesis on alansa kovin yhtye Suomessa. Nämä Kokkolan avaruussankarit on saatava Zoneen äkkiä keikalle!