“Smoke and Mirrors”
A relatively short two song blast from David Breather. The “Smoke” track hits you right away with heavy fire noise, slightly alarming drones, and drums. The drums drop shortly into this piece but, as things move along, eventually you hear all the elements drop, reappear, and mix throughout. “Mirrors” follows a similar path, but the unusual drumming pattern and slightly warped synth line really elevates this track. David always does a nice job in his music mixing in strong percussion and electronic elements with whatever noise is present; it sure keeps things intriguing.
“Swallowed by the Sun” by Interbella
Oh, sure, everyone loves a nice sunny day, but no one talks about the sinister side of our closest star. Except, that is, for David Breather (here as Interbella) who states his theme for this album as being about “The Star that gives us life and will take it all away one day…” Our little journey starts with the washes of noise, recurring chords, and simple beats of the slightly warped “Heliophysical.” The next several tracks include, at any given moment, drones (sometimes calming, sometimes more sinister), keyboard, and slow, stuttering beats. Nice little surprises also appear, like the steel drum sounds on “Coronal Loop.” It all leads us to the epic title track which, for me, at times touches on Godspeed You! Black Emperor territory. It waxes and wanes the tension using many of the elements from the earlier songs. The latter part of the track turns darker as the heavy drones become a more focused wind sound until the sound of a dying planet fades out.
“WOW”
The start of “Scraping the Pavement” felt like a really close up, slow motion recording of the road being swept, familiar but distorted…at least until drums, (the maybe simulated) heavy electric guitar and jazzy organ jumped in. In a way it’s a mess of elements, but it absolutely works. David is described as an electronic artist, but all the songs here are driven by drums, and they sure sound like a live (although often distorted) drum kit, frequently creating some cool, head bobbing grooves of rhythm. Of course, there are also lots of electronics and noise in the mix vying for attention, and occasional changeups courtesy of the production (a bowed bass sound here, a malfunctioning alarm there). It was only after I got through the last track “Clock” with its massive distorted rock drumming – heavy on the bass drum and cymbals – that I noticed the title of the album stands for “World of Was.” For me, it just stands for the word “wow,” as in “Wow, what a record,” with an exclamation point.