Rating: ****
Hey readers, Terry the Turtle here. I'm new to the Now Hear This staff and Johnny assigned this to me because he said I like "weird stuff".
Honestly, I'm not that familiar with the works of Patrick Grant, but from what I gather this album "Fields Amaze (and other strange music)" is a re-release from '97 that's been remastered and remixed. I guess he recorded it in Philip Glass' Looking Glass Studio. I'm sure that's why there's an assumption on the bosses part that it's gonna be weird. It probably is.
It comes out October 1st, but I got a sneak peek because I'm dope like that.
I'm gonna go ahead and get started on the listening part of it.
It's pretty intense, to be honest. I'm only a minute in and it's kinda chilling. It sounds like the score to a scary movie from 1983. I'm on track two now and it's somehow even more like a horror movie soundtrack. I like it though. It's consistently intense throughout. Track three is called "A Visible Track of Turbulence I" and it's slower but it is still intense. It's making me feel uncomfortable. That's a good sign I think. I'm pretty sure that's what dude was going for. The next track sounds more like a diabolical villain planning something. Does that make sense? The sequel to an earlier track "A Visible Track of Turbulence II" is next. It's more of the same. A true follow up. Still uncomfortable. The most appropriately named track on the entire album "Imaginary Horror Film - Part 1" is next. Literally, every song on this album could be called this. It's very dramatic. It's actually less scary than some of the other tracks. But it's dope. I'm gonna play this record for my dates until they're creeped out. Hopefully, that doesn't happen when they see me, but I digress. "The Weight of Numbers" sounds like a Japanese video game soundtrack. Like something on the Sega CD in the early 90's. "Imaginary Horror Film - Part 2" is next and it's a little scarier than the first one. Like, I had to pause it for a second because it was tripping me out. "If One Should Happen to Fall" is the last track on the album and the first one that has vocals. This one isn't scary. It's pretty cool. 70's action movie vibe. Flash Gordon or something. Rad album.
It's weird and it's not gonna be for everyone but I thought it was really cool. Musically it's complex and well arranged. It does get creepy at times so I wouldn't really listen to it at night. Might make it hard to sleep. All-in-all it was great though. Really impressive. Glad he re-released it. More people need to hear this.