Music Review // Lore City "Alchemical Task"

https://lorecity.bandcamp.com/album/alchemical-task //

In the year 2021, you have to wonder how many people enjoy life through their own eyes and how many people enjoy it through a screen.   I don't mean sitting at home watching television because we're on lockdown either.   I'm thinking about people who will go to see a band perform and spend the entire time on their phone recording it.   People don't like to just experience things anymore.    And to that end, there are also those (I, myself, am guilty of this) who will sit on their phone, scrolling through websites and social media, instead of watching movies or television on the screen in front of them.   When was the last time you watched an entire movie without checking your phone?  Or even just an episode of a television series.

I believe that to some extent the creators of movies and television know that this is happening and as such they put in a lot of filler.   Art- in that way- has become easier to digest because if you end up getting into a fight with someone on Twitter and miss twenty or thirty minutes of the movie you put on, it's okay because you'll still be able to follow the plot-- the moviemakers have seen to it that would be accounted for and to an extent encouraged.   It's just something I feel like we don't talk about enough in life right now, with society, and in many ways it has diminished our experiences from what they once were.   You know why going to see your favorite band was better in 1997? Because no one was on their phones.

Lore City have created an album titled "Alchemical Task" and while I like to think that this album would require your complete, undivided attention in order to experience it, I truly do feel like it goes to the next level and is beyond even just your full attention.   The songs have this percussion which can feel hypnotic and so right away it should really draw you in, have you listening without doing anything else.   Sometimes I like to think of music as being good for listening to while walking around outside or even driving, but with "Alchemical Task", I suggest you stay in one place and simply focus on the sounds and nothing else.

The opening song, "Separateness", is almost a mantra for what the rest of the album is to become.   To "divide the body from the spirit", there is something to be said about this album in terms of giving it your full focus and thus having this meditation experience where you can try and leave your body and exist on a different plane, as a spirit.    For me, when fully focused and aware only of the sound of these songs, this can become surreal, an out of body experience more than any other album I've heard in my lifetime.   And when someone says that you don't think about what genre to put it in but rather, hopefully, you just want to hear it and reach that level of existence yourself.

But there is the problem.  Going back to the idea that the world is too concerned with living through screens to actually experience something.   Can you listen to this entire album without stopping to check your phone?  Can you listen to this entire album without being distracted?  In some ways, it feels like that's the first test.   This album by Lore City doesn't feel like it's for everyone because not everyone is going to share the same attention span needed to listen to it and fully appreciate it.   And that's okay.   Not everyone needs to have this experience.  I like that it feels like it's for only those who are worthy of it.  I also really like that we can have art once again which doesn't feel so distracted.  Let this album by Lore City be just the beginning.