Music Review // Machinefabriek "Spelonk"
Slow building, soft whirrs come on to where they are almost inaudible. Acoustic percussion type tones drop in now. Some whistling. This feels very desolate, isolated. Slowly, the percussion follows, like snippets of Phil Collins. A little bit of engine revving comes in now. This feels like you're watching a screen in solid color and every so often a ball will bounce across it in a different color, or a line will form a little wave. Tones come in now which make it feel a bit more dramatic and intense, like perhaps we're finding something we should not be. This ends the first track, which is interesting because it sits at just over six minutes. The next two tracks are both around the 18 minute mark, which means this could be a 36 minute cassette but the first track wouldn't have a place.
Slowly building once again as we enter the second track. A little bit of a sharper almost rattling now, somewhat buzzing around like a fly as well. The way these sounds come through quietly through that ambient drone behind them make me feel like we're floating through space, just experiencing these things which can only be felt in space. Beeps now, like a touch tone phone. A little bit of a back and forth sonar now, like we're rocking in a boat on the waves of the ocean only in this case I suppose it could be space over water. A somewhat muted explosion now and we seem to submerging into great depths. This can take on that feeling now like a submarine- dive! dive! We are on the hunt for Red October. The way this begins moving now, it has picked up a rhythm which feels serious.
Very slight talking behind this, but it's slowly building to this steady pace that makes it feel like we're getting to our destination or at least we've been thrust out of the comfort zone of simply floating around. Some whirrs and such coming in now with the static skip grind. A ringing drone now, somewhat like the emergency broadcast system and it takes away from my left ear which just creates such an odd sensation. This can also just feel like someone playing the music on a keyboard, which can make for a sort of triumphant sound of making it through the hard times of space. Whirrs cut through now like lasers being fired and this whole sound just feels like we're stuck in a loop. A little bit of tapping now, like glass tones. Quieter now, little beeps are fading out.
On the third track we have some beeping come in, like dragged out modem sounds, and then it also sounds like a ping pong ball is dropping across a table. This is that slow electronics. There is an almost ominous way about this, which I really enjoy, as it can feel like we're about to dive into something else, perhaps somewhere we are not supposed to be. Still, it can also take on the sound of an Atari game, but one which is like a slow paced Pong. A slow whirr comes in behind the sound now, as if we're building to something more. This music is filled with much anticipation. Some scraping now, but also like a ball rolling around or perhaps someone searching for radioactive activity. This can also, in its own way, feel like we are listening to some sort of an alarm.
As we get closer to the end, it feels like something can be heard breaking and then this drone that's almost like a howl but not quite is coming in behind the scraping. The scraping sound comes to an end and it feels like we're just fading out now. The sound is so minimal, but it can feel like it's coming through in waves still, and as we get to the end it drops from being at the level of 1 to 0, but it just kind of also hits all of those points in between. This entire piece of music can really make you question sound and how you hear it in terms of thinking about how quiet something can truly be. At times it might feel like you've reached that lowest volume setting, but then there will be a way for it to some gradually decrease in volume until it is completely quiet.
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