DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Blame – Into The Void

2002

For the next review we arrive at the only album in this Good Looking artist series that never got a full vinyl release. Conrad Shafie wrote and produced this album and it spun the whole fucking genre into another dimension. 

   As we’ll cover four of the twelve tracks on this album when we get to Blame’s ‘Firestorm EP’, it’s the other eight we’ll be summarizing in this very special post. Blame had already churned out a heap of classics on Moving Shadow, prior to blitzing the Good Looking stable with his ‘Overhead Projects’, ‘360 Clic’ and ‘Visions Of Mars’ releases and then the jaw dropping, ‘Between Worlds EP’ and ‘Sigma EP’. The music on this release was about to take things into a whole new realm of futuristic, innovative possibilities that this music had not ventured toward. It also provided his 720 Degrees project more incentives to then venture away from GLR.

   Get ready for the voyage into a galaxy that sits light years ahead. 

   Let’s hit play on the CD and get rolling with the first three tunes. ‘Sirenoid (Creation)’ shreds the mists, opening up a gigantic launch pad of molten steel and fuel tanks bursting, prior to the countdown for this explosion out into the stars. The humans step on board and it’s not long before the vast sky above races toward this catapulted jettison into space. 

‘Into The Void’ is the title track on this album, configuring the early stages of separation that begin to loosen the grip on mankind. Our minds dive in and out of hypersleep and time becomes fractions of seconds, equaling hundreds of years. The body is maintaining a constant state of mechanical resistance, eventually reaching a point that hands over control to the computers and navigation of uncertainty. 

   Our solar system is of insignificance now, and as we slide into the track ‘Chimera’, the next wave of this journey begins. The huge piano in here and the easy jazz swing almost stuns the spacecraft into a frozen state of bliss.  Blame always has this incredible knack for the tricky alternative bar arrangements. This is a fine example of his expertise, delivering a piece of music to unravel your mind and break your heart, simultaneously. A musical moment to fill your soul. 

   ‘Firestorm’ we’ll cover on the EP of the same name. It’s a belter, but I want to save the write up for the EP, let’s just say we hurtle out further than we’ve gone before, so we will move on with ‘Tuscan’. Blame’s vessel of discovery reached the coldest and darkest moons here. The echoes of chaos and nightmares are filtered through the chambers of dread and failed nervous systems. The fear and suspense in this tune will frighten the spine out your back, as you catch glimpses of the ghosts that haunt the corners of your skull. This tune is so unique too as it’s built on nothing but the force of a black hole vacuum of noises, keys, brass blasts and those metallic nails on the icy glass screen of reason. 

  ‘Immortal’ ejects the landing pod onto the untamed terrain. As we land, the overwhelming panic flows as the billions of mass produced killer bots, pump gases and venom into the air, burning the choral stretched faces of the sinners and dissolving the evidence of life. The machines have secured the planet and we are left with an external brain of fury and total uncontrollable computations beyond our understanding, keeping this invisible identity from growing. We can merely watch, without grasping the volume and intensity of such horror and beauty.

     ‘Lifeform’ is next but it’s another from the ‘Firestorm EP’, so we’ll place in the side pocket for now. Again, it’s an incubated beauty. Blame spiraling a message that we’ll never catch up to, holding the future to ransom. 

   ‘Oceans Of Hope’ drops the weights of anxiety down into the high pressure canyons  of natural wonders. As the malfunctions of society rage above the surface, it’s the coolness and selective sedations which float like misguided jellyfish, into the coma of force fields and unblocked signals. We race through the stars and see the familar patterns from our own recognitions and senses.

  ‘Mechanism 02’ is the follow up to Mechanism from the spellbinding ‘Between Worlds EP’ from 1998. The tune keeps that metallic beat of the original along with the humming data sheets and control panel bleeps, setting off rapid circuit board pulses that break switches and sneak sparks off the electrifying memory banks. The return to the Earth we once knew is a scarring one. Its core, a mass of gnarled fusion. 

  The debriefing is held and the consensus brings the past and future together with a military snared break, a splash of space poltergeists and the crime scene tape reads  ‘Steelback’ as its warning. The trauma within the crews return is measured by seconds of dissected images of the deepest signals from space.  While the reviews show nothing to its onlookers, it’s the updated thought controls of the sheer terror and seething power from the unlocked dimensions. 

    ‘Forest Of Pagodas’ is on the Firestorm

EP and is our penultimate piece of music on this album. It’s a fantastic track which we’ll dive into during the EP review. 

   We end with the unwound and declassified return to human kind, with ‘Sirenoid (Prologue)’ rounding off this epic journey of distant futures, unfathomable distances and the knowledge that while we maintain the intelligence of this planet, our insignificance is beyond our understanding. The music has this ability to lift that. Thanks to Blame. 

   Before we break for the weekend, I must mention the artwork here by Nick Purser. The joy of owning the physical releases will forever hold a special place. Collections of visual concepts to accompany the sound. 

Gareth Jones provides some background here for the art:

“There were a number of concepts that were created whilst myself and Nick Purser were exploring ideas for Blame’s ‘Into The Void’ LP. We wanted something obviously futuristic and also a bit different. The ‘Void’ was a great theme to explore and we created numerous visuals before Nick finally arrived at the final artwork concept that was used. A beautifully rendered, futuristic visual with echos of Philip K. Dick’s ‘A Scanner Darkly’ film aesthetic. No photoshop filters here, just hours of craft.
Blame, being an ex-designer, always had input into his artwork and often had great ideas to build from. One of the unused concepts by myself, ended up being developed into the artwork for Nookie’s debut LP, and in that way finally found its true place.” – Gareth Jones

Big shout to Gareth for providing this. Respects to you my friend!

    Conrad Blame. A huge big up and respects as always. Maybe when the Earth has repaid the gods, this music will communicate to the further reaches and the message to whatever is out there will realize that the superior beings on our planet had the capability to make music like this 

   Have a marvelous weekend everyone and make sure the music flows in some way, into your life. Next week we begin a deluge of work from a couple of albums by, Makoto. Until then. Cheers!