Release year: 2019/2024
Label: Amek/Zoharum
Polish label Zoharum continue their praxis of re-releasing obscure and sold-out material. This time around it’s Greek Conjecture’s 2019 album V, augmented with tracks from related EP ∫V, on the fifth anniversary of the original album’s release. And, incidentally, on the 10th anniversary of Conjecture’s activity.
Let me tell you one thing from the go: this release is a heavy thing to sit through. Clocking in at 77 minutes, this re-release of V is not for the faint of heart or those with short attention spans.
Pigeonholing V is a tough thing to do. It’s got elements from so many genres thrown into the mixing pot, all jumbled up and welded together to form a weird mutant of styles. There’s a considerable amount of dark ambient here, but also more rhytmic industrial, bass music, and some downtempo elements.
Essentially, V is a mixture of usually rather slow electronic beats (sort of like EBM slowed down to a lurch), musically minimalistic layers of electronic hums and drones resembling dark ambient and sparse more melodic layers of synthesizer. Speech samples are layered on the music here and there.
I doubt there is any ready niché for this, so I’ll describe V like this: cyberpunk ambient.
I find the album to be a bit of a mixed bag.
Starting with the upside, it sounds pretty amazing. By this I mean that putting it on headphones or playing it at loud volumes will make you instantly realize how well sculpted the soundscapes are. The beats pump your spine and the electronic drones flow through your eyes (yeah, eyes). In terms of ambience and atmosphere created by sound design/production, this is absolutely top notch.
However, musically, I’m left a bit wanting. Essentially, a lot of the tracks are a leisurely paced beat, hums and drones and that’s pretty much it. Especially with this running time, it gets a bit heavy. As amazing as the album sounds, and as capably as it is crafted, these tracks lack the focal point a melody would provide, making them a bit faceless and, ultimately, this extended edition of V a bit tedious.
Yngvie Malmsteen was wrong, you know: more is not always more. Sometimes less can indeed be more. I think the original six track release would have been far easier to take in.
The bonus tracks from the aforementioned ∫V EP contain a few remixes, out of which Blakk Harbor’s remix of ΚΡΟΝΟΣ is my personal choice for the high moment on this CD: this radically reworked version adds a driving, pumping cyberpunk bassline and ups the tempo considerably with a powerful, danceable and energetic beat. A simply amazing new interpretation of the track, which brings even a slight synthwave edge – and I’m sort of sorry to say, one which eclipses the original quite clearly.
I’m very divided about V. On the one hand, especially in this extended form the vague nature of the tracks and their lack of accessible focal elements is just too glaring for me to sing its praises. But on the other, I don’t want to diss the album either, because it does a lot right and in smaller doses is very convincing.
Tell you what, why don’t we put it like this? V is a decent album with some flaws. Sadly, entirely unintentionally this extended re-release manages to emphasize them disproportionately. With a more humane running time, V would leave a better impression. But even so, for fans of understated, ambient industrial electro, V will hold some interest. Approach it with some reservations, and maybe take it all in in two or three sittings?
Only Death Is Real 