2.5

Release data:

Etherfish – Psyquarium
CD-R, Private Release, 2007

“Psyquarium” contains the first live concert (recorded direct from the mixer) that English synthesist Chris Christou, aka Etherfysh, gave at Noetic Sound on April 19th 2007 for an invited audience.
It was partly undertaken to see how the logistics worked out in a live environment, and also to see whether he had bitten of more than he could chew!

The disc offers one uninterrupted piece of 60 minutes, entitled “Orbit Of The Firestone”, which is actually made up of three brand new tracks: “Waiting For the Fireclown”, “Bloodstone” and “The 12th Strand”. Of the previous released songs, a great version of “Fireclown” and “Orbit” make up the remainder on the album.

The cd sets out with nice soundscaping before a sequencer pops it around 8:30 minutes, which makes that things start moving in an engaging manner. The first half of the cd certainly is the strongest one, as the warm sounding electronics lead the way with powerful drums, percussion, bass lines and sequencing.

After the 30 minute mark, the music further slows down and starts lingering in a contemporary manner, but to me it didn’t do much trouble holding my attention.
It just meanders on and on in an improvising way, staying light and not expressing much.
Around the 50 minute mark, things get livelier again as the sound swells, but overall, the second part of the album just doesn’t sound convincing and strong enough to really leave a positive impression. Nice try, but there’s just not much to it.

The album is available in high quality MP3 or lossless FLAC download formats from Etherfysh’s site.

Website: www.etherfysh.com