Dominico Collora - Planes, Trains, Bicycles, Alien Spacecrafts and a Deep Sea Diving Bell...Just to Reach Christmas Station...
Dominico Collora, now presumably in Peru, returned from a hiatus with Planes, Trains, Bicycles, Alien Spacecrafts and a Deep Sea Diving Bell...Just to Reach Christmas Station...
The album truly starts with The Sense that What Goes Down...; Counting Ants. The song is a fairly boring opener, yet short opener. The encapsulating soundscape of off-centre instrumentation and comical beatboxing beautiful enhance the hysterical soundscape. Moreover, the beatboxing seems to be the theme for the album, as it returns on almost every song. Deep Dive into a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mutt displays the artist courageous vocal range, as does Some Holy Ocea. So You Wanna Play Guitar? is a tremendous, Tom Waitt’s-like blues-rock suite. Earthed by Sunflower (Vaporeon, Jolteon or Flareon?) has a beautiful soundscape, as does Like to Bring in New Creation. There are also moments of brilliance during La Novella Della Strada Piu Vecchia; both the longest and most avant-garde track on the album.
Very often the beatboxing is used in lieu of Collora’s previous beautiful synthetic soundscapes. The problem is they are often contradictory to the main melody. Suffice to say, they only truly work during tracks where the melody is based around them, such as the glorious Groovying and the trippy finale The Oldest Song on the Album. The greatest improvement is easily the production and execution. Juicy Colorful Worlds was a little sloppy, and rather poorly mixed; Collora’s latest is much sharper, and thus far more enjoyable (when it works). Unfortunately, there’s a fair bit of filler this time round. Tracks often sound more like experiments than fully-realised songs.
Despite its innovation and impressive compositions, the album is far too long and inconsistent to recommend. There are many salvageable moments (they will make great additions to the radio), though here’s hoping Collora refines his playlist on the next output.
Good
Listen to it here:
