Friday, June 26, 2015

MP3 Review: Flying Cape Experience "We're All Gonna Die" (El Vals del Conejo)


[$6 to Download // $12 for CD // https://elvalsdelconejo.bandcamp.com/album/were-all-gonna-die]

It's hard to believe, but it's been about two years since Flying Cape Experience released "Let's Sing More About the Eyes", or that is to say since I reviewed it.   I remember listening to that album several times over and even still to this day I find myself listening to it.    And it's always hard for me to keep up with all of the various musicians out there and what they're doing now because some will release one great piece of music then move on while others branch off and form other projects so you'll get emails like "Hey this is so and so, I used to be in this band but I'm in a new band now so check out our EP".    Really though, I feel like I kind of slept on Flying Cape Experience in the way that I wasn't really too concerned about them putting out new music because "Let's Sing More About the Eyes" was just such a perfect album.   I didn't need any more.  Or at least, I didn't think that I did.
"We're All Gonna Die" is a profound statement but nonetheless true as it rings throughout the tones of this album.   I've always felt that people are not sad when other people die as much for the loss of that person as for the realization that some day they will also die.   You know, as you get older you think about it a lot more because even my mom said at one point something about someone having a heart attack and dropping dead who was the same age as her.    And I know that, for me, it's not so much about the death of whoever dies but rather the realization and reminder that we will all die.  I have a few cats and when one of them died about a year or so ago, I was sad for the loss, yes, but also just because it was flashing in my face that one day all of my cats are going to each die.

The album begins with a slow carousel ride and it has some Mazzy Star qualities to it in a dreamy way.   Distorted space psych plays just as much of a role in it and the music itself is just beautiful.    The music makes its way into a dark void with winds and it just sounds hollow.   For the most part on this album though I am torn between hearing what could easily be songs from the "Empire Records" soundtrack and yet at the same time I think of it as a truly surreal experience of tripping in the vastness of the desert.    There is also the fact that this is one of those situations where the music outweighs the lyrics/vocals and that's never a bad thing for more but it does just seem to add fuel to that psychedelic fire.

As much as this album is relaxing and calm, where you could put it on to meditate or something of the sort, it is also ambient in the sense that you can paint the pictures in your mind with it.    At the same time it's like that period of The Doors when Jim Morrison started taking a lot of drugs only you don't get the feeling that this is one of those "drug albums".     I've always felt like comparing music within the same artist was silly because if you like ten songs by an artist then what's ten more really, right, but Flying Cape Experience has solidified themselves as the band who can make an album that is perhaps equally as great as their previous yet the two sound so different there really is no place for comparison.    Let's face our fears together and put all of this which we do not talk about out in the open.

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