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‘Lights Out’ had been released on the
16th of June, but the music offered on this CD belongs so
much more to an autumnal landscape, when morning fields are covered
by a grey morning dew, a certain fog embraces the dark green woods
and the pale sun goes to sleep a bit earlier behind the horizon. At
the first signs of autumn, when candlelight and a glass of wine take
the place of sun oil and sea, that’s the perfect moment to sit down
and hear the new masterpiece of – sorry to mention again – ex-bass
player of Anathema Duncan and his mates.
The expectations were very high after
the excellent ‘Saviour’. When the band went on tour in October last
year most of the material had been written already, but it was
January 2003 when Antimatter disappeared behind closed doors of the
Sun Studio in Dublin to fix all these fragile tunes for the outer
world.
‘Lights Out’ starts with a scary
siren, illustrating the dark times we spend in this sublunary.
Fragile piano notes and a momentary guitar blow continue the parade
of sadness. Here we can hear Dunc’s voice for the first time in a
few lines. Even more familiar it sounds in ‘Everything You Know Is
Wrong’ with the warm, elastic voice of Mick Moss which suits the
best with this sober kind of instruments. Filled with atmospheric
soundscapes ‘The Art Of Soft Landing’ covers us with a coat of
despair. The pontifical harmony vocals of Hayley and Mick are torn
to pieces by a tremendous guitar intervention, a summon cry… after
that the lava rolls slowly into delicate piano sounds.
Not of this world and threateningly,
that’s the mood of the eight minutes long track ‘Expire’. In spite
of a constant rhythm base and lovely vocals by Michelle this sounds
darker and darker. It’s the dreamed soundtrack to wallow into your
own sadness, but a strong character is needed to rise above this in
a purified way, otherwise it’s almost unbearable sometimes. But
‘Lights Out’ brings us some nice surprises too, don’t get me wrong,
like the social consciousness in the lyrics of ‘In Stone’, spoken
words inspired by the surrounded world going from an introvert mood
to contemplated protest. All these are accompanied by atmospheric
bass and keyboards.
Hayley and Michelle are still present
with their angelic vocals, but the accent is laying on Mick’s voice
this time, a natural evolution after the gigs. We can conclude this
brings the CD work and live performances closer to each other.
Furthermore they’ve chosen a perfect vocal fill up for every song,
not calculated but based on their feelings, subject and timbre.
This means Michelle sings the fragile ‘Dreams’ and no vocals at all
in the concluding ‘Terminal’: an allegorical soundtrack to complete
your own dreams and images from your imagination. Smooth guitar
sounds are the heart of this track, enriched by technical novelties
which reminds us to the trip hop scene. For Antimatter still has
more in common with Pink Floyd and Portishead than with any common
rock band.
On
the Strangelight version there is an extra track: an acoustic
version of ‘Everything You Know Is Wrong’ that flows into a fragment
of ‘In Stone’: 10 minutes more beauty you can swallow. Antimatter is
not a rock band, Antimatter is the arty reflection of a purified
existence, seen through the eyes of sensitive persons and
transmitted into moods by two talented artists. |
