Uninspiring Background Music For A New Age
El Kapitan are a 2 piece from the states, who talk about their band "pushing the envelope of sound, using each release as an excuse to explore places they haven't been before." It is not my place to call someone's beliefs wrong, but "Retroscape" does everything but push the envelope further.
In preparation for reviewing this album I did some research into El Kapitan listening to a few tracks off previous album "Haywire" (a glowing review can be found elsewhere on this site). Those tracks sounded exciting, inventive and different. It made me anticipate "Retroscape" intensely. My finger trembled with expectancy as it pressed the play button and track 1 began.
The opening track 'Breathe' drifted through my speakers, a lovely introductory song to the album, a sweeping instrumental track taking elements of Pink Floyd and highlighting them with technical mastery. It's a pleasing enough ditty and works very well as an opener. The problem begins on the next track 'Concord Shores', which is a sweeping instrumental track taking elements of Pink Floyd and highlighting them with technical proficiency. This pattern continued until the end of the album and it becomes very annoying and very repetitive very quickly. Every track on "Retroscape" sounds like a homage to the prog of the 70s and 80s which wouldn't be a bad thing if there was the slightest bit of variation or invention. But there isn't any of either to be found.
I don't want to say I dislike "Retroscape" because there are positives which save the album from being an absolute stinker. Masseurs Bartholomew and Soucy play a number of instruments with great aptitude and ability throughout the release. The variety of apparatus on display is startling and adds a layer of interest to the songs; you can hear organs, mellotrons, synths, pianos and excessive percussion permeating many of the tracks. `Bowie in Traffic' and `Marblehead Vice' both benefit from these extra instruments. This lifts them from being completely bland and generic but does not raise them anywhere near the levels heard on "Haywire".
The album's tag line describes "Retroscape" as "Atmospheric rock instrumentals for a new age". That sentence sums up the album perfectly and just by reading those seven words you can tell if you will like this album or not. The other phrase used by the band to describe this album sums it up even better. "Designed to provide background music", those are pretty low targets by anyone's standards. But, if that was their goal El Kapitan succeeded, this album is 100% background music, play it in a lift or at a dinner party or as the backdrop for the sky digital TV guide screen and it works well. But as a piece of music for listening to and completely enjoying? I would say not, it's too plain and too repetitive to leave a lasting impression.