A little bit of ambience.
With a friendship spanning 25 yeas and a working relationship not far off that level, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Tim Story may be names that are unfamiliar to some but there is a history of musical creativity and expressionism between the two that would shame many artists.
Opening number ‘As It Were’ quietly washes over the listener, it doesn’t necessarily go anywhere but the prodding piano and keening strings that lie underneath helps set the tone for an atmospheric and record that film-like in its scope and manner.
At times you feel as though you are missing out on watching a film with some glorious scenes or that this is the soundtrack to go alongside it. ‘Rooftree’ shimmers like an underwater delight, while the light whirring electronica on ‘Serpentining’ could be the buzz of any futuristic city falling to sleep after a long night. You may pick up from the soundtrack references that there is a large element of background music on ‘Inlandish’ and its not going to be one that grabs the listener and shakes them to life.
The longest track on the album, ‘House of Glances’, perhaps unsurprisingly has the most styles in it and at times threatens to break into a funk guitar section as the treated section bristles away with the thought of tearing off into the distance but slowly and surely, the backing track draws it back into the measured pace that is shown throughout and the one real hope of a freak-out ebbs away.
There will certainly be those who decide this album is trying to be too intelligent and should be left for those chin-strokers who think something has to be beyond the general record buyer to be good. And in a way this is no bad thing as it appears to have been the aim of the duo from the start. With Story declaring “Rock n roll was king and I was getting restless”, its obvious the duo would combine to create something that is far beyond the reach of your 3 chords and the truth type of bands but it doesn’t mean their cause is any less valid.
‘Inlandish’ may have no lyrics to tell its tales and therefore many will find it harder to grasp the feel of the album but at times, it's not about that. Recently in the UK, foreign acts like Air, Cornelius and Sigur Ros have all crafted beautiful pieces of work that don’t conform to the ideals of a hit record but have all been appreciated and to a lesser extent, the same could turn out to be true for ‘Inlandish.’
It is beautiful but sometimes beauty isn’t everything, with a little bit more to say for itself, ‘Inlandish’ could have been a tremendous record, as it is, it's merely nice, which is no bad thing but it could have been so much better.