We should've seen it coming… but we didn't. And how could we?
Nothing The Church seems to do, better than two decades now, seems to fall into
complacency. Their timeless mix of majestic atmospherics with the cutting edge
has afforded them a longevity few others could ever hope to boast of. When one
thinks of the likes of REM, U2, Depeche Mode, all share similar qualities in
achievement, heightened status, soaring sales, missteps, bumps in the road, and
so forth, but equally, all have maintained an integral relationship amongst
themselves and their fans and all have survived changing conditions to the world
around them. The Church belongs there yet remain mysteriously separate. And so
we might suggest their accomplishments to this point become all the more
impressive without benefit of the hit single or soundtrack success.
What the Australian aesthetic does is create rich, soulful sounds that
encapsulate the mind on a multitude of elemental levels. They've gone the way of
the Pop tilt in the past and been successful-"Starfish" was an
attractive example of such; they've gone avant-garde to post-modernism on
subsequent follow ups that were difficult to track by comparison, appreciable in
their range of depth more so than the quick "Gold Afternoon" type fix.
"After Everything Now This" revealed The Church's full range of motion
earlier this year, stepping onto and across varied boundaries as one associates
to Gothic music, Electronic, World, Pop, and Modern Rock and touching each so as
to reveal itself momentarily, before shifting, hovering, orbiting from an
advantageous viewpoint, to reconstruct and recreate vivid passages where all is
one.
"Parallel Universe" then, takes that work, remixes the ten tracks
onto what is disc one, adding cerebrally drawn enhancements, some subtle, as
with "Stay All Night" or "Radiant," relaxed and withdrawn,
as they were meant to be, while at other times, sudden primal urges surface in
the form of a potent dance beat with electronic impulses adding dimensionally
ascending motifs to something like "Let y=x" and its "Survival
mix" or the bass heavy groove of "Earthfriend (Version)."
Disc two features six previously unreleased tracks drawn from different
periods within the three years in the making "After Everything…"
sessions, led by the stratospheric eleven minute opener, "1st Woman On The
Moon," which wastes little time stretching the intuitive expanse.
"Espionage" is a tightly drawn percussive follow up that's a
precursor to the magnificently mixed "Reward," an effects driven
masterpiece of dark wave and audio erotica; without question one of their finest
moments on record. "There You Go" hushes to a momentary lull before
"Twin Star" exits in a reroute to an earlier Gothic type chapter,
languid and sudden, typical of the customary parameter shifts, past to present.
"Parallel Universe" is an embodiment of The Church at their most
passionate and provocative, where standards blend with deviation, pride with
progress, all furthering the lift for another inspired flight of fancy for
fashionably late fans.
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