Secret Chiefs 3 – Book of Horizons (Mimicry)
It’s safe to say, that you have never heard anything like this CD. Not even if you’ve listened to previous Secret Chief 3 releases. And really, if there is another album like this in existence, let me know!
This is an absolute mix of a couple of middle eastern sounds that fall in the middle of pop and traditional, Morricone style symphonic stuff, leaning towards his western soundtracks, surf guitar, out-DJ-ing of classical music, and death metal. I fucking kid you not! All of this with some vague mysticism and metaphysics. This is the project of ex-Mr Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance and guests include Eyvind Kang, William Winant, Shahzad Ismaily, Jesse Quattro, Jessica Kinney, Timb Harris (Estradasphere) Phil Franklin (Sunburned Hand of the Man), and many more.
1. Slow plucked guitar, shamisen, and esraj. Imagine combining a Morricone spaghetti western and a ballad from Bollywood.
2. It walks the line between traditional sounding Afghan music and modern middle eastern pop. Medium paced instrumental.
**4. Starts off with quick prog sounds and background screams with lots of keyboards. Changes into full on brutal death metal. Don’t worry about the quiet part a little after the 2 minute mark, the death metal returns.
5. Somewhere between keyboard electronics and modern classical music. There are acoustic instruments as well and it’s got sort of a cheesy sound to it. About halfway through there is a somewhat doom sound going on but still lots of keyboards. What an odd mix of sounds. Prog rock influences for sure.
**6. Another Morricone sounding track. Starts with acoustic guitar and then a big cinematic sound. This is a cover of the theme song to Exodus.
7. Starts with hand drums. One of the less orchestrated tracks. Mostly percussion that plays for a bit then disappears to some harp and organ playing but returns. There are a couple quiet parts in the track. The quiet parts are dark electronics. Towards the end there are some surf music sounds.
**8. What this isn’t Morricone? Cinematic spaghetti western sound.
**9. Starts really odd, like Mr Bungle and gets really heavy with some insane drumming. Lots of changes but stays strange and heavy. Vocal effects, guitar solos, blast beats, discordance, wow.
10. Gongs, bells, percussion and what sounds like electronic drums. Pretty, proggy, and short.
11. Back to the middle eastern sounds.
**12. Complete prog keyboard intro into middle eastern sounds. Goes through a number of changes including what sounds like some improvised keyboards, all the time hinting at these vague Middle Eastern sounds.
13. Dramatic and dark keyboards that buildup but doesn’t really go anywhere.
**14. Upbeat almost silly. Gongs, organ. This is the song that runs during the credits. Odd background male vocals. Are those vocals?
Great and unique stuff. -mph