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1985,
Somewhere in a not so
populated area of the USA a lonely
man
decides to buy a computer...a dark and tragic story unfolds...as he
starts to program a computergame called "Forest of
Doom" people start dissapearing from his small town...
Driving home with a computer Fog Descends from the mountains Telcom Mountain Computer Police Research The unbearable sadness of dimensions If you want to buy this album check out the shop section A review from Osbert Rawlin's music investigation blog: 1985, Somewhere in a not so populated area of the USA, a lonely man decides to buy a computer...a dark and tragic story unfolds...as he starts to program a computergame called Forest of Doom people start dissapearing from his small town... That is basicly the synopsis of the new Smackos album containing 16 tracks and leaving the somewhat random psychotic cosmic free jazz sound of the 2006 release Waiting for the Red Bear behind. Instead it goes back to sequenced and more structured tracks with heavy no thrills analog synthesizer sounds. A new thing is the use of what seems to be recorded voices from one of those little portable voicerecorders, which like a diary give sporadic background information on a narrative that this album tries to tell. The album begins with the silence of tape hiss and an almost methodical voice recording that goes something like this: The blue light of a rainy morning breaks into the room as if frozen by time the wind knocks calmy onto the window Eight thirty. I quickly glance, once more, at the Radio Shack brochure 899 enter the world of the future Tandy Radioshack model 5 colour computer The shop will be open in half an hour It is Saturday morning I take my keys from the kitchen table... Slowly a synthesizer swirls in that plays a timid dark melody with something that reminds me of quacking duck sounds. We can safely say that our man of the story is driving to the computer shop now, propably through some foggy mountain forests as the second track suggest...`Fog descends from the mountains´ is more adventerous with fast moving sequences that fly in from all over the place creating an exciting tension (it is 1985 buying a computer was probably something very exciting back in those days). In the third track it becomes clear that this man has a huge problem coping with people when the voice recording reveals that our man goes in the morning when there are not so many people...The mood is set and a dark and tragic story indeed unfolds. Throughout the next tracks it becomes clear that he buys the computer and programs a game where you can abduct people by force and take them back to the forest of doom. The FBI comes in as a body is found near a road and it doesn´t take long before they are knocking on our man´s door. With tracktitles such as The happy memories with you on the seaside are slowly fading away and the genius Unbearable Sadness of Dimensions it is soon clear that Computer Day is not just a bunch of tracks on an album but a stunning psychological portrait of a serial killer.........and one with programming skills too.  |
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