Lunar Miasma: Crystal Covered
Basses Frequences

Crystal Covered is an extremely trippy set by Panos Alexiadis—not that that should come as too much of a surprise given his choice of moniker—Lunar Miasma—and the album's ultra-psychedelic cover imagery. Alexiadis uses analog synths, guitars, and fx to create swirling masses of disorientating design that make one feel as if one is plunging beyond the furthest reaches of space. Throughout the fifty-two-minute recording, melodic patterns, electrical transmissions, and analog squeals careen through the cosmos in oceanic tracks that unfold in the slowest of motion. Track titles such as “Purple Oscillator” convey the material's intergalactic character, but one would easily recognize it as such had Alexiadis dispensed with titles altogether. Slow-motion chords and tones shimmer and collide during “Circle Mountain” while high-pitched, dental drill-like squeals sputter alongside droning organ chords in “A Thousand Suns.” The atmosphere turns a bit clearer in the closing “Cream,” which allows the movements of its astral glissandi to be monitored more peacefully. Against a deep space backdrop, tones plummet and swoop as gracefully as falling stars. The six pieces on Lunar Miasma's Crystal Covered are like different snapshots of a celestial nebula, with some of them capturing its peaceful side and others its more turbulent.

May 2010