Groooooooaaaaan.  Aw man, are there still bands out there like this?  Seriously?  Having listened to a ton of hardcore, post-hardcore, and whatever else they call it today over the past few months, it was time for something new, something different.  Space rock with some Hawkwind referencing for me to pull out?  Sure!  But I'll be damned if The Resonance Association totally did not deliver.  This particular EP is a preview to their upcoming album, Heliopause, with a total of four tracks.  Two are from that album and two are unreleased tracks from another album called Clarity in Darkness.  Actually, that just means they're not from anything to be more accurate.

Heliopause Prelude opens with "Above Beyond & Forever", which features simple, but engaging bass lines.  This leads into a burst of drums with atmospheric guitars sweeping around; typical space rock, minus progression.  See, problem is, the bass plays the same five or so notes, the drums pretty much stick to a kick-snare-kick routine, and the guitars rely on effects instead of creativity.  They feature an overlay of them on top strumming, so it sounds like more of a pedal-to-pedal tap dancing exercise than actual music writing.  The song eventually comes to an end, but never reaches any real development.  Next up is "Hope Falls".  Fitting title, because your hope for this release is pretty much killed as Heliopause Prelude moves into a drab ambient track with some glitchy electronic sounds dominating the keyboards and a hint of mechanical drums.  It goes on for awhile once they figure out which keys to hold down, and then it just fades out.  Nothing really to note.

Then comes "Enabler", the strongest track.  Ironic, because it's one they didn't want to release.  You're treated to eerie keyboards, oddly low-quality mechanical drums, and some chugging guitar work in the background.  Take them apart, and it sounds like shit, but somehow as a whole it creates a unique atmosphere.  The trip hop style features a cool break near the middle where someone flips over a cassette so the song can continue.  Awesome touch.  That's where it ends, however, because the title track "Heliopause Prelude" is a complete anti-prelude.  The bass has a nice level sludge behind it but then guitars come in and ruin it again.  It sounds exactly like something The Residents were doing fifty or so years ago but without the weird attitude.  There are some interesting glitch segments later in the song, but it kicks back into horrid pedal stomping, and you forget all about any of it.  Typically, the more pedals a guitarist has, the worse it's going to sound and they likely don't know how to use them.  It's like a trap, a guitarist buys one under the assumption it will flesh out their sound more, and then they buy another when that didn't work, and then another, eventually forgetting the problem is they really don't know how to play.  And that's the general feeling of Heliopause Prelude.  It's okay, it has its moments, but you soon forget about those moments because, well, these guys don't know how to write music.

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Written by Arkus

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