Here's a successful release sure to pull the strings of all the prog-rock fans out there.  Now, tags are annoying to me.  They often barely approximate what an artist is doing and serve as a way for the writer to make it seem like they know a lot about music when they probably found a couple tags on the internet.  It's best to just let words flow and try to explain things without them.  I think so at least.  Anyway, never heard of Seven That Spells until I received this album for review.  Being a fan of Philip Glass, acid jazz, and general musical freak-outs, Future Retro Spasm was music to my cliched and contradictory ears.

Future Retro Spasm comes packaged in a special case, limited to a release of only 1000 copies.  The artwork has this esoteric, Golden Dawn thing going for it, with religious, enviromental, and sexual elements.  The music is six tracks of spastic, unrestrained experimental rock sans vocals.  Drums, bass, guitars, and saxophone make up the bulk of the instrumentation.  The sheet that came with this album says it will appeal to fans of Pink Floyd, but honestly, I'd only mention it in this regard: this is what Pink Floyd should sound like.

Future Retro Spasm opens with "Olympos", setting the tone.  With an almost middle-Eastern line driven by sax, the drums fluctuate and pounce as the bass propels the tempo forwards.  This is a true example of perfection in song-writing.  The ease at which the sax carries the song and unites the other instruments is spectacular.  "G" comes at you with Phillip Glass-styled groove, "Terminus Est" messes with repetition in sound and patterning while throwing you off with some blast beats, and other songs like "Death Star Narcolepsy" are frenetic lunges of experimentation.  The only problem with this album is the fact that the saxophonist tends to rely too much on fluttering keys.  It's not easy to successfully pull off sax for this kind of sound, but in general it's very effective.  When it's not, well, it becomes more saxophone noise than anything, and the formula can get a bit tiresome at some points.  The other musicians can tend to fall in this same trape, but Future Retro Spasm always manages to pull it off in the end.  When you think it might be reaching the doorway to annoyance, Seven That Spells find a way to pull it all together again into another splendid arrangement.

For an album that lacks vocals and comes off as a jam band masterpiece when you first put it in, Future Retro Spasm has just the right amount of experimentation to please without ever reaching the point of forcing a new standard that doesn't exist.  In an era where indie rock is strangling the music industry into its death throes, albums like this are a real treat.  Future Retro Spasm is a true demonstration of musical talent, song-writing, and integration.  It's a nearly perfect release.

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Written by Arkus