“Black Shark” starts off in a fairly melodic manner, albeit a melody, which, in combination with the clockwork drum sequence, creates a real sense of creeping dread; it eventually breaks into full on terror with some distorted drones and metallic strings. It’s a particularly heavy moment that belies the track’s slow 100bpm pace. It ends with a particularly funereal bell tolling somewhere in the background, gloomy, but nothing compared to the second track. “KM-50 (Spectral Assault Mix)” completely does away with melody; it has a skeletal composition at the beginning comprised only of drones which sound like a swarm of insects together with a metronomic drumbeat. A single bass drone is the cue for the track to take you further into the depths, before the track finally explodes. Trevor Jackson has called it “the heaviest thing I’ve heard for eons”, and I find it hard to disagree; the only thing I could say is comparable is the recent Black Meteoric Star material.

The Chateau Flight remix of previous single “Innerfearance” is a completely different animal to the other two tracks. It keeps the 100bpm pace of the other two tracks, but trades the fear for something altogether more cosmic. It starts off with the kind of atmospheric bleeps and rough synth effects of the original, but the big moment comes when it drops some big balearic chords and a meandering cosmic melody. Given Spectral Empire’s bleakness, it’s completely unexpected, but works incredibly well, offering a bit of release from the crazed laughter and sinister vocals which echo from within, and makes the eventual drop back into the doom which follows that bit more terrifying. It’s an awesome track, and one of my favourite remixes this year.

Black Shark is out now on Thisisnotanexit

Listen:> Spectral Empire – KM-50 (Spectral Assault Mix)
Download audio file (Spectral Empire – KM-50 (Spectral Assault Mix).mp3)

Like last year’s Quiet Village album, and Woolfy’s If You Know What’s Good for Ya!!, Night Plane occupies a space somewhere between contemporary balearic disco and classic AOR; Fleetwood Mac is an obvious reference point, but it equally has shades of the eerie electronic side of The Alan Parsons Project (the EP’s second track “Wave Haze” begins with a chiming guitar lick that is reminiscent of the same Alan Parsons Project track “What Goes Up…” that Quiet Village’s “Pillow Talk” sampled).

In each of these tracks there is palpable tension, built up, broken, built up again; “Chinese Shadows” opens with a gorgeous Rhodes melody, while a slowly modulating bassline adds a hint of disquiet, which gives way to delicate pad sounds which intensify slowly before dissipating into a haze. The drums are often slow to build up their rhythms; “Chinese Shadows” for instance adds a clap to the kickdrum, before taking it away after two bars, then repeating the procedure. It’s a trick repeated to greater effect in “Walls of Stone”, where the drum pattern is built upon gradually until the song’s climax when rushes of claps and hi-hats are added to the regular beat. As a result the beats have a nicely sluggish quality, contributing to the “opiate disco” feel of Night Plane’s style, and makes these tracks simultaneously druggy yet danceable.

One thing that has to be given special mention is the piano in each of these tracks. Rauscher’s training in jazz piano is obvious; the melodies go beyond simplistic repetition and into a more progressive realm, often with a real sense of improvisation. The piano in “Walls Of Stone” breaks the spectral unease with some well placed notes of blue, before ending with some melancholic chords. The only complaint that can be made is that the track seems to end when it could easily have continued for another five minutes. Thankfully, “Wave Haze” is much more fleshed out; layer upon layer of melody slowly build up on top of each other before dropping into some heartbreaking piano. But it’s Rauscher’s vocals that really hold the whole thing together; his gruff, self-assured singing is a nice counterpoint to the dreamy instrumentation, his voice is buried just deep enough in the production and soaked in enough reverb to make it sound like another instrument in itself, it’s occasional howls and whispers adding as much nuance as anything else in Night Plane’s rich arsenal of sounds.

Chinese Shadows is out on 17th August on Thisisnotanexit

Listen:> Night Plane – Wave Haze

Download audio file (Night Plane – Wave Haze.mp3)

As a bonus here is a link to a special Night Plane TINAE Mix, featuring an unreleased Night Plane edit of Detachments’ upcoming “Circles”:

Night Plane – TINAE Promo Mix

Fleetwood Mac – World Turning (Night Plane Edit)
Marianne Faithfull – Broken English (Baron Von Luxxury Slow Touch Remix)
Jackpost – Ragazza
Chicken Lips – Feast of Freeks (Steve Kotey Tape Edit)
Holger Hiller – Das Feuer (Pilooski Edit)
Detachments – Circles (Night Plane Remix)
Voyage – Point Zero
African Suite – In The Pocket
Supermax – African Blood
Edwin Birdsong – Lollipop (Kai Alce Edit)
Azymuth – May I Have This Dance
Cosmo Vitelli – Frydman
Moolah – Crystal Waters