An open letter to Baliset

3.5/10

Dear Baliset,

In all honesty, from the most boring to the most laughable albums I have reviewed at The Silent Ballet, I've never struggled so hard to get through a CD as I did with A Time For Rust. It took me a long time just to push myself to listen to the entire album in one sitting, an action an ordinary listener would not do if she wasn't into the particular sound or genre you've created on this album. Even though I had to succumb to my prejudice of my brief initial listens, I knew from the start that there was something to this album that would make the effort worthwhile, even if it were only to better myself as critical listener. Eventually I got through it once, and in the days to come I made the effort to listen attentively to your album - in different places, using different devices, even considering my own state of mind at the time and its impact on the listening session.

What I first noticed was that there were often shifts in the form of the music; at the base is undoubtedly an avant prog-rock structure - something I can appreciate - but in combination with the slabs of folk-like power ballads and ambient as imposing as something pseudo-kraut or psychedelic, it made my skin crawl. The problem with dropping in touches of folk into progressive rock with flares of ambient is that you can only do this every so often, since most tracks that fall from the one into the other without any justification are very hard to digest. This is the threshold that few people are likely to step over, unless the listener is one of the happy few that totally fall for this sub-genre. If there would be some sort of audible gradient stretching between the contrasting passages, it might have worked, but it's all very abrupt and irrational for the common listener. I already hear you thinking "What is he on about? Plenty of bands' trademark is to combine genres." That's very true; the critically-acclaimed Silencio is one of the best examples in that field, but they pull this off because their music actually lends itself towards genre juggling rather than forcing itself to do so.

It is obvious that Baliset's main band members - covering the guitar, bass and drums - are talented musicians and have the experience to master their instrument and it's sound to it's fullest, a gift that should be treasured and mined when writing the music. By cutting out the extraneous ambient and drone interludes, you can get to the essence of your skill and let that seed grow into a coherent album. I'm not pleading for an album that is one guitar solo after yet another power-riffed chorus, but A Time Of Rust is filled with intermezzos of mellotrons, awkwardly-panned drone and spaced-out pieces that just do not help your album flow in a consistent manner. In that regard, there's also no reason in the iPod era for a so-called hidden track, especially after a few minutes of (once again) drone boredom - but at least it was panned to the middle this time.

What weakens the almost enjoyable progressive rock is the vocal element of the album; I must admit that I'm not a big fan of vocals as such, but the sounds of the male and female vocals just don't work together with the rest of the production for 90% of the listening span. Again, this is not a matter of skill. It's partially a matter of the lyrics: there are some pieces that have a nice ring to it but most of them don't make any sense, even taking a huge amount of poetic freedom in account. A band that has taken it's name from a fictional instrument in Frank Herbert's Dune science fiction novel series - a writer and work that is regarded as the best in it's genre - does not do any justice to it's name by failing to deliver enticing lyrics.

There is also the matter of knowing when and how to use vocals, and what their place is in the music. Most of the time they tend to follow the leading aspect of the instrumentation (mostly being the guitar), but this demeans the power of that instrument rather than supporting or strengthening it. It's also apparent that the female vocalist is forcing herself to sound like she is instructed rather than exploring her capabilities to find something that would be an add value to the release. If she should stick to more mellow music or, if she does have interest in the harder music, she should have a listen to what Kerstin Haigh of Senser achieves with her (perhaps limited, but always confident) vocals, she'll be more at ease and comfortable with what she's contributing. I could almost as easily apply this theory to the male vocals. There is no grunt; no fire coming from the belly that sturs the listener's inner being and isn't the vocalist the foremost part of a band where the audience relates to?

All of these aspects made me suspect that there has been put way too much time in crafting (or over-producing, if you will) this album. It has taken over five years by your own source, giving you time to doubt, revise and revise over again until most of the natural flow had disappeared. I also couldn't help but notice that the album was inspired (and I choose this word carefully) by notable bands in the broad prog scene. I'd even take on the challenge - if I had a day or two to spare - to dig into my own music library and collect bits and pieces from tracks to build the blueprint of A Time For Rust; I have heard most of it before by the hand of other bands. Don't get me wrong, being inspired by other artists is a good thing, but there's is only so far you can go in mimicking before it starts to sound like a collage of 'that sounds great, we should do that' and 'things people are going to like'. In any case, the timespan for the album's gestation has been too long, as having your attention spread over other projects, pulling in a handful of guest musicians, and not being able to go fully for the release as a homogeneous band has put its stamp on the album. Sadly enough, not in a positive manner.


Promo-video for Baliset - A Time For Rust.


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