PARALLAX SOUNDS RELEASES: (FOREIGN CINEMA - NON-SYNCHRONOUS SOUND EP)

Non-synchronous Sound EP review by Even in the Future Nothing Works

"Like a breath of Arctic air, Foreign Cinema sound a bit like New Order. The songs are regulated, cold, and emotionally challenging. The album cover presents a female with headphones, and the back, a male with a small movie camera. These photographs are in black and white, and that only complements the starkness of the album. Not one note is extra or out of place on Non-synchronous Sound. As the title implies, it's a slip from synchronicity, where everything matches up with life; the starkness gives an otherworldly quality to the album. There's a Depeche Mode cover. It fits in so well one might not even notice it was a cover.

Overall, the album has a deliberate, plodding feel - but not in the sense that it will drag you down. Rather, Foreign Cinema wants every beat to count, most notably on "Lovers and Killers," the standout track on this album."

Even in the Future Nothing Works, July 2009

Foreign Cinema evokes equal parts of the Deftones’ spaciest atmospheric character and Cocteau Twins’ guitar tones (almost, but not quite) on this little gem of an EP. Cold blue reverb and airy synth-waves make it taste like a grey rain and it’s not a passing trend. This is like listening to the saddest elements of a David Lynch film, but the subconscious knowledge that there is a dark underbelly to the story creates a pensive suspense in the mind of the listener… it’s sensory cross-communication with the subconscious.
“At the bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” is on par with any Slowdive-esque soundscape or dreamy vocal styling without making a bastardized whore of the technique. The bass performance on the closing track “Lovers and Killers” brings to mind David Sylvian’s masterpiece “Taking the Veil.” Foreign Cinema seems to have carved out a nice private burrow in the mountainside for themselves and have managed to remain unobtrusive to the established groups already nesting there. As the band’s label page suggests “Foreign Cinema’s noir sound balances light and dark with ethereal warmth and interjected groove to create a romantically dark world guided by interpretive lyrics about the human condition.”
I originally chose to review this release based on the label’s name: Parallax Sounds. It’s certainly no surprise that this synchronicity is enacting: the music brings a welcomed change of perspective and distorted representation of the original ideas of space, texture, and dreamlike images. Exciting music is rare, and creative music is even scarcer in today’s social structure; finding this was pure synchronicity. [By: Steven DiEva]
Rating: 4/5