Review of Sally Caster and Denks and Klade - The Mechanical Girl Takes Revenge

Here is an excellent review of the latest album from Doug Woods and myself. It was originally written in Dutch for Rock Magazine, by Esther Kessel-Tamerus and I have permission to share the Google-translation here.

Sally Caster and Denks and Klade - The mechanical girl takes revenge

8 February 2018 by Esther Kessel-Tamerus

Colin Powell and Doug Woods are enormously productive. They have various projects under their wings. Every project has its own name. ' The mechanical girl takes revenge ' is part of a series of previously released albums. Behind this series is a whole story. It starts in Victorian times. In a small English village the couple Benjamin and Annabelle Folde lived. Annabelle died shortly after the birth of their daughter. Their daughter was often ill and could not walk. Benjamin performed macabre operations. He wanted to teach her how to walk with metal bars and strange constructions. This created the legend ' The mechanical girl' . If you do not know the previous albums, that is not a problem. They can also be listened to separately.

The start of ' Overture ' is mysterious. And I suspect that more mysterious sounds will pass by. Unexpectedly, the opening track switches to rock with a slightly poppy rhythm. This is again alternated with quiet parts. These quiet parts bring me into a wonderful flow. The intro of ' Searching the timestream ' runs back and forth in the headphones. The melody is quite fast, the rhythm of the percussion rather slow, this gives a nice contrast. There are several pieces that are partly repeated. In fact, this track is built up in 'blocks', that makes it completely mystical.

In ' The field of desolation'exhilarating guitar playing and wonderfully slowly played keys nicely intertwine. The number of layers varies in a nuanced way. The mysterious remains in the following numbers. Strings, keys and percussion sometimes coincide. Another time, the one or the other is more in the foreground. In all cases, surprising elements have been incorporated. Such as electronic sounds, for example. So that the origin of what you hear is sometimes difficult to trace. This fits within the mystery of the legend. It is difficult to express a legend instrumentally. I do not see the story in images. Yet I enjoy what I hear.

If my attention is about to relax, it is only of short duration.

Electronic sounds build up the tension in ' Opening the gate '. The choir used as an instrument is surprising and beautifully clear. Suddenly the choir is gone and various sudden-lap turns follow. They amaze me. The sound is and remains well distributed over the boxes. Just before the end, choral and quiet music return. After these almost bizarre twists, ' The waiting room ' follows. Here the sound of strings is added to the strings and keys. Almost unnoticed, a hint of rock follows. There are a lot of electronic sounds in ' Empty rooms all have something to show you ' and ' Sanctuary '. This forms a nice contrast with the spherical sounds of ' The arms of Morpheus'. Sounds of a surreal wind provide a wonderful but pleasant atmosphere. This is music to chill and suit the myth of this Greek God of dreams and sleep. This quiet flow is also retained in ' The end '.

Colin and Doug master the art of bridging two worlds. They make a melange of iOS devices and the real instruments. In other words: They use all sorts of apps. They combine this with keys, strings and drums. Sometimes they let this all melt together so that origin can hardly be traced.

(77/100, Own Management)

Original review in Dutch is here