Deison ~ Any Time Now

October must be near, because our submissions are getting scarier.  Case in point: Any Time Now, a foreboding set whose dark drones are shadowed by sullen electronics, crime scene samples and rattling chains.  Even the most cheerful track title (“Blissfull Moments”) leads to a dreadful excursion.

It’s all a setup for the main act:  “Motionless”, which appears in two parts, separated by a short interlude.  The piano player plays on, disregarding the chortles and squeals made by the frightening, legless creatures who crawl across the hotel floor.  This is Deison‘s hotel; he knows every inhabitant and their every predilection.  While many of his works have been dark, this one goes all out.  No more flirtation; this is tar and magma, fury and blood.  While the album’s purported goal is “to explore the perception of time”, time is not the lead story.  The front page is splattered with human horror.  This being said, the album does smear time; the crime has already been committed, the sonic field littered with aural debris.  As investigators debate their next move, listeners must decide if the events are taking place now or then, and if the characters have been caught in a temporal loop.

The punctuation of sound effects is disorienting.  A grave is dug; a television show provides narration.  A winch pulls an unidentified object across the factory floor; a bored villain repeatedly hits an object just to hear it tap.  There are no immediate jolts to be heard, just a slowly creeping dread.  “Tape 2” is the most compact exploration of the concept, a radio dial turned back and forth while a synthesized song attempts to break forth, falling short during its final throes.  Is this “The end of everything”?  As sources and samples converge, the lights in the house go dark, leaving only gradations of shadow.  (Richard Allen)