RANDEL .the ghost. - The Otherside & The Inbetween
Brace yourselves, folks, for an album that will take you back in time and thrust you into an atmosphere of Film Noir, mystery, and sultry sounds of a bygone era. The Otherside & The Inbetween by RANDEL .the ghost. is an album that conjures up the past. Rather than evoking nostalgia, however, you’ll find yourself in a state of wonder – casually scratching your head while you try to figure out the little things around you. It’s as if a long lost score to an unreleased Hitchcock movie surfaced decades later and unapologetically cut into the speakers of your headphones.
“Unrecognizable Movements In Frames” kicks off the album as if a Frank Sinatra instrumental entered one of your surreal dreams and sonically wrapped around your brain like an LSD soaked kerchief. “A Plundered, Wasted World” is like a slow stroll down a dark, cobblestone alleyway with very faint lights to guide you to the other side…where an alluring silhouette awaits your presence. “There’s a Train that Passes Through Here” captures the abandoned train station vibe, coming across as if it tells a morbid story to the listener. Someone may have died there. Perhaps it may be haunted or cursed by many misfortunes and tragic events. In any case, the music sits in front of you like an ominous warning.
“Forgetting All the Reasons, But Still Feeling All the Pain” has a guitar pattern that tearfully weeps over an abstract instrumental that has early 1930’s slow Jazz mixed with a surreal, avant-garde element that carries a seductive, forbidden fruit aura. “Somber Post Burial” continues with the mournful, sorrow laden mood. A grainy organ carries the piece like a casket through a bleak, rainy afternoon in the Victorian era. I easily got a silent movie atmosphere by listening to it, which is perfectly fitting for the theme of the album. “You Are the Air” takes on a slightly more airy, ambient feel without crossing the line into the contemporary era. A departure from the previous works, it sounds as if it can be a “calm before the storm” or “the person in question reaching an epiphany”. Album closer “Slow Confronting Shadows Consume” ends things on a dark, eerie note, as if one has realized that their dream has morphed into a nightmare while wondering when it will come to an end?
The Otherside & The Inbetween has an interesting sound – one you won’t find too often in much modern Electronic based Lo-Fi music. I recommend checking out this fine album by RANDEL .the ghost. if you like sounds of mystery, wonder, and past-tense atmospheres that don’t dip too much into sentiment or nostalgia.