Black Marble
It's Immaterial

THE REVIEW

Derivatives? Sure. Even my grandmother's pasta alla norma is derivative. She certainly didn't invent the recipe, and who knows how many others have tried it before with great results.

Yet my grandmother's norma is one of the coolest things in the world.

So, let's refrain from making unnecessary complaints about the obvious sources of inspiration (Cure, Joy Division, New Order, Simple Minds, and so on), let's bravely overcome those labeling processes (dark-wave, synth-pop) that seem to want to deem a genre as no longer viable, one that has already been extensively explored, and let's approach this album with an open mind.

If your sensibility resonates enough with mine, you will find many special moments here.

Reminiscences of magical summers à la New Gold Dream, perhaps lived, perhaps only dreamed (It’s Conditional); delightful confusion in getting lost in mysterious, nocturnal woods (Woods) that recall the Forest of Smith's memory; hypnotic, ecstatic rapture in the presence of the majesty of the firmament (A Million Billion Stars); an irresistible grace, fresh as a spring breeze, accompanying the movements of Self Guided Tours.

The whole is threaded by a systematic, unwavering humanity that makes its way through the synthetic sounds and emerges even more crystalline.

What can I say? When the world sharpens its blades, and certain beaches are far away, opening a record and going back there... not bad.