Blackfield
Welcome To My DNA

THE REVIEW

Third album for Blackfield, a project born from the collaboration between Steven Wilson, the soul of Porcupine Tree, and the Israeli multi-instrumentalist Aviv Geffen.

The musical journey of the project reaches its third stage with greater compositional awareness, experimenting with maturity the paths of pop in its pure sense, understood as universal melodic art. Although Geffen's compositions share the meticulous study of sounds and the poetic arrangements of Porcupine Tree, the overall result is very different from the Prog inclinations of Wilson's group.

An emotional product, simple but never trivial. It is in this way that the complexity dissolves with class, without losing taste and gifting us forty minutes of well-packaged music. Compared to “Blackfield II,” the sounds lose their dark and existentialist tone and open up into a wide-reaching atmosphere.

The opening is “Glass House”, a harmonious pop digression; it is followed by the obsessive and dynamic “Go To Hell”, poetic and decadent. “Rising Of The Tide” is the classic Blackfield piece: essential, clean but detailed. “Waving”, carefree and unpretentious, is perhaps one of the least successful tracks on the record. The track “Far Away” itself already feels familiar and quickly becomes boring, especially in the symphonic closing. This approach is also found in the subsequent “Dissolving With The Night” which is much more epic in tone and emotionally charged, thanks to its deep and elegant writing. “Blood” is solid and hypnotic: minimalist lyrics, distorted and decisive riff, but compensated by an extremely melodic chorus.

The following “On The Plane” is perhaps the best piece of the album, with a delicate and introspective melody that flows without excesses and virtuosity but unfolds in the central solo, clean and warm. “Oxygen” and “DNA” are the most spacey tracks on the record: soft excursions into the melodic galaxy outlined by the entire album. In the middle is “Zigota”, undoubtedly the most heterogeneous piece and closest to Porcupine's compositions. Having reached their third effort, Blackfield may have produced their most complete work. They continue not to disdain self-reference, the exploration of simple sounds and melody as an exercise in style...and what style.