June Of '44
Engine Takes To The Water

Have A Good Trip, dear.

Fragile harmonics proceed unhurriedly. Other instruments are added, intermingling in an essential yet highly complex lexicon. A desperate and resigned chorus.

Complexity is somewhat the common thread that unites all the pieces; a strange evolution of prog. If the Crimson Kings proceeded without much regard for time, combining improvisation with composition according to a typically jazz procedure, here each piece results from a progressive stripping down of sound, a structure that allows the nudity or the pairings to show through. One could say a product too "monitored,” thoughtful, convoluted, eclectic: an abstract device of genuine skill. The beauty of an automatic mechanicality, nihilistically reactive and convulsive.

To the pieces of this strand ("Have A Good Trip, Dear”; a “Pale Horse Sailor” that gives chills: melody reduced to two notes, bass and drums in a frenzy, masterful drums!!!, avant-garde, racing at 250 an hour, follows a path of neurotic excitement that grows with different peaks until exasperation, then stops a step away from collapse, maximum tension, and deflates like a balloon (!!!)) are juxtaposed by disturbing softness (“Sink Is Busted”; “Mooch”) and raptures ("Mindel”; “Take It With A Grain Of Salt").
The comparison with Slint must be just and reasoned: the reins of a discourse already conducted are certainly taken, but if in 'Spiderland' aphasia prevailed, in "Engine" expressive deviations are fully exploited, the post rock language is brought to maturity. Community of intent, then, and not plagiarism.

The packaging is an aesthetic complement to the music: a cardboard package openable in three parts: first and third cover recurring the motif of the vessel on a red background, strict bichromatism (red and earth) on black text. In a few images (as in the music in a few notes) an overflowing significance.