If there's one act that has consistently stumped the writers of Sea of Tranquility over the years, it's MoonJune Records' Copernicus. His style of spoken word prog-rock/jazz/avant-garde music just always seems to puzzle us (and believe me, we've tried over the years on the many releases he puts out), the end result always seeming to be the same; decent music, truly bizarre vocals. You see, Mr. Copernicus is something of a poet, and he likes to basically speak over his songs, which for the most part are often filled with some pretty dazzling playing. So it often makes for an odd, unsettling listen, and here on his latest release L'Eternite Immediate , he's recorded French vocals on previously recorded songs that were originally released with both English and Spanish vocals. Are you following? So, most of these song here are roughly a decade old, but now appearing with Copernicus' newly recorded vocals in French. At times calling them 'vocals' is somewhat of a stretch, as it's more of a spoken word vaudevillian crooning, totally over dramatic and not all that listenable. The music however is outstanding, with some sizzling guitar work from Cesar Aragundi and tasty keyboard tapestries courtesy of Newton Velasquez.
Honestly, I'm not really sure what or who the audience is for this type of thing. L'Eternite Immediate really is an odd fit on the MoonJune label (we've been saying that about Copernicus' output for years), and the album as a whole would be so much more enjoyable either without Copernicus on it or with his whole schtick turned down a notch. Once again, another puzzling and not very enjoyable release from the mystery known as Copernicus.
Track Listing
- L' Humanite Est Belle
- Reves En Ballons
- La Verite Absolue Est Posible
- Libre De Moi!
- Pouissiere
- Sent L' Inexistence
- La Carotte
- Le Baton
- Il N' V A Pas Difference
- Vive Le Nouveau!