Background
Another season, another post. This time, we’re taking a look at the latest project from Greek electronic artist Curtain. Much like the last review, this is an artist and album and subgenre I’m going into almost completely blind. Let’s see what Idyllic Bliss means to me. One thing to note: each song has its own unique cover image which is worth looking at as you listen to them.
Track by Track Thoughts
Even without drums, “0” manages to impart its rhythms strongly when it aims to. It also manages to avoid an all-too-common problem of staying on one sound too long or not introducing new elements. You’re never sitting there thinking “man, this has been the same thing for a while,” and that’s a good theme that continues throughout the album. The sounds here send the mind at once to visualizations of heavy machinery and scenic oceanside views. There’s a point when you do start wanting for more, but right then is when you get these big hits of…fireworks? Guns? Maybe both. I’m gonna say both. It’s loud and all around you and irregular enough to make you lean in and anticipate the next ones. Also making you lean in are these garbled voices that phase in and out, rarely parseable but always intriguing.
Starting “Thew” with “imagine me saying this with a funny voice” in a normal voice is in itself funnier on its own than any voice you’d imagine. The reverse attack of the soundscape gives it the sensation that it’s moving forward and backward at the same time. Behind that, there’s a beautifully blown out background. Then you get these new strings, maybe a digital facsimile of an acoustic guitar, that complement everything well while adding their own dimension of interest. This may be a weird comparison, but the little vocal passage reminded me instantly of the whispered bridge of “Everlong” by Foo Fighters: something more to add depth than to be listened to intently, though I can’t not appreciate the shoutout to legendary Flash game Everybody Edits and one of its most notorious users. Maybe one day we’ll finally get a worthy successor (ha). The way the layers build around halfway through is sonically impressive, avoiding being claustrophobic while no element takes too much attention from any other one. You can always pick one to focus on, or just take in the full breadth of the experience. After, that blown out sound takes the foreground and it still stuns me. It was probably the simplest thing to do and yet it’s my favorite. The ending sounding like (maybe actually being?) a Casio keyboard style demo track is really endearing and a great denouement even if it doesn’t tie in the rest of the track.
I almost went in not wanting to like “Wholesome Chungus” for the name alone, but as soon as I heard the piano, I softened up. Then I hardened back up around the halfway point: the song started feeling a bit meandering to me, and I didn’t feel the piano was replaced by something that “deserved” to take its place. The vocal samples are back, still a bit floaty but commanding a little more attention than before. They grow more prominent toward the end, including another genuinely funny one that begins “guess who it is? guess again, wrong!“ I think I would’ve appreciated the glitched out ending more if it fed into something, but on its own I wasn’t a fan. This is the first overall miss in my book, but coming almost fifteen minutes in lessens the impact that it would have on a typical length album.
The title and cover image of “Noctiluscent Beacon” are as apt as any. Noctilucent is a rare but easily parsed word and, coupled with “beacon,” it describes the synth backdrop perfectly. If anything’s ever sounded like the concept of a lighthouse at night, it’s this. The vocals sound like they could be criticism of the artist read aloud, not that I would agree with them. The sound is quite saturated, especially as it goes on, and overall it’s a really compelling and beautiful piece. The outro including a spoken ban message from /r/bonehurtingjuice was interesting. Makes you wonder if it has relevance to the rest of the lines or not. Maybe the comments from before were from reddit comments? If so, their contents are about as valuable as any other reddit comment, which is not very.
The way the screaming fades in on the song “Omaxni,” only to be overtaken by bright synth sounds, gives me the vibe of trying to cover up something unsettling with going to one’s happy place. It sounds exactly like masking the sounds of parental fights or a nagging partner by hiding in the music, be it the music making process or just listening to a song like this. If intentional, it’s truly done perfectly. Whatever gravity that had is instantly gone when I recognize the beautiful baritone of a BadlandsChugs YouTube intro, which gave me a laugh and undercuts any uncomfortability you might have had with the earlier portion. Between the last track and this one, I’ve been sucked back in to the level of enjoyment where I was with the first two.
Some of these transitions between songs are really great, but I genuinely didn’t realize I had moved on to “Gravityclock” until a couple minutes in. It’s that seamless (and these songs are that long that I wouldn’t blink an eye at it still being the same one). I really liked the clock sound, which I twigged as being about a second per tick even before seeing the title. Everything drops out for a few seconds and you’re left with nature-y sounds before you get a new pretty melody, but then that abruptly ends and, after more nature and another vocal sample, you get a super long held note and what sounds like an improvised sing-songy section. After that, some more words in a language I couldn’t identify if my life depended on it, then the clock returns! Around nine minutes in we get a reprise of an earlier synth line; I guess this gravityclock’s time is a flat circle. The end is dancey for a bit before receding back into some nice distorted waves. After this outro, I’m convinced that Curtain is suffering from at least a little bit of serious Internet brain rot. Weirdly, I can’t say I hate the Rizzler’s solo, but it’s one of the most unexpected things I’ll hear all year.
“Bright Delphic Disillusions” starts off reminiscent of a corrupted PlayStation startup sound, which is immediately appealing and nostalgic. As that fades into the background, we get a lot of interesting sounds, some that work for me and some that don’t, before eventually we’re treated to a pulsing bass drum and a really neat new section. The song never stagnates for a second, with something always changing and holding your interest. The OJ-scaring-the-interviewer clip, which is legendary in my book, was pretty unexpected but also interesting. I can never guess what’s going to come next in this album.
The piano playing on “Our Fountain” is very naturalistic, to the point where I wonder if it’s sampled from some sort of home video or part of a recording that wasn’t originally intended to make the record. In a really good way, it sounds like someone playing their instrument just to play it and not playing a song. The atmosphere and static in the ears were so convincing I paused twice to see if something was happening in real life. Is it raining outside? If someone playing Minecraft really loud next door? Nope, just Curtain. The end of this track also has that video game menu feel like the last one, in just as comfortable a way.
There’s another great transition again, this time into “Plhazh (Vice Versa).” This song is really chill and a cool time, the closest thing to a “normal” song so far start to finish. I can’t find much to say about it, with not many changes or new elements introduced, but it’s extremely pleasant and I can see myself coming back to it outside the context of the rest of the album.
I know it’s not that kind of album, but the heavy quiet distortion of “Carthagonia” coupled with its lack of drums makes me almost wish it would break out into some metal or something. After resetting my expectations, I really dig this. There’s a nice dark melody with enough going on around it to sustain it the entire time. It’s here that I realize that the project has been excelling at moving me through different moods and vibes without ever clashing or feeling too disjointed. The water sound toward the end was cool, but that tide recedes just as quickly as it enters.
“Inutile Glassen Wall” is another great-fitting title. The song doesn’t have a ton of unique elements, and there’s a lot of open space in the mix, but you get the sense that there’s more you can’t quite reach out and get. You can almost feel yourself in a big dark room, closed in by the glass walls, with something going on somewhere out there. The effect on the vocals really adds to that feeling, and looking at the words being spoken does even more so.
“Void Maw” is definitely the most imposing song of all, and for the second time I’m left thinking this could be the hardest song of all time with a drop or something. Once I again shake myself of that mindset, I’m locked in as much as any other point in the album. There’s not a lot happening melodically or percussively here, but somehow I remain drawn in. Maybe I’m anticipating something new, or maybe I’m just captivated by what’s already there. It’s a supremely fast seven and a half minutes somehow, and then it’s all over.
Final Thoughts
I don’t know exactly what I expected from this album, but I feel like it was both met and also completely subverted. There are chill ambient sections, harsh attention-grabbers, laugh-out-loud snippets, and sounds that make you reflect. I thought about this album a lot more than I thought I would, more than I typically do. I think that’s a fantastic achievement on top of making such a complete and varied work. I think this is a project that anyone can and should listen to, and when you can name your own price for it, you have no reason not to.
This post was made possible by Stellaria, a Discord member and longtime supporter who not only suggested the album for a listen and a review, but graciously gifted it to me. Thank you for your support!