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A1. Reception
A2. Elevator Malaise
B1. Panic Room
B2. Emergency Exit
The music and aesthetics of this album are meant to be a reflection of modern life: alienating, isolating, atomizing, confusing; a soundtrack to its materialism, indulgence and sterility.
Jazz Fusion is the natural choice of music for this sort of theme, the constant flux and general uneasiness of the music make the perfect musical translation for the concept of our artificial way of life and its consequences.
The hotel was chosen as a setting as a hint to the consumerist and touristic mindset of the modern citizen, always on the prowl for novelty, like an over excited nomad, sold on the joys of having no home.
The Brutalist architecture pictured on the covers evokes, willingly or not, the same type of eery feeling of something wrong, something unnatural and corrupting - ironically, however, it still makes for good illustration of dark themes, like a really well written villain. The fact is that the horrible of even a few decades ago is preferable to what is now considered great. I have no problems if this is perceived as nostalgia, it may or may not be, but it is based on reality. Art, which is a reflection of society, including music, is objectively worse now than it was a decade ago, and a decade ago it was worse than a decade before that, the trend being - along with the rest of society - to dumb down, deracinate and commercialize. I refuse to pretend this isn't the case.
If this album was made a couple of decades ago, it would be a futuristic distopian concept album. As it stands, it's just a concept album.
***
Having said all that, don't let the pretentiousness of conceptuality in instrumental music get in the way of enjoying the sounds presented here. I hope everyone can take away good things from the album, regardless of whether I originally intended for it or not.
Thank you for listening.
***
Reception
it's so fun at the start, it looks so inviting
advertising adventure and joyous excitement,
no downsides or downpayments. too good to be true.
creeping through, reality checks in.
Elevator Malaise
a modern functionary must persistently wait
going up or down with no effort of his own,
his hands as worthless as his tasks,
finding no site for his dwelling, nor root for his seed;
idle and dull, in perpetual stupor,
entertainment is his right, his only escape.
Panic Room
the ugly truth rears its ugly head,
out in the open for all to see,
drowned in sensational dissonance
retreat into the last shell of narcisism
or rage against the machine
Emergency Exit
there is always a choice.
there is only one way out.