Short Reviews [Fahrt Ins Blau - 2019 - "Metro"]

Here we have another album sent to me by Thierry, but this time around it is a CD-R (which I haven’t seen in years), with a card 4 page booklet which appears to have been printed from a computer and then cut out by hand. The album itself is from 2019 and even though I have tried multiple different approaches I have managed to find just one reference to this on the web, and can’t even find mention from the artist’s own sites or Bandcamp. Luckily for me I have the physical copy, so know the person behind this is Phil Jackson, who has released music under both his own name and that of Paradox One, and is also a recognised music author. Phil describes this as his electronic and progressive project, and is a concept based on the trilogy of ‘Metro’ books by Dmitry Glukhovsky and the theme of mutually assured destruction. It contains a large amount of improvised passages, especially organ/Moog/drums and the five pieces are all a good length, with a total playing time of 66 minutes. Phil provides synthesisers, piano, organ, electronic piano, vocals (although this is mostly instrumental), electric guitar, bass, drums, cajon and koto (a type of zither) while Richard Gorman provides a guitar solo on one piece. Everything about this feels low key and independent, and while there are times when it is quite inspired there are plenty of others where Phil appears to be moving along waiting for the next idea to really hit him. Just because the pieces are lengthy does not mean they are necessarily any good, and one of the issues here is the lack of direction and overall approach. It feels far more like a demo, and given there is virtually nothing written about it that I can find I wonder if it was ever really meant to be heard outside of a select few. Having played it a few times for review I know I will never listen to this again.