Give up again,
Just let it end,
Become a fleeting instance
Of dissonance

Not letting go keeps her pain real
Not realizing my soul is her pain
Not accepting my love is her pain
Letting go is the only way to heal her

The sun rises over the ruins, and deep in the bowl of the Pompeii amphitheater Les Stroud is making a hang-glider out of guitar strings and  torn snare skins.  As Les climbs from the ruins and sails out over the Gulf of Naples the amphitheater bursts into a thousand doves and seagulls, spiraling out to fill the sky.

This is the kind of imagery inspired by Mike Radice’s new album Revive, and the intensity of this curious instrumental concept album does not fade.  The concept of Revive is that the Earth moves through a perpetual cycle of evolution, downfall, destruction, and revival.  Utilizing production that combines countless analog and digital sources in a nearly 3D sonic landscape, Radice delivers on his ideas.

Although the album begins with the title track Revive — fittingly, as it is the beginning and the end of the cycle – the cycle itself begins with evolution, of the planet’s flora, fauna, and inevitably mankind.  On Mammoth, Radice uses synths and shakers, counterpointed percussion, and the build of dark ambient undertones to cross millions of years of the planet’s life, from the relative peace of the ice ages through the dawn of mankind.

Radice then explores the cresting of civilization in a triptych that is the album’s centerpiece:  Native, sparse and brooding, with bells and flutes that whisper warnings with the arrival of man; Ancestor, a double-time tempo crusade of hand percussion and dissonance that bridges the trilogy just as the missing link may have bridged human evolution; and Threshold, a seven-minute collapse into disturbing, contrary rhythms and simple, sublimely anachronistic piano phrasing that brings the track and the album to a new height of ominous declaration.  These nineteen minutes carry us from the innocence of early mankind to the tipping point when man loses control of his environment and himself.

Hear Native:

Radice builds and combines percussive counterpoints with analog and digital sources, creating edgy, intense dissonances that support the concept of this instrumental album with a clarity that is often difficult without a spoken story.  On Become, Radice expands the album’s concept, sonics, and style even further. Become is the first track to feel somewhat casual, the end-of-the-world intensity lightened by far eastern instrumentation and trance-like, mid-tempo melodies.  Become is the calm before the storm, the brief space wherein mankind must make his peace.

Hear Become:

Entropy is the way of all things and inevitably claims all but The Last Tribe. The track opens with a casual sense of humor as Radice utilizes more of his unique instrumentation to portray a cowboy country feel, a campfire song unlike any heard before, that quickly changes as the final alarm tolls, a sound at the heart of this ten-minute epic that recalls the chilling ululation of H.G. Wells’ Martians as they exulted in victory on Earth; but instead of science-fiction destruction, the track becomes open-eyed and optimistic, as if the last tribe has corrected our path just in time…alas, the breezing synths that speak of redemption merely hide the plot twist: An asteroid rushing in, a deux ex machina that cleanses the Earth of mankind’s existence.

Asteroid closes the album with sixteen minutes of excellent dark ambient anticipation, the soundtrack to an aerial view of a decimated world.  As Asteroid comes to an end, there is a juxtaposition of feeling, of closure, yet of something left to do….

Hear The Last Tribe

Which is why one must enjoy the title track of Revive at both ends — hearing Revive open the album calls up images of the dawn of time; hearing Revive at the close of Asteroid brings Radice’s concept full-circle as the driving rhythm, mantra-like bass, glistening percussion, and building synths call up a storm of life; rebirth; revival.

Hear Revive

Revive by Mike Radice is available for immediate download from the Atmoworks Store.

Ladies and gentlemen, please let me enjoy this announcement that Tomorrow’s Man has signed on (figuratively speaking) with the legendary AtmoWorks label as a blogger for new releases, reissues, and any darned lovely slice of electronica they care to throw at my ears.

AtmoWorks was founded by James Johnson and Vir Unis in 2001 and continues to flourish as one of the most influential and vital experimental electronic music labels on this and several other planets.

Coming Soon will be my first “official” AtmoWorks review, the new Mike Radice album “Revive” — stay tuned!

via Tomorrow’s Man.

If I live to tell the story of the last six months of my life, they’ll rename the Pulitzer.

Ten years is a long time to keep the demons in.

The writing on this album began in November 1999, and has become larger and more complex than anything else I’ve attempted along the way. Since this is as good as any other forum these days to disseminate liner notes, I would like to thank about a skillionty people.  I can’t think of any order that makes sense, so here’s this. Thanks to:

Hank Kuczynski, who told me from an early age that I’m both too bald and not bald enough to be a rock star; and who might hit me if I don’t put him first;

Mike Hairston, who has forever provided me with amazing support and invaluable critical insight about my musical progress;

Brett Holinbeck, who has done the same for my mental progress;

Rahel Holinbeck, for putting up with Brett and me when we’re together;

Thanks to the rest of my Madison Major Arcana:  Kat Davis, the Emperess; Steve Davis, the Emperor; Sloan Davis, the Star; Nate Marx, the Magician; Ryel Estes, the High Priestess; Lisa Bell, the Sun; Ned Kirby, the Hierophant; and Al Ritchie, the Tall Dude with the Hair;

Thanks to Tara McMullen, for founding my poetic memory; and to Marianne Lachance and Louis Simard, who I still miss every day they grace distant France with their vitality;

Thanks to Valerie Clark, for being a little bit of every reason I’ve learned anything in my life;

Thanks to Astra Kim, for remaining my destiny; and to Dustin Sklavos, for being my slavedriving muse and most recently acquired best friend.  Also, thanks to the rest of the Skeleton Crew gang, including the lovely and wonderful BJ Mortimer and the wonderful and lovely Laura Osburn;

And thanks to so many others for so many reasons:  Kim Marx (and Mouse) for thunderstorms and bacon; Kevin Nelson, for being my unofficial hero; Chantale Arsenault, the Visionary Goddess, for a glimpse at Pandora’s box; Amy Ketchum, for being the angel behind our Nocturnal Requiem (and I pray many more to come); Carmen, Jeff, and Amy, for being creative and precocious (keep on rockin’, kids); Apollo Marquez for my first chance to read in Madison in 2000 (so the rest since then is all his fault); Chris Korte for Vielspassvotze; Dean Peters for his slim fit jeans; Jessica (Red) Ingalls for being the first but not last inspiration for the scary middle of this album; Kala Snowflower because she is always; and my family back home for keeping the ocean there waiting for me, hopefully with a side of manicotti and ricotta pie.

And most importantly, thanks to my lovely wife, Sarai Lenore, for her ongoing support, unbelieveable patience, and amazing enchiladas.

If I’ve left anyone out I apologize, but the Alzheimer’s kicks in right about now.  Thank you all,

Thank you all,

To you all, here’s Ringo: “Peace and love, peace and love.”

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Much love and love to Mike H for the as-usual-awesome FB logo

NOTE:  For the origin of FB recipe names consult this reference.

CHEERS!