Chimp spanner – At the Dream’s Edge

At the Dream's Edge

At the Dreams Edge is the latest work by Paul Ortiz -  a young chap from Essex in the UK who has had a lifelong association with music courtesy of his parents and describes himself as a Multi-instrumentalist composer and producer. He fulfils all these roles quite brilliantly and in Chimp Spanner “an intstrumental metal project I’ve been working on for the last few years” he looks set to suddenly garner a lot of critical attention -- this is quite simply one of the most polished and original works I’ve heard.

I’m somewhat at a loss as to where to start -- Paul has chops but isn’t a shredder, he’s got shatteringly heavy polyrhythmic moments but I wouldn’t really want to call him a technical metal or progressive player ….and he has these wonderful ambient keyboard textures alongside some very sophisticated and yet restrained fusion outings….as well as doing all the artwork himself…and even that rambling paragraph doesn’t do him justice in the slightest.

Let me try and illustrate what I mean -- the opening track  of At the Dream’s Edge is a short  keyboard piece called Galaxy Rise which beautifully sets the tone of the overall album and could easily be the work of any “name” composer you care to mention. This segues into Supererogation which is a catchy and rhythmically intelligent track with moments that remind one of the very best progressive bands, combined with angular, layered harmonies and fantastic use of two-handed tapping.

The title track itself has a fusion edge and the spartan piano chords and drum groove move into an uplifting melody before crushingly heavy guitars make an appearance alongside huge keyboard pads and more of his restrained and thematic lead work. The rest of the album continues somewhat in this vein and it is only with a desire to keep matters relatively brief that I’m not going to give you an exhaustive walk through of every track -- when something incorporates as many changes of mood and texture as At the Dream’s Edge I think in many ways it’s better to come to it without too many preconceptions other than one I can guarantee -- you will enjoy it.

I could easily run completely out of superlatives at this point, go fetch the thesaurus and then take up more of your time extoling his virtues but I can do far better than that and simply urge you to go buy it. Not only is the music here of the very highest standard but the production is pretty much flawless and I have to say that the value for money is incredible. This is a work that has taken 5 years to complete and while incorporating a Sci-Fi theme (I guess that calling this a Concept Album but in the very best way would sell it short however -  that’s what it is!) has remained utterly free of cliche.

Chimp Spanner -- At the Dream’s Edge (and it’s predecessor Imperium Vorago) are worthy of your immediate attention, and Paul himself surely has great things ahead of him.

Rating:

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