E.S. Posthumus
Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber have been making music for a long long time. With Delerium, for almost 20 years. With Front Line Assembly and Skinny Puppy, longer. And there have been a myriad of other projects along the way. They provided me personally with several years of great music. That said, I think they’re finished. They did some groundbreaking things once, but they’re out of tricks. They’re not pushing the musical envelope any further, and while Nuages de Mondes was probably the best album since Karma, the progressions were the same as always, the arrangements, the soaring vocals and synthetic beats were unsurprising. Nothing significant has changed since Karma. It will be interesting to see if Leah Nash can offer a spark with their joint project, Foliage, but my expectations aren’t extremely high.
E.S. Posthumus, however, is relatively new to the musical scene, yet have a musical maturity that Delerium of late lacks. Each song on the 2001 album Unearthed offers something new and interesting. The first track could almost be a Delerium song, with it’s synthetic vocalist and choral crescendos. But the second features a pounding analog rhythm that Delerium just couldn’t do. Some songs sound strongly Celtic, others Indian or African, all have power and beauty to back them.
Their stated philosophy on the front page of the website is that “music is the harmonization of opposites; the conciliations of warring elements” (Pythagorus). That Delerium has forgotten this concept in their music strikes me as evident from what I always perceived as a misuse of silence. A remember a musician I know once telling me that the emotion is in the silence as much as the notes. We were talking about the Metallica solo in Unforgiven, of all songs. That’s always stuck with me, and ever since Karma I’ve found myself lamenting the lack of appropriate silence in Delerium. The music almost fanatically tries to push it’s listeners towards some ethereal emotional catharsis, but the result is a disengagement due to a lack of real depth. It’s like someone who tells a funny story and immediately afterwards begins asking, “Isn’t it funny? Isn’t it funny? ‘Artemus Binx!’ Haha. Hilarious!” and so on. There’s no room for the listerner to think, or for the sounds to settle in. All instruments are always madly playing their parts, with little variation in arrangement and instrumentation. Every song is the same build, build, build, drop out for a moment, build more for soaring ending.
E.S. Posthumus is a different story. Check them out if you’re looking for beautiful music with emotional and compositional integrity.
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Still no release date for Your Face is a Website. Keep posted.
keira said,
Dec 20, 14:26 #
I recently bought Nuages du Mondes and have been heartily enjoying it . . . however the music of Delerium is relatively new to me and so I had no expectations of them.
But I do understand what you mean about the lack of depth. The songs are quite pretty, and hint at a deeper talent, but are slightly wanting for emotional maturity. I find that the repetitive nature makes for lovely background music, rather than something to get completely absorbed in.
How’s your brother doing now?
Tristan said,
Dec 20, 22:05 #
My brother is home again, and healing well thus far. I talked to him yesterday and he sounded good. Hopefully he’ll be back at work in a couple of months.
Delerium is still a fun listen from time to time, but when I was introduced to Karma, it seemed to have a subtle emotional depth as well. Later albums seemed more contrived, though still enjoyable for a while. Now I guess I’ve just outgrown the music, but I have listened to Delerium more over the last 6 years than most other bands/groups/musical entities I know.
But again, if you like Delerium, try E.S. Posthumus. I’m also looking in on Montreal group Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Interesting so far, but I’m not yet ready to produce a verdict.
Aaron said,
Dec 21, 09:31 #
Yeah, it was all downhill after Karma, though Nuages du Mondes is the best album since.
I never did find a suitable replacement for Delerium. The first Conjure One CD was pretty good, but they did the exact same thing as Delerium after that—their second CD is just fluff. It’s not bad, it’s just not unusually good.
The Burdman said,
Dec 23, 19:39 #
As for your last post (I haven’t checked this in a bit) I think the most important observation that I have about Dickens is that he was paid by the word.
I don’t really have much to say about this post, but Merry Christmas!
Also, the name of my friend’s band is “Your Face”