Smoke & Mirrors - Deities

I've decided I'll put together an Aural Fixation Records blog and I'll let you all know when that is up and running. I'll still post big important stuff about our label here, but you can rest assured that this blog will stay focused on EAR/Rational Music, not our label.

That said, I wanted to mention we have been getting renewed interest in "Deities," the second Smoke & Mirrors CD we released. Andy Garibaldi of Dead Earnest sent us this review, and I think it accurately speaks to the wealth of influences and sounds on this great release:

Now if ever an electronic music CD could be said to be "something different" but immensely gripping on an epic listening scale, then this is it. If you had to liken their music to anyone, then imagine a cross between In The Nursery, early Orb, Makyo, Roach & Metcalf, Banco De Gaia and Clear Light and you're pretty close to this massive slice of exotic audio feasting. Across two CD's, nearly two and a half hours of music and 22 tracks, you'll witness mile-wide electronic music layers, soundscapes, melodies and tunes that stretch out in all directions, the aural equivalent of looking out onto a gorgeous blue sea surrounded by beautiful scenery. The percussive and electro-percussive rhythms are unashamedly rooted in the chilled-out glory days of mid-nineties ambience, while the deep, dubby and throbbing bass lines are kept strong but unobtrusive, so that they add to the overall soundscape while still propelling the sound to even greater heights. The extra presence of early seventies Pink Floyd-esque chiming laid-back electric guitar leads merely serves as icing on an already substantial cake. There is no way in the world that you can pin this thing down in terms of its style or content—it simply does not conform to any "pigeon-hole" and—like the Glimmer Room 'Grey Mirrors' album before it—simply transcends all that to become this immense example of filmic, flowing, huge-sounding, melodic, deep, multi-layered and strong-sounding musical opus from keys, synths, electronics, guitars and electronically-derived acoustic-sounding drums/percussion. Instrumental, themed around Hindu deities and with tracks from just under three minutes to over twelve, this is a truly mind-expanding sea of music of great vision and execution, one that you should waste no time in hearing.

We've made half of the tracks available as complete streaming MP3s, so you can listen to the whole track rather than a 30-second snippet which won't give you an accurate read on the music.