Chimp Spanner – At the Dream’s Edge

There are times in your life that will remain with you for the rest of your days, births, deaths, marriages, that moment behind the bike sheds with whatshername and now for me I can add the first time that I heard Chimp Spanner, the new addition to the Basick Records label.

I had heard the name banded about the realms of Twitter and Facebook, so I thought why not. I really wasn’t prepared for what I was about to hear… The aural soundscapes created by, the infinitely immense talent that is multi-instrumentalist, Paul Antonio Ortiz aka Chimp Spanner are beyond compare.

“At the Dream’s Edge” is the audio equivalent of the 3D scenes in the recent movie Avatar. With groundbreaking aural effects of the like that have never been heard before, well, they probably have but not with such epic arrangement and scale as this. From the intro track “Galaxy Rise” that leads into the superb “Supererogation” to the last track “All Good Things” the journey never stops.

With an album that is as genuinely as good as “At the Dream’s Edge” trying to pick highlights is downright impossible to do but tracks such as “Harvey Wallbanger”, “Bad Code”, “Far From Home” and “Terminus Pt II” are worthy of a mention but i could have quite easily mentioned every track on the album!

For any fan of Progressive music this is a must, from soaring guitars to trademark djent riffs and atmospheric keyboards aplenty each telling its story without words. I pondered the question of whether or not vocals would enhance the music any further but it didn’t take long to realise that the answer is simply no, in fact, vocals would more than likely detract from the essence of the songs.

Put simply this is an album that will let you lose yourself for an hour in some of the most inspiring music that I have heard in years.

Chimp Spanner – Myspace page

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