Album Review: The Present Moment – Loyal To A Fault
Loyal To A Fault
Released 19th September 2011
The Present Moment is a project that is new to me and I’d love to know why! I love them! The Present Moment is the brain child of Scott Milton and Philipp Munch. Together they release their second album Loyal To A Fault through Mannequin. If you like dark early 80s influenced electronica then this will be for you. There’s a beautiful simplicity about this album and that is part of what I really enjoy about it. There are certainly moments of interest in the music but due to the really dark feel and the vocal it feels minimalistic without ever feeling empty or lacking in energy.
The Distance Between Us cleverly uses the minimal synth and sparse industrial feel to reflect the overall theme of the lyrics and it’s so beautiful in quite a depressing way. This isn’t really an album that you’d put on to lift your spirits. Following on from The Distance Between Us, is my favourite track on the album, Alone. It’s much more upbeat musically, though the vocal style remains the same deep, dark and this of course also reflects the songs theme. The album’s opening track, The Start Echo, also has an upbeat tempo but with a much fuller industrial sound that makes it sound gritty and meaty. The vocal sounds slightly echoy which adds further texture to the track. It’s a fantastic start to the album and gives little hints throughout as to what else can be found on the album.
Loyal To A Fault is quite a short affair, being only 10 tracks long and under 40 minutes, which used to be almost a standard but now seems short in current times where some albums have up to 17 tracks. Having said that I’d rather it be this way as it leaves out the possibility of any filler. Instead each and every track both stands alone and works together with the other tracks to build a solid and varied album. The title track, as expected, is a stand out track on the album. It really picks up on the harder edges of industrial sounds and uses vocal effects that aren’t used elsewhere on the album to slur and deepen the vocal making it feel really dark, especially in comparison to tracks such as Cheap Thrills and Intrigue, which then feel so light in texture and sound.
If you’re looking for an album that isn’t going to be part of everyone else’s CD collection and you like something a little further away from full on Industrial or Minimalist Electronica then this could be just the album for you. Loyal To A Fault wears its influences on its sleeve; it sounds almost twenty years old but current production techniques and sound quality give bring it smack bang up to date. I’m pretty pleased to have this new addition to my collection. If you’re a vinyl lover you might want to try and hunt down one of the elusive 300 12″ versions of the album too.
