Artist: Unexpect
Title: Fables of the Sleepless Empire
Type: Album
Label: Factor

This band from Montreal, Canada, has plenty of touring experience and plenty of plaudits. “Fables of a Sleepless Empire”, their third album, is listed as ProgCore. I’ve not heard of that but then I’ve not heard anything like this before. Its unconventional and constantly transforming structures see to that. It’s fast, drifting, Darkwave, Gothic, jazzy, technical, theatrical, macabre, in fact everything. There’s an element of an experimental Diablo Swing Orchestra meeting Tristania and Ava Inferi but that only tells you some of it. This album spends more time in a subconscious existence than most. As the band’s own biography puts it “Think Cirque du Soleil goes metal amidst an acid-trip version of The Dark Crystal”.

Each passage in this album has its own message and style. Unrelated styles blend and overlap with everything else to create an unusual sound. The continuity only exists in the fact that tracks start, press on and end at some point. It’s frequently discordant, especially on an instrumental level. The vocals range from angelic to extremely harsh, with theatrical inserts in the style of musicals. There are no genre boundaries or for that matter any boundaries. “Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest” is the title of the first track and sums up the album. It has an urgency and nightmarish feel. Like the soundtrack to a very strange avant-garde film, there’s horror and drama as it seems to drift in and out of consciousness in its black and macabre way. Classical, orchestral sounds are common but there’s always a discordance “Words” starts this way. The strains of a waltz mix with chaos, as the female singer’s voice floats impressively through the centre. As we come out on the other side – there are too many “other sides” on this album to mention – the beautiful sound of the violin can be heard. But it’s never quite right. Discomfort is at the forefront of this work which never stands still or takes stock. This music plays with the mind. On “Words” the sense is of soft Prog but it’s so irregular and the violinist gives the impression of being slightly mad. Ideas pour onto ideas. It’s classic in its way but yet it’s totally off the wall. The illogical progressions have a feel of the French band Akphaezya, but the mood here is darker and to some extent Gothic.

Is there any point in trying to make sense of all this? “Orange Vigilantes” most definitely has the charm of Diablo Swing Orchestra with the fast and breathless motion, but do I hear jazz? It’s typically not straightforward and what I hear is a kind of Prog Jazz. If it were on the radio, you’d be adjusting your tuner. To follow is the sound of an orchestra warming up. It’s almost normal but deep growls intervene and we’re off again. The lady’s lush voice runs meanwhile through the scampering discordance. We hear Technical Death Prog at this point of the appropriately titled “Mechanical Phoenix” but it’s fleeting. But the technical work comes to the fore again. The lady somehow manages to convey a depth of feeling even though it’s somewhere in the background. Delicate technical guitar work enters the scene in the most coherent passage of the whole album. There’s always something bursting to come through, and this case it’s the growls and violin which change the mood to one of threatening danger. Technical Death returns and stops. The orchestra plays out the track wistfully. Technical guitar work takes us into “The Quantum Orchestra”. The atmosphere is one of darkness, chaos and fear. There are the aural images of ghouls and opening doors. The violinist continues insanely. The drum signals a change. Individually, every instrument is identifiable but something doesn’t seem right as the track pursues its frantic and independent course. There’s urgency from the drumming and feeling from the violin and a strangely upbeat ambiance, but this is from another reality. Theatricality and colour take over on the eccentric Jazz Metal circus before we hear the sounds of a mystical swamp land of “In the Mind of the Last Whale”. Creepy-crawly sounds are accompanied by a very dark piano tune and deep sound waves – we are indeed inside a mind. It’s frightening. This is the interlude and prelude to “Silence this Parasite”. The violin, which caused me much pleasure on this album with all its moods, now creates a merry dance as the background to a piece of Folk Metal mayhem. The album ends with a trio of songs under the heading “Until Yet a Few More Deaths Do Us Part”. If their range hasn’t proved to be enough, this stretches us still further. There are quiet moments, dreamy violins but there is also funky and colourful jazz-style Darkwave Goth. I thought of Trail of Tears, but this is nothing so straight. Theatricality again mixes with emotion and it all leads to a dramatic end to this thoroughly eccentric work.

“Fables of the Sleepless Night” will test your avant-garde tolerance level as it did mine. I stuck with it and thoroughly enjoyed the bumpy ride. In some ways I don’t know what it was all about but then you look at the track titles and this gives you an idea. After all, this is an alternative reality and Unexpect, who live up to their name, deliver it very well and in a highly imaginative way.

http://www.unexpect.com

http://www.myspace.com/unexpect

Andrew Doherty

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