Logan Sky Faces The Flames

Logan Sky's new album, Face The Flames, has just been released and this artists individualised sounds feel like they've found a evolutionary plateau with an experience unlike most anything else around. Logan Sky's Journeys Into The Interior of last year really set the stage for this composer's diverse sound and Face The Flames refines the Logan Sky experience even further.

Logan Sky's style is a melange of avant garde arrangements that are drawn from a palette that leans towards the 16bit end of the sound spectrum but also includes a wider range of instrumentation for contrast. I wouldn't call his music ChipTune in it's sound as there is always a far greater amount of sounds used than traditional ChipTune, but the nuances of the 16bit age are a staple of his ambience.



This adds a simplistic mechanical-like element that feels primal and pure and then the added layers of more traditional instrumentation to blend the colours into more complex structures with the end result being a very individualised sound. With Face The Flames Logan Sky has pushed this non-traditional instrumentation into non-traditional arrangements which give an eclectic and free-form personality to the music.

Instead of lushly drawn epic vistas we are presented with concentrated ideas that say their piece and then move on to the next idea. There is an idea in each track that provides a singularity which is then taken from birth to death, allowing it's elemental force to be experienced almost like a science experiment. Once this has been completed, the next one begins. Seemingly unrelated at first but over the course of the album make up the many parts and facets that coalesce into a cohesive volume.

It's these compartmentalised vignettes that take the listener through much unfamiliar territory. Opening pieces lead to a fall sense of security. The make up of the likes of the title track and Blonde Cobra keep to worlds with distinctions of familiarity, however by the time we're in the clutches of Guatami and Snake Pit our mind is hijacked into another dimension of visions that are thoroughly alien.

Logan Sky's sounds remain unfettered by convention throughout this record, with free forming, hypnotising melodies that are broken, cursed and banished while seemingly unrelated elements are introduced in a manner that provides new context. Instrumental sounds are also taken back to base particles and then rebuilt with little respect for preconceived notions. The result of which makes for an experience you'll not find elsewhere in earthly dimensions.

With all this experimentation one might begin to think accessibility has been foregone but it's Logan Sky's uncanny knack of making the alien homely and the foreign native that means each track engages and entertains without ostracising the listener in any way. By the time the album reaches Start To Shiver and Crash And Burn it becomes very obvious that we are welcomed in as a part of Logan Sky's world. We are made to feel comfortable in his home and the music isn't a barrier but an open door into this new dimension.

By the time the closing chapters of Face The Flames wash over us there is a feeling of completion to the experience that is wholly fulfilling. Logan Sky's bared musical soul feels complete and a satisfaction of experiencing and understanding this departure from tradition provides much enlightenment. I feel like I 'get' Logan Sky after listening to this album and repeated listens reinforce this.

Face The Flames is like a parallel universe that exists as counterpoint and contrast to what we are familiar with. Crossing through this open door into this wonderful land is like aural vacation to a far away land that doesn't really speak the same language, but has the same message of hope, love and the experience we share as sentient beings.

The album also contains two extra remixes, Highway Superstar's reworking of the title track and Logan Sky's own interpretation of Palm Highway Chase's Escape From New York. These two remixes serve as a way to bring you back to reality, preventing any jarring between the Logan Sky dimension and our own familiar world. A very positive finish to a mind broadening experience.

Logan Sky's Face The Flames album is presented on his Bandcamp page here and is highly recommended to listeners of 80s inspired synth who want to walk a road less travelled and experience new possibilities outside their comfort zones.