Makeup And Vanity Set (MAVS) were one of my favourite groups of 2012, their stunningly beautiful soundtrack synth work on the 88:88 album blew my mind when it came out and still does. Now in 2013 what I was very excited about in the promise of a new MAVS release has become a mere waypoint in a journey to much more auspicious destinations.
The newly released 7.25.2148 EP is essentially a prelude to a future dual album release. The tracks contained within are small cogs of a much more vast machine working within a thematic that endeavours to cross space and time itself. Touted by the group themselves as a 'prologue' it makes for a fascinating experience of not so much the now, but of what will be.
Through the five movements of 7.25.2148 we're transported through an abundance ambient synth meditations that are layered to perfection with the total balance of atmosphere and ambivalence. Opening with An Infinite Horizon the palette is drawn with endless echoes of sounds that reverberate
in on themselves and evolve into something vastly spatial yet close and full of life. This is MAVS doing the style the do so very well, making the epic and grandiose appear effortless and natural.
I always think of the two sides of MAVS as being reasonably unrelated, perhaps this is something they will be dealing with on the future albums, but the for me the more ambient soundtrack work is delightfully contrasted by their cosmic disco compositions. Track 2, Quadra IV, sets off into a crisply stylized space disco, replete with trademark MAVS climbing melodies and drama that builds over aeons of time. Shuddering and ghostlike this track brings to mind a great deal of the memories of 88:88 with a slew of moribund arrangements promising a much darker side than the surface gloss allows one to see through.
Taking things back to astronomical ambience is Versions, which seems describe foreboding planetoids containing powers beyond human comprehension. Their gaseous bodies forming through time unfathomable, yet presenting earth-like qualities that mirror our thoughts and imaginations. This leads into Turing/Gone Dark which seamlessly continues this thought and steals our memories in seconds that then stretch out into decades before us, disappearing in a reprisal of boundless energy. This chapter is closed by spoken words recounting spectacles witnessed yet entirely beyond comprehension.
Praxis finishes off the 7.25.2148 experience with more magical MAVS space disco that expands upon the idea of Quadra IV while adding more inquisitive layers to the puzzle. The final evolution of this track becomes boldly brash with MAVS sounding quite possibly their grooviest yet.
As the sounds fade out, I find myself yearning for more of this experience, and knowing it's going to arrive in due course, whets my appetite even further. It's definitely going to be one hell of ride when the dual albums arrive and until then I'll be happy to revisit the world of MAVS as often as my imagination allows courtesy of this offering.
To complete this release there is a limited edition CD including the above tracks plus the five track Praxis EP with contains Praxis, A Prologue and three remixes of Praxis by Magic Sword, Pilot Priest and Sabrepulse. The remixes offer much diversity to the MAVS original and prove rather entertaining as individual parallel universes to Praxis's own dimension.
This limited edition package, and the regular digital download EP of 7.25.2148, can be purchased through Telefuture Records' Bandcamp page here. 7.25.2148 comes very highly recommended from Synthetix.FM as a beautifully orchestrated soundtrack synth experience of a supremely high calibre, which is magically complemented by MAVS own brand on uncompromisingly luxurious space disco brilliance.
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