Review –
Beltane ‘The Fire of Becoming’
album through Definitive Recordings
Beltane means (at
least) two things: an ancient Celtic celebration of May-eve; and an Adelaide
based Ambient World-Dance Gothic/Industrial duo whose debut album “The Fire
of Becoming”, four years in the making, is now available through Definitive
Recordings and Beltane’s
website.
Paul
Handley is the founding member and basis of this outfit which
involves not a definite number of musicians including vocalists Karina
Eames, Bonnie Radibratovic & co-founder Sarah
Manthey. Like many artists within the Dark Wave of the music spectrum,
tracks on this album average just over 5:30 with moods varying from despair to
hope and themes including Ancient Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Gothic-Industrial
Artists that come to mind while listening to “The Fire of Becoming”
include Portishead,
The
Cure, aspects of Dogmachine,
Rammstein,
MOLG
and Thrill
Kill Kult. It is probably a good place to start if you were
considering an interest in this style of music – it’s not too heavily
Industrial but has just enough of the flavour to perhaps seek more out; it’s
not too electronic although more human input could add warmth to the
almost-clinical synthesized bases to these tracks; it has enough pop to keep
the punter hooked; it’s going to prove difficult to follow-up given this took
four years to make!