Galactic Protector
Evening (Burning Witches Records)
Reviewed by Rick Weaver, Fri., Sept. 27, 2019
When metal bassist Bryan Richie put down the Sword and picked up a MIDI, assuming the role of a lo-bit Galactic Protector, he dropped big clean melodies from Seventies/Eighties soundtracks into an Atari valley of bottom-rich binary fantasy while avoiding the contemporary retro pitfalls and trick floors of contemporary vaporwave and dungeon synth. To make the drop, "Amaryllis" climbs at millennial leisure, like Jean-Jacques Perrey reclining while casually flashing his "Passport to the Future" at customs. As it lifts, "Amuse Bouche" sways its wings. "Tarsier" dodges clouds near sunset drift, and the spare aerodynamics of "Greige" lilt across a spotless sky. Though guided by linearity, the durational richness of Richie's 15-track mood feels less like a straight shot and more like a round trip: gratifying, tangible, circular. At its tail end, "Mother" fires the mix, sending chorused guitar into the bright bliss and burst of oblivion. Evening elegantly trails not a fantastic voyage, but a static trip through valley dreams, a spartan digital cruise where excursion flatlines into a perma-meditative state.
