Revolutionary Cells - Ba

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 5 / 5 / 2011

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While they claim to be an ‘experimental rock/metal band combining disparate musical elements’, James Slone and Sean Sleight have crafted an album that will surprise anyone expecting something ticking those genre boxes. Revolutionary Cells's naming of this album 'Ba' is apparently designed to reference both the chemical element barium and the urban sprawl that is Buenos Aires. Its liner notes express the fears of Sleight and Slone that progress in biological science will been misappropriated by governments to the point that “our very cells will be inscribed with corporate logs, detectable only by microscopes”. For a band so seemingly poised on the line between experimental and downright mental, Barium/Buenos Aries is remarkably approachable as a musical experience. The bass-based movement of the opening number recycles its refrain via re-purposed elements, ranging from middle-east-sounding chants to samples in Spanish to what sounds like train noises. It all melds into a compellingly atmospheric soundscape that rushes onwards as it swims from ambient to rock-infused to B-movie soundtrack and back again. Like a conversation with a paranoid drunk, the near-continuous music veers towards and away from making sense, both in and out of time with its occasional flirtations with violence, and always building in more of a sinister feel as it progresses towards a space-rock, synth-strewn denouement. It is never entirely clear how much the Ba project is a concept album and how much it genuinely represents the heartfelt musical ravings of paranoid minds terrified at the march of science. Track titles like 'BBC Melodrama' and 'Obnoxious Art Installation' may suggest the latter to some. It is perfectly possible to ignore this underpinning artifice/madness and just enjoy this musical journey, but if you fancy the full Revolutionary Cells experience it has much to recommend it. Just don't expect to come through this album any wiser about either barium or Buenos Aires.

Track Listing:-

1 Interstate Commerce (Motorik 2010)
2 Space Khomeini
3 Tumor
4 Paradise Nevada
5 Knife
6 BBC Melodrama
7 Every Game Has an End
8 Bomb on the Carousel
9 Clandestine
10 Obnoxious Art Installation

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