Colin Kerr - The Perilous Final Passage of the Romantic Weights

Here's an album to prick your curiosity. First, the title: 'The Perilous Final Passage of the Romantic Weights'. Intriguing, I'm sure you'll agree. Next the artwork: no text, just a striking oil painting graces the cover. The blurb is promising: "a 42 minute instrumental divided into ten parts," - obviously a grand design and plenty of ambition, added to by the list of instruments including half an orchestra, iron and bolts. Fears begin to form however, upon learning it was all recorded in a bedroom. Not much room for all those instruments. It sounds as though only a computer and maybe a sequencer was used. Resultantly, cheap effects - not benefitting any kind of lo-fi analogue cool - strangle the album. There are some interesting ideas in the mix but the low production values kill them off. Decent instrumental samples might breathe new life into this but there's only so much binary cello one can take.