Mind Projects

Artist: Mind Projects
P: 1997
This well-done recording of mostly sequencer-based/Berlin school EM snuck in under my radar and missed getting reviewed much earlier. Mind Projects is the work of Paul Bliekendaal, Roland Guyt, and Marcel Guyt. The music on "States of Mind" was made to run as the soundtrack to a movie in which the lead character "processes her everyday activity, emotions, and past in her sleep." The music does have a cinematic feel to it at times (like the opening uptempo "States of Mind") and also, at times, becomes mysterious and ethereal (although not always in an ambient sense). "Visions" starts off as a floating dark ambient series of keyboard washes and soon morphs into a propulsive synth beat-driven cruiser, with percolating rhythms (I really like this cut). The third cut, "Desperation," has chime-like synths counterpointed by an underlying bass line and an occasional soaring lead line that comes and goes.
All the songs on this CD are solid and there's a fair amount of variety here, all within the framework of traditional German-school synth music. "R.E.M. Dreams" chugs along nicely with lots of buzzing and chirping synths. "Tension" juxtaposes synth choruses with mid tempo synth bass blasts and pulsing synth notes. Eventually there is a repeating refrain done on shimmering but minor key keyboards. The song builds nicely over its eight-plus minutes. "Religion" is another winner, evoking those mysterious feelings I alluded to earlier, through the use of female and male synth choruses and wailing warbling lead lines, accompanied by a burbling pulsing rhythm track.