Omens immediately catches the attention. Musically it brings to the fore a series of menacing and enthralling cinematic ambiences with a clear 80s retro feel.
Pattern Behavior is a synth-electronic music duo formed by Elizabeth Virosa and Robert Galbraith who operate also various pseudonyms such as Snowbeasts. Galbraith is also the founder of the net label Component Recordings where have been produced most of his materials, also under the moniker of Pattern Behavior. This new release is signed by Toronto’s The Crime League who also published their EP Collapsar in 2014. This project has never ceased to surprise the listener with successive changes in musical style, diversifying technological tools and integrating new elements in the compositional plan. Their album Electric Minds (Component, 2016) was a synergy of various musical influences that produces something quite unique and difficult to identify, whatever if you like it nor not.
With its funky erotic, fantasist and surreal sci-fi like visual cover (maybe motivated by a love for E.C. “horror comics”—Omens immediately catches the attention. Musically it brings to the fore a series of menacing and enthralling cinematic ambiences with a clear 80s retro feel. Pulsating repetitive grooves are sustained by spectral-ghostly-airy vocals and scary synthesized textures. A tripped out and strangely moving soundtrack feeling prevails all along the album. In terms of comparison first projects that come to mind are Tangerine Dream, especially in their creepy and analog synth release “Sorcerer,” John Carpenter’s minimalist soundtracks for “The Fog” or “Prince of Darkness,” also materials from Goblin in “Tenebrae” or Jay Chattaway in “Maniac.” The album develops interesting ideas to persuade the listener to enter in an unusual and ominous spiral of drones, woozy atmospherics and eerie synth sequences.
A bright, tense and dark electronic music release that could be perfectly used for an original soundtrack for sleazy Halloween horror films, notably vintage stuff from George Romero, Dario Argento, Michel Soavi and Lamberto Bava.
Omens is available on The Crime League.
