Ethereal in a sort of
mid-90s IDM "chillout" compilation sort of way, Iuengliss'
Motion in Mind is an intriguing sort of self-produced album that
links electronic production with dreamy bedroom vocals. It can be
pretty nifty stuff at times, drawing inevitable comparisons to
The Notwist, The Books, and even The Orbital.
Lone orchestrator Tom Metz hasgot a great sense for
visual design, evident both on the album art and his live
performances (see video below), and his music conveys a similar
sense of digital collage-ism.
Like many a
self-produced album, Motion in Mind boasts moments of
greatness amid an inconsistent supporting cast. Consider "Sunrise,"
which has a grandiose epicness to it - its powerful synths
and floating vocals make it one of the disc's best moments. Also
noteworthy is the stellar "Dark Mix" of "Say Goodbye," with its
drastic, urgent chorus. Other songs are clearly made of great
ideas, but lack a polished togetherness that would take them to the
next level ("Worth a Million," "Another Time").
Overall, Metz's
production work shows excellent polish and terrific potential, and
his shoegaze-steeped vocals complement the spacey compositions
perfectly. However, it is apparent that this could have been a
tighter and more cohesive effort had he allowed more time to expand
on his sound and work out the kinks. Although a career in obscurity
could be a statistical probability, I would not be surprised if, in
time, Iuengliss became the next big thing in electronic
music.
