Princess Century
Progress
Reviewed by: Ziggy Merritt
Certain albums tend to identify themselves with an imagined background soundtrack for everyday events or even the not-so-everyday ones. In Progress, the latest album by Maya Postepski aka Princess Century, she appears to imagine a neon-tinged ’80s noir film punctuated by elements of cosmic science-fiction. To some great effect she executes all of this with an unexpectedly dark flourish.
Most tracks here punch in around the six minute mark, making this a lengthy if not ponderously long album. Steady, repetitive rhythms run through most of these compositions while accents of ambient noise give them some additional texture. That said, Progress remains something doubly difficult to listen to attentively. It’s made for the darkened dancefloor of a cyberpunk-chic nightclub. Some of it anyway.
As an example, “Tokyo Hands” and “Sheugnessy” are much more subdued and stripped down than anything present on Progress. These resemble more of the cosmically awing effects Tangerine Dream had become so famous for on their early ’70s albums such as Phaedra or Atem though naturally here these sounds have evolved a bit from the capabilities of that era. Yet even with this advantage both of these tracks rely too heavily on repetition to remain afloat. Various layers of rhythmic drum beats occupy three and half minutes of “Tokyo Hands” before it switches over to a more electronically processed rehash of that very same three and a half minutes.
Still other tracks had a bit more success in exciting me, none more so than the opener, “Bros vs UFOs.” I had already been drawn in by the title as I momentarily thought up a vision of sterile space stations run amok with brawny douchebags wearing polo shirts and bermuda shorts. The vintage sound of this track at least partially fulfilled this fantasy of mine, while chilly tones more fitting on a Gary Numan album helped to flesh out that vision. The only real problem with Progress is that it has these few moments of excitement and moody, disco beats, yet disappointingly the momentum stalls out midway through.
Rating: Listenable
