ARTIST: Autoclav1.1

ALBUM: Love No Longer Lives here

LABEL: Tympanik Audio

REVIEWER: Matthew J.

DATE: 4-26-09

Following up his recent remix collection, Tony Young takes the Autoclav1.1 sound into darker, grimmer territory on his third studio album. Still emotive, still combining pianos and classical elements with trip-hop and experimental techno, this nonetheless represents a darkening of mood; Young's less sentimental here, not sorrowful so much as bleak. "Casually Losing Selected Memories" starts things off with dreary pianos layered over soft breakbeats, and "All for You" deepens the sense of melancholy with rich synthesized strings. It's "All Long Black Spirals" that really takes things into the heaviest territory Young has yet explored; featuring guitars from Jamie Blacker of E.S.A., it mixes the sludgey crunch of metal-inspired power chords with crystalline pianos. An even more surprising guest shows up on "Hell Is the Face of Love," with Dave Pybus of black metal act Cradle of Filth contributing bass to the song's tense cinematic textures and cold, hard electro rhythm. If this album takes Autoclav1.1 into some unexpectedly aggressive directions, there's still more than enough tenderness and tranquility in evidence to please fans of Young's previous work; "We Shatter Sometimes" is particularly gorgeous, with deep breakbeats opening up below electric guitars and a sustained piano loop, "This Stranger Hope" is rich and symphonic, with cellos and violins surrounding a muted rhythm, and "Trails Without Pathways" surrounding a languid melody with fuzzy layers of choir and piano. Still recognizable as Autoclav1.1, this album indicates a growing maturity as well as an expanded musical perspective, and that's an impressive thing indeed coming from an artist whose earliest works already showed an incredible ability to mix musical complexity with emotionally affecting hooks and melodies,

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