Steve Gilmore Reviews: Alchemystic - Beyond The Borders Of Reality

Hear The Track Here

Artist: Alchemystic
Title: Beyond The Borders Of Reality

Alchemystic is a surprising dude. It takes a while to get what he's about but once you have a taste there'll be no going back. My first problem with this guy is that whenever I looked as his music I couldn't seem to get the flashing neon light that spelled Game Soundtrack out of my eyes. From the earliest tracks: Sands Of Time (May 2005), Frozen Memories (July 2005), A World Within (December 2005) it was obvious that the Games Soundtrack genre wasn't for this guy. I like to think of myself out of the genre box mostly and (when pushed to it) will describe myself as a Modern Composer and THAT is probably what Alchemystic does - to an absolute tee. Me, I make little vignettes, no more than a snapshot of time... Alchemystic creates whole worlds, operas of the soul and mind, films in sound...

and a gut busting megawhopperchomper of a download problem. Broadband Halleljah!! Broadband Halleljah!!

Take, for example, Beyond The Borders Of Reality, a track that is NOT available right now because it's a track off his upcoming album and me being the smart bastard here snagged a copy (or six) See, like a lot of musicians, Alchemystic is a bit of a perfectionist. By my reckoning we went through three different versions to get to the one I am actually reviewing right now - a magnum opus weighing in at 11MB and a 11:40 running time. Most regulars know by now that I have a short attention span (what?) and it takes a lot to keep me amused for a second or two let alone eleven fekkin minutes. So why did Alchemystic take the chance? Because he's a right confident geezer and he KNOWS that he has something a bit good simmering on the crucible... If Beyond the Borders is an example of what that album is going to contain I'd say it's an even bet that the man will do well out of it.

For why? Think. Eleven. fekkin. minutes. Could you do it AND keep the interest?

There's a special skill to scoring that - when everything comes together - makes for something totally uplifting to come through and (every) mix I heard of this track had that. To be sure, the final version has a presence that the others lacked but its essentially the same layer cake, and I mean that most sincerely folks. Believe me you are still going to be tripping on this next year Even having listened to this a million times I cannot pin the damn thing down, because it's got a bit of everything attatched to it. There's rock a la P Floyd, there's a wee dash of space opera, gargantuan themes that seem to grow bigger with each listening and a studied, very assured way coming through on both the performance and production levels. In my year end awards of 2005 Alchemystic came from nowhere to snag a Li'l Beast prize (that's a rising star to you unfortunates who don't know how cheap and tacky the Stevies really are) and going by this example he just put himself lightyears beyond that because when all is said and done Beyond The Borders Of Reality is nothing less than a work of art.

Awesome scope and breadth of vision.