Emeralds – Does it Look like I’m Here? 7.3

Emeralds specialize in a certain type of progressive rock gone amok. Think of endless synthesizers blazing a trail straight into the sky, and you’re halfway there. Obviously this works well as background music for whatever you might be doing, but there’s certain moments that remind you human hands are behind this.

Those bits are like the halfway mark at “Candy Shoppe”, the last fourth of “Genetic” and so on. Pieces of genuine emotion are thrown in there to bring you back from space, down to reality once again. Most of these songs are relatively short, and the mixing between each track is really enjoyable.

Mego continues down a different path this year. So far, there’s been considerably mellower stuff from Peter Rehberg’s label. Even the new Hecker material gives me the sense that perhaps this cosmic sound might be making a comeback. Hopefully Emeralds and their side projects continue to deluge us with material, though I still happen to enjoy Mark McGuire’s solo stuff over this.