Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

Releasing a follow up to their self-titled 2010 debut, Stockholm-based duo Roll the Dice (featuring TV and film composers Malcolm Pardon and Peder Mannerfelt) have gone in a rather different direction with ”In Dust”.

As the somewhat dark yet earthy album artwork suggests, Roll the Dice have moved forward from a sound that the BBC’s Chris Power described as ‘more directly related to the work of trailblazing 1970s kosmische bands such as Tangerine Dream and Cluster’ to a sound that is polished, gloomy and imposing.

It’s a rather interesting change.

Tracks like the 8-minute epics “Iron Black” and “Calling All Workers” are repetitive and minimalistic pieces which sit rather uneasily on the eardrums, and both sound like they belong as part of an old fashioned sci-fi programme with an apocalyptic ending. Synthetic piano is put to brilliant use throughout the album, never more so than in tracks like the stunning “Maelstrom”, stand-out track “Cause and Effect” and the gorgeous “Dark Thirty”. The effects the piano creates are quite different and profound – in some tracks like “The Skull is Built into the Tool” it’s there to create tension, in others it’s there to create light and almost hope and joy within the bleakness of the album, as shown superbly in “Way Out”. Experimental efforts like “The Suck” and “Evolution”, meanwhile, offer a different layer to the album and for the listener, keeping the album itself fresh and interesting.

Overall, “In Dust” is an excellent piece of contemporary music from beginning to end with a well thought-out format, and stands out as a creative, imaginative and artistic album with clear classic influences. Pardon and Mannerfelt have produced something that’s both hypnotic and interesting whilst showing real flair and originality throughout the album.

Well worth a listen.

9/10