aaamusic | On 29, Apr 2012

There’s nothing worse than listening to one song on an album, deciding it’s unique, and then assuming the other songs on the album are going to be mind-blowing, only to discover the majority of them sound pretty similar, in terms of style. Sadly, this is what happened with The Imagined Village’s latest album – ‘Bending the Dark’.
The first three songs on the album differ from each other and are each, in their own way, incredible. However, by the fourth track you’d be forgiven for getting bored halfway through the song and wanting to turn the rest of the album off before even listening to it.
The first track on the album, ‘The Guvna’, is incredible. It’s upbeat, yet it still manages to be relaxing and the way each instrument compliments the other was proof that all involved have admirable talent. The track is an amalgamation of various music styles, including dub-step, and yet it is somehow a style all of its own. This represents the concept behind The Imagined Village, who originally set out to see whether traditional and non-traditional musicians were able to work with each other and produce something amazing. This track is purely instrumental and is brilliant to listen to when you want to relax.
The second track is called ‘Captain’s Apprentice’ and is only 1minute 20seconds long. Having said that, it is the most chilling track on the album and it features one of the most breath-taking vocals heard on a song in a long time, so the track length proves to be perfect. It is a stark contrast to the first track as it is solely vocals on this track, with minimal instruments used.
The next track holds the same feel as the previous. ‘New York Trader’ has a slightly pirate-esque feel to the whole track. However, it wouldn’t be The Imagined Village unless it blended together various instruments and styles – something this song does with ease. The vocals aren’t quite as powerful as in ‘Captain’s Apprentice’ but that could have something to do with the fact that it’s a blend of vocals and instruments and, therefore, the focus is not just on the vocals alone. That being said, it is probably the second best track on the album (after ‘Captain’s Apprentice’ of course).
Then we come to the fourth track – the track which, for me, made the rest of the album unlistenable. It’s the title track – ‘Bending the Dark’ and is 11minutes or so long. It starts off really well with choir-like vocals and a folky musical introduction, but after a few minutes the track becomes more and more boring. That’s the problem when tracks are so long – no matter how much changing of a style you do, it’s always going to sound fairly similar. It’s the same as having 3 songs on an album sound near enough the same and putting them back to back – it’s never going to work.
From this point on the tracks are still, in their own right, brilliant. My attention span, however, was not doing so well.
The overall folky style of The Imagined Village is one that seems to have been forgotten about in recent times, sadly. It’s brilliant and the blend of various instruments and styles is incredibly creative and for that both the band and the album should be commended. They have a unique sound that sets them apart from any other band out there – it’s their unique selling point, if you wish. There isn’t a song on the album in which the instruments stop complementing each other. There also isn’t a track on there that doesn’t blend together various musical styles with ease and simplicity. Overall, it’s a decent album but, in some ways, far too much concentration had to be held to stop myself getting bored and turning it off. Their style and thought process behind the band and the music is one that hasn’t been seen by me before but they need to re-think such long tracks and ways to make each song completely different from the last without losing their sound entirely.

★★★★★

Melisa Greenfield