seven

After ceasing with the Mentallo project, Gary Dassing moves on with a brand new direction that brings us what seems to be a hit and miss release. Being much, much better than the latest solo efforts by Gary Dassing on the last Mentallo release, Shrimi shows much promise combining styles similar to that of Skylash and older, earlier Mentallo & the Fixer. But the sound is another question itself.

Some tracks, such as "Eclipsing Binary" and "Continents Adrift" have a nice playfulness in the melodic structures and use of old-school erratic percussive elements that remind me of the later mentallo work meets Eric Chamberlain's Skylash. Very much more uplifting and universal for all to respect. As for the rest of the material, it has many positive points in the programming itself; the main problem lies within dated preset sounds used, as well as bland and accessible instruments that appear just to fill a gap in a particular sequence.

I can say that this new direction shows many positive characteristics, but there is also a fair amount of what I felt was somewhat lifeless and disappointing compared to the Dassing brothers' excellent work of earlier years on releases such as "where angels fear to tread" and "burnt beyond recognition." Maybe I was too spoiled with such awesome releases as those, but the programming sound and equipment used was so brilliant at the time, while same seriousness is missing here. Do this all over with different equipment and more abstract, unique , and modern sounds, and you just might have a winner. …Although Skylash may have made it to the finish line first.