Through Memory’s Perception by Transcend with Time (Mark M)

Through Memory’s Perception by Transcend with Time (Mark M)
Transcend with Time (2009) 62:00 minutes
www.myspace.com/transcendwithtime

Review by Kate Russell

Listed on Transcend with Time’s myspace page, composer and musician ‘Mark M’ states that he would “like to do music for films, commercials etc”. I feel he should extend this list to making music for video games, as this is exactly the kind of arena this album seems particularly suited to. By video game music, I mean synthetic sounding tracks that play on a very similar theme. I listened to the album a few times over before writing the review, partly because I felt I had somehow been listening to the same piece over and over for the entire duration of the album.

Honestly, I’m still not sure if this is a good or a bad thing for “Through Memories Perception”. On the bad side, obviously, sixty minutes of very similar sounding music might not be a compelling sell-point for a music album. Then again, repetition on a theme can work really well in situations where the focus is on something else, such as in soundtracks. Some may really enjoy the unobtrusive, hypnotizing effect of these tracks - for me personally, I was left craving a little more variety and musical happenings throughout.

Really though, my biggest gripe with this album was the grating sound of the tinny drum track throughout. I’m not sure if this was a real drum fed through effects, or some pre-programmed beat, but regardless, the effect was somewhat grating against the wistfulness of the rest of the instrumentation.

The album opens with the stirring ‘Open Your Eyes’. As an introductory album track, it’s decent enough - you get the sense that you’re flying through time with the repetitive keyboard loops and it sets the theme well for the rest of the album. The title track ‘Through Memories’ perception is much gentler piece which precedes the spacier-sounding ‘Visions of Premonition’ and ‘Signs of Existence’. Of all of the tracks on the album, ‘Cognitive Imagery’ was the stand out favourite: the icicle-like mysterious and delicate sounds of the melody struck me as being particularly compelling (and perhaps more to the point, no drum track - sorry). The pace picks up a little in ‘A Lingering Thought’ before sliding back into that same familiar style in ‘Reminiscence’ , ‘Into The Realm of Quiet’, ‘Time of Certainty’ and ‘A Dream Subsides’.

My disparaging remarks on the percussion aside, this is not a bad album, particularly if you are into computerized sounding music. At just over sixty minutes in length and ten tracks long, Transcend with Time’s album, “Through Memory’s Perception” could make a good, laid-back soundtrack to a thoughtful stroll through the park, drive, or even meditation, where the repetitive mood of the music could be useful in helping gain focus on the matter to be contemplated.

Individual tracks from “Through Memory’s Perception” are available for download at http://www.tarniusmusic.com/transcendwithtime, along with some others from Transcend with Time’s collection.

(Personally, as a video gamer, I’m fully expecting to hear Transcend with Time’s music on some future release or other in the near future - it just seems made for that sort of thing.)

Kate Russell is a singer/songwriter and busker from Vancouver, up until recently performing under the stage name Jadis Gloom (www.myspace.com/jadisgloom). Currently she is taking some time out from her solo music projects to write, listen to other styles of music and gain inspiration from other artists and their own creative journeys. Believing that to look into someone’s art is also to look inside their soul, she enjoys the intimate opportunities for understanding others in new ways that being a music critic provides.