Artist: Robin Taylor Album: X Position Vol. 2 Label: Marvel Of Beauty Website: http://www.progressor.net/robin-taylor/ Reviewer: Paulo André

Track List: 01. Drogdensgade 02. Svaneklint 1 03. Finanslovsforslag (Jeg) 04. Operette 05. RME 06. Ude og Hjemme 07. Metal pĺ Metal 08. Arkitekter 09. Svaneklint 2 10. Flimmerland Disclaimer: if you're not open to experimental, avant-garde music, with all due respect, you may as well just stop reading this review. Because, to be honest, this is definitely not for you and there's so much else to look at and listen to. If you, however, like it dangerous and puzzling, come along because it may be worth the while. Robin Taylor is a hugely prolific musician hailing from cold Copenhagen, Denmark. Composer, multi instrumentalist, arranger and producer among a miriad of other capacities, he has been dishing out records for almost twenty years now with different monikers like "Taylor's Universe" or "Taylor's Free Universe" (I'm glad the guy could free his universe along the way). I must say this is my first contact with Taylor's work and only the thickest skin enables me to actually stomach this latest offer of his. That having been said, I think this record is brilliant. What we have here is the lost soundtrack to some movie David Lynch has left in the drawer. "X Position Vol. 2" plays quite a lot with repetition to create mood and ambient, sometimes taking the experimentalism to the extreme. Opener "Drogdensgade" can be quite eerie and playful at the same time, relying solely on synthesizers and bass while the second track "Svaneklint 1" follows the same path adding some experimentation with sparse guitar chords. The going gets really though right on track 3 which simply consists of quite scary voices coming from everywhere across the stereo field, mumbling in Danish or something, while guitar strings are pulled at leisure and in a completely dissonant, chaotic, maniacal fashion. Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals" comes to mind, somehow. The mood lightens up a little with "Rme", which plays with a bit of percussion and light piano work, again drawing in repetition, a recursive theme on this record. But suddenly we're back at that strange place in "Ude Og Hjemme" and this is where the Lynch link I was talking about stares at you the most. If you've seen "Inland Empire", well... this could be the long lost bonus cut of its soundtrack. It's only by the end of the record that we get something that resembles... regular music. But only just. The appearance of what sounds like real drums on the last couple of tracks comes like a bottle of oxygen after the opressingly dark quality of all that came before. Here we get drums and bass that groove quite a bit punctuated by excellent, yet again repetitive (that's part of the deal), keyboard work. Yet, lurking under the surface... you got it. Thankfully, this is a short listen at only 47 minutes. Not because what's in it sucks, but because it is quite difficult to swallow all the weirdness, no matter how delightful it may sound in a twisted kind of way. It can pull you in on a certain day, at a certain place, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. If you like avant- garde and are not tied to rhythm, definitely check it out. If you don't, avoid at all costs. This simply does not exist for you. Band: Robin Taylor: Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Percussion Fischer - Stringman, Vocals Hansen - Drums