EP Review: Ange.Mac + Shaun Garea

What we have here is the debut collaboration from Ange.Mac and Shaun Garea. Ange.Mac has been making experimental industrial/ambient music since 2006 and can also be seen playing with his thrash/black metal/hardcore/D-Beat Punk band Bloody Hell while Shaun has just returned to the scene after a gap of about 10 years but was previously in the hard rock band Dezmadore. Even before getting into the music, I could see this was an interesting collaboration, as only two of the five tracks are by both of them. One was jointly written, performed solely by Shaun and produced by Ange.Mac, and then there are two completely solo performances.

However, the EP does not feel as fractured as one might imagine, but instead is incredibly cohesive, and while dark ambient is at its core there are also plenty of other influences being brought in at different times such as industrial, avant-garde, gothic, experimental, new age, and others. Based on keyboards, some songs have vocals, and while some can be relaxing and pleasant there are others which are more challenging, almost invoking the likes of Gridfailure or Krautrock. This is powerful stuff, music which demands to be listened to on headphones so none of the nuances are missed as there is a lot going on while at the same time it can be felt to be almost somnambulant at times. This is music created to take the listener into another space, mostly pleasant, but not always, and although some of the underlying themes are repetitive this is just undertaken to create a framework for other threads being woven over the top. These guys are currently working on the soundtrack to the forthcoming Doom Pilgrim tabletop card game by Czech developer Warclaw Games and I sincerely hope that means we are going to be hearing much more from them as this 30+ minute long EP is well worth investigating by those who want their music to be thoughtful and interesting while also being way out in left field, far from the mainstream.