Invocation ov 23
Beautiful Lover
Anthem
Snakeskin
Domino
Venus in Veils
To be forgotten
Rebis
A Game in the Dark (Revisited)
Imposición de manos
Vigiliae (3:14 A.M.)
...so as not to wake you

"Rebis" is not the usual sort of release to be reviewed in AP. Instead of my usual preamble… which can be quite boring and tiresome at the best of times… here I’ll let Fernando Manchado (Morpheus) explain in his own words the reasoning behind his "Rebis" release:

“As you can see, I finally made up my mind and decided to go solo on this trip. No record labels, no middlemen, no distribution, no physical CD. Just download it, listen to it, enjoy it (or hate it), share it, burn it, do what you want with it as long as it's not for commercial purposes (click on the CC logo to see exactly what you can and can't do). As the music is free, if you want to support me, you can always buy a photograph or two! I bet you're thinking "hey, that Vulnerability card would look great on my wall". Well, here's your chance to add a touch of class and distinction to your home AND help me pay the rent at the same time!”

As you can see "Rebis" is free. Which I find a quite baffling decision on Fernando’s part. For "Rebis" is the pinnacle so far of his career in my view. I liked, in their own way, the previous Morpheus recordings "Ouroboros", "Elohim" and "Babylon", but "Rebis" is the more complete article. A thoroughly enjoyable and atmospheric ride through ritual / tribal, dark ambient, torch jazz singing, neo-folk / martial / classical music with copious amounts of samples spread throughout the 23 tracks. In fact 23 illuminating and totally engrossing tracks with a strong sexual undercurrent of tension bubbling away quite merrily below the surface. Take track 4: ‘Snakeskin’ for instance. Over the sound of a camera clicking away a voice intones a very strange tale whilst the music adds the backdrop of piano and vibrant electronics. Highly erotic and creepy at the same time. There’s just so much going on throughout the recording that trying to pick out the highlights is a near impossible ta sk. Anyone who can take the S&M song ‘Venus in Furs’ by The Velvet Underground (here renamed ‘Venus in Veils’) and make it sound like a Care Bears styled kiddies chant makes the song even more subversive and sinister than it already is. Genius. Fernando flits between musical genres within the blink of an eye, always being more inventive at every turn, that the sheer wonderment of it all threatens to overwhelm the senses. Keeping things stripped down, with no over produced pieces of nonsense to act as filler, his creative juices are pushed to the fore making the release even more remarkable.

I’ll dock Fernando a mark for not sending in the cover artwork that accompanies this release. Some of us don’t have a printer in the house so are fucked in that respect. The accompanying black and white Tarot cards though, that you can buy as he states, are an interesting prospect. MP3’s aren’t generally my thing. This whole download activity I’m not interested in, but, "Rebis" has opened up my eyes with regards to this medium and the possibilities it can offer. Personally I think he should have put this out either on a record label or a self released CDR as it definitely deserves a more wider audience than what he might actually achieve through free downloads. Plus he would have made more money that way to help pay his rent. His choice in the end though so go to the link www.chaospiral-studios.net and follow the leads from there. You’ll not find a better freebie anywhere… this or any other year.

ANM