Factory of Dreams - Some Kind of Poetic Destruction
CD Info
2013
Progrock Records / TheRecordLabel
12 Tracks
English Lyrics
You get some amazingly insightful, intelligent and interesting musicians in the genre we cover on this site. You see, we don’t do the Beiber or the hard rappers. I like to think we cover a range but we tend to ignore most of the material that gives me a headache or drives my intellect into the local dumpster. But, there’s a hierarchy to this music, as with any artistic endeavor. Some make better music, some tell better stories, some use better poetry, some have stronger vocalists. Rarely does any single artist top out on each of these criteria, especially on one individual release, you’re lucky to come out on or near the top in one category. But, some artists tend to come out closer to the top on multiple categories on a regular basis. Nightwish tends to tell great stories with great lyrics, great music and top flight vocals on a regular basis. Epica, Within Temptation, Delain, others we could mention. But, for me, Hugo Flores and vocalist Jessica Lehto, who form the core of the Factory of Dreams project, are another in this category. I’ve covered three previous FoD releases. Hugo has other projects but this is the one I’ve concentrated on. And each one has been at or very near the top of all the categories of interest to me, especially the story part. And, Hugo has an added component to his artistic repertoire. He has video skills; we’ll talk about that a little as it relates to this release. We will not talk much about our beautiful Swedish vocalist Jessica Lehto here as Robin Stryker has just completed an interview that should be published shortly, if it’s not available before this review goes up. In addition, this release provides some additional interests in the form of guest musicians, both instrumental and vocal. We’ll comment on those directly as their involvement substantially impacts the sound of the work.
I’ve decided to take a slightly different approach to this review. I usually talk about the story a little, talk a little about the music and then tie it together. But, Hugo’s stories are not developed like a 30 minute network TV show, they go a little deeper, and a lot larger, there are bigger concepts to be considered, larger issues to be examined. And, the music, well, I do play a mean kazoo but, beyond that, I’m somewhat limited. So, I decided to turn this into an interview of sorts, a hybrid, something I’ve done before when the topic was beyond my very limited capabilities of comprehension. So, we’ll let Hugo address the relevant topics in his own words, I’ll attempt to fill in the blanks, assuming there are any.
There’s a nice video here that introduces you to the music, the story and the guests. . .and does it with some really nice video work. It’s also good at capturing the flavor of the music, at least at one level. And that would be the story, the literal story. Hugo addressed the topic: "Basically, the album is about a hidden star that, similarly to a kind of Monolith from 2001 A Space Oddissey, monitors the Earth and captures what's going on with the planet. She senses many negative emotions, more than the positive one, and her Tears of sadness start falling on Earth, under the shape of... soundwaves and sonic pulsars. The loud sound waves cause mayhem, and the low rumbling are earthquake-like, and so the term Poetic Destruction is applied since it is indeed a kind of poetic destruction."
Of course, this is a metaphor for what Hugo sees occurring in real time in our own reality. He says, "The message is that if we're condemning this planet, that is not ours to destroy, we also destroy ourselves; that seems to be an inevitability, due to our inability to learn with our mistakes. In the end, the Earth kind of fusions with the Star, and humanity ascends to a higher level of consciousness. This rebirth is done also through a Supernova, and this gave birth to one of my favorite tracks ever, The Neutron Star." The story’s not all negative however. Hugo adds, "Besides the warnings, the album also has a bright side to it and shows that there is a purpose in the universe; everyone can be important to the history of everything. It also implies that music connects humans with other entities, either organic or astral or whatever you can imagine."
The story is a complex one, and, given the ability of Hugo to go beyond the ordinary in both lyrical, musical and visual arts, we get a lot to consider as we listen. . . or watch. Hugo talked a little about the production process, "Yes, first thing is to create and compose the core of the tracks, all on my synths, After that, I think about what kind of sound I want for the album, so amps and guitars are chosen. I usually use my Ibanez prestige guitar customized with specific pickups. After I have a good demo to send, Jessica gets the songs and lyrics, so she can start creating her vocal melodies, adapting lyrics and such."
Most of the FoD work has been limited in terms of performers. That’s not the case here, there are a number of additional performers: Magali Luyten of Beautiful Sin, Ayreon and Epysode and Raquel Schüler of Hydria on vocals contribute substantially. Lyris Hung of HUNG does Violin, Chris Brown of Ghost Circus and Roswell Six do some guitar, Tadashi Goto contributes on keyboards as does Shawn Gordon of Psychic for Radio. Narration is handled by Mark Ashby and actress/singer Angela Merrithew plays the role of Kyra.
The music has the trademark Hugo sound, bombastic on many occasions, beautiful on others, interesting across the board. This music can be very aggressive, very hard metal oriented at least in terms of the guitars and other instruments. Of course, there are those times when Jessica takes charge, and in those moments, the music takes a different direction. But, you’ll never find yourself being uninterested in the music. And, if you take the time to focus on the story, you’ll sure find yourself in interesting territory. There are moments of reflection; there are moments of dark fear:
Darkness invades this / Doomed land
Painted black / By an invisible hand
Here we gasp in awe to / The season of darkness
Music/Our hope is shallow and pale / Our minds become so frail
Embrace the dark / Let it come to me
I am no longer afraid / No longer afraid
The story takes a number of listens to begin to understand, which is not all that difficult given the truly fine music that delivers it. Of course, at some point, you begin to get a feel for what the story actually says, it delivers at several different levels. And each is satisfying in its own way. The sci/fi fans will take it one way, the philosophy folks will see a different interpretation, the musicians won’t care, they’ll just like the interesting music. So, there’s something for everyone, which is usually the case with Hugo’s music.
For me, personally, this may be the most musically interesting production I’ve seen from Hugo. There seems to be a broader range of sound here, a more deliberate intent to expand the music beyond the story, which is, as usual, way beyond the typical, even in this musical realm. And that may be the signature component here, just great music. You may view it differently, everyone has their own preference. But, I think you’ll agree, it’s more than a little worth the listen, time well spent on so many levels.
10 / 10
10 / 10
