22 November 2018

ARCADIAN CHILD – Superfonica 2018 (LP/CD Ripple Music/Rogue Wave Records)

Arcadian Child is a quartet (Panagiotis, Andreas, Stathis and Christos) formed in 2013 in Limassol, Cyprus, and they state that they are playing ‘Resonating Psych’ (wow!). In 2017, the band self-published their debut album, “Afterglow” which released as a vinyl too in May 2018 through Rogue Wave Records (You can check my review here:). Their 2^nd album is called “Superfonica”, is released before 2018 expires and it’s an album full of the band’s recent live-gigs experiences and it seems that each one of the four members carried inside the band all of his personal influences… The whole album sounds so… alternatively Fresh (!!!)… Anyway, the album takes off with “Bain Marie” and Arcadian Child goes Heavy! Besides using tons of fuzz, they are also putting a complex psychness in their sound, definitely the first thing that comes to mind when you start listening is that this is a real tight band willing to open doors! “Twist Your Spirit” indicates even more heavy sounds, with an addictive guitar riff at the edge of Hard Rock but with a Sabbathic attitude, slowing down towards its end. “Brothers” takes the ‘specific attitude’ of “Twist Your Spirit” and make it the main ‘force’ behind this tune. The alternating slow and fast Sabbathic riffs overflow the track! “Constellations” starts, and I get the feeling that this is exactly how it sounds when a poppy tune is ‘trapped’ inside a Hard Rock song! “Painting” is a rocking ballad, well-structured and perfectly orchestrated and performed. “She Flows” is the closest tune to their debut album, special, complicated and a highly neo-psychedelized-alternative song! “Before We Die” is a strange tune with a significant difficulty to “fit” among the other tracks, but with a rather great psych-a-like atmos! “The March” starts on an Eastern-like musical scale, progressively becoming heavy, developing a psych musical environment. Both LP and CD feature bonus track “March II” which is a distorted version of “The March”. So, it seems that Arcadian Child “left” all of their Pop/Mainstream influences from their previous album, aside. I think that the band is clearly taking a new direction in their sound. Where it would lead them? I honestly don’t know. But I can foresee that their next effort it’s going to be different than this one here. “Superfonica” is a transitional album. Arcadian Child is on a continue self-exploration musical trip. And I’m with them 100%! The Future is theirs! Anxiously waiting for their next “achievement”! (TimeLord Michalis)