DD Sparks
"Maximus Aquarius"
(Magic Cabinet Records)
reviewed by
DC Larson
(That DD Sparks, creator of the "Maximus Aquarius" character, is my brother in no way impacts the below judgements.)
Craft is the thoughtful choreographer of creative impulse. Lacking it, one has only unfocused spark, unproductive energy.
But braced by craft's intuitive calculatings, virginal musings assume perspective.
On each action strasse here located, one upturns treasures alurk: Shadow-draped glacial movements, fizzy percolations, spectral intonations -- each distinct shard locks into unseamed correspondence. (And while head may be above-clouds, feet are maintained to terra firma by trenchant six-string coloration and reassuringly familiar sax testimonies.)
About, one spots splinters of Roxy Music, T Rex, and ELO. But only splinters. Influences are subservient to Aquarius's own striking demeanor. At once darkly sagacious and wit-flecked, the observational time-trifler character -- a technicolor pastiche of Victorian elan and fantastic consciousness -- imprints the whole with uncanny lilt and commanding presence.
Craft revels in its peculiar reward.
RECOMMENDED "Cutting In the Blue," "Beloved Nemesis," "trick of the light," "dangerous angels"
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