<p style="text-align: justify;">"Involved’s music is bleak and futuristic, and as such is a fitting soundtrack to the period between mankind’s industrial decline and its ultimate, gasping extinction.  Images from Ridley Scott’s <em>Blade Runner</em> flash into my head while listening to this recently devised electronic collaboration, and regardless of whether or not that dystopian impression was intentional, Involved’s debut is a fascinating piece of dark science-fiction ambiance. A journey well worthwhile to any whom share my penchant for atmosphere, I’d say <em>Revolving Maze</em> sets 2014 off to a pretty excellent start.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Involved was forged from the collaboration of two artists whom met online through shared musical interests. With one Joe Dorsey linked to past work in the post-rock trio Until Sunrise and prog metal outfit Ocean Architecture, and the yet-anonymous second half having done incredible ambient work under the name Battlestations, the duo come into this project already with a wealth of skill and impressive experience. Although the two have had fairly differing backgrounds — though the futuristic ambiance here is much closer to Battlestations’ sound than Dorsey’s past work — the past material of both has been marked by a shared devotion to atmosphere and texture. The school of post-rock itself has been defined by a vested approach to timbre; to hear those atmospheric sensibilities blended so well here is scarcely surprising.  In the case of Involved, this familiarly vast atmosphere is filtered through a mixture of classic and contemporary electronic musical traditions. While a strong argument could be made associating Involved stylistically with contemporary acts such as Boards of Canada, much of the audible influences tend to reach as far back as the pioneering era of prog-electronic, most notably the German movement spearheaded by the likes of Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Ashra. This influence is heard most profoundly on the album’s nine minute title track and centrepiece, a composition wrapped in prog-electronic nostalgia and a notion of alien tranquility that should come familiar to anyone having yet heard one of Tangerine Dream’s better works.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While it’s clear that Involved are drawing largely upon the sounds of yesteryear, its resulting atmosphere, often vast, soaring and tinged with melancholy, feels very much a product of its own time. Call them ‘post-progressive’ or one of a great many other needless labels if you’re so impelled; current atmospheric rock heavyweights like Anathema and Porcupine Tree are among those that have laid down the moody foundation for <em>Revolving Maze</em>. With the notable exception of the nine minute title piece, most of the compositions unfold with a more concise structure that is consistent with the project’s modern influences. Considering that they are usually capped off at the four or five-minute mark, most of these songs carry some impressive atmospheric weight with them. Among these, “Machiavella” and “Inner Spaces” stand out. “Machiavella” finds itself at a bleakly post-modern impasse between minimalist industrial percussion and eerie synthesizers, most in tune with the aforementioned <em>Blade Runner</em> comparison. Barring the Tangerine Dream-esque title track, “Inner Spaces” might be my favourite cut from the record. Blissfully solipsistic and melancholic in tone, Involved are able to conjure a level of atmosphere and subtle buildup that are normally found on tracks twice its length. Although texture is Involved’s primary objective here, they manage to brilliantly work melodies into the substructure of their compositions, accessible to those who dare pay attention and look beneath the ambient veil of the music.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there is yet one thing keeping Involved from achieving relative mastery in this style, it’s their level of consistency, or lack thereof. Though I wouldn’t go as far as saying <em>Revolving Maze</em> has any sort of filler, there are a few tracks that never seem to leave an emotional impression regardless of the time spent listening to them. Following the nine minute centrepiece, <em>Revolving Maze</em> suffers from a dip in quality. Additionally, Involved draw from the same stylistic well, but the compositions don’t feel as engaging. “Patient” is a track that demands its namesake virtue from the listener, opening with a dark and simplistic motif that plods on and never seems to travel like some of the others did. “Clinic” is a decently hope-filled denouement for the album, but the overdubbed choral arrangement at the end doesn’t feel like a worthy payoff to the minutes spent dawdling. As a whole, <em>Revolving Maze</em> is held together by its common style, and bookended by two similarly titled tracks (“Ingress” and “Egress”), but there’s little impression that the album is, as a whole, greater than the sum of its parts. Most of the pieces here would have fared just as well had they been left as single releases. The flow and structure on <em>Revolving Maze</em> doesn’t hold back the music, but it’s left rather innocuous and ineffectual. Considering that this is an album based largely on the merits of atmosphere and mood, there is plenty of untapped potential on the album for the tracks to have formed a more distinct emotional arc. <em>Alas</em>…</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Revolving Maze</em> is a work of compatible vision between two artists who have already more than proved themselves as worthy in my eyes. Like one of <em>Blade Runner</em>‘s ever-nocturnal cityscapes, Involved has struck a golden ratio between the bleak and celestial via the old and new. As much as Involved can feel like a project by fans of classic prog-electronic, for fans of prog-electronic, the artists’ other mutual influences certainly oust the project from the potential of receiving the dubious “throwback” label from would-be listeners. Knowing both of these artists from their past work, I know they can do even better; in terms of this album as it is, <em>Revolving Maze</em> transports me somewhere else, away from the mundane and Earthly, towards a future bleak, frightening and otherwise scarce of sugar-coated warmth. In this respect, I’d say the album has succeeded quite remarkably."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">- <strong><a title="Heathen Harvest" href="http://heathenharvest.org/2014/01/18/involved-revolving-maze/" target="_blank">Heathen Harvest</a></strong></p>