Speaking of a welcome relief, Richard Chartier’s Pinkcourtesyphone is as friendly a project as you’ll find on the Line label. Sonically similar to The Caretaker’s half-speed ballroom waltzes or William Basinski’s lush tape loop reveries, the “Romantic Threat” EP is aggressively soporific, resembling mid-afternoon television commercials as heard through an overdose of barbituates with a white zinfandel chaser. The title track is an “original and overextended” (wait… which is it? how can the “original” version of something also be extended? oooh, my head…) treatment of the opening number from Chartier/Pinkcourtesyphone’s “Indelicate Slices” album, and take that second parenthetical adjective seriously; it’s not merely extended, but overly so. At nearly 14
minutes long, it lingers with a seasick colloidal throb as the room begins to blur and wobble under the threat of an oncoming monstrous hangover. The next track, “Travelogue”, is a stuttering little palate-cleanser before “Palepalmdeathpalimsest”’ marks a return to the couch for a lie-down; a skipping record is delayed into oblivion, finally stumbling into sickening blackout.
(vitalweekly.net)
Pinkcourtesyphone is not necessarily the softer side of Richard Chartier, quite the contrary. Don’t let the feminine mystique and hex-toned cover fool you, this is the funkier (though not so much here), more melodic alter ego of the man behind the LINE imprint. The ep is a spin-off of his 2017 Indelicate Slices(Room40) album. And the three tracks running at about 24 minutes here are a sleight-of-hand foil on the former release, opening with Romantic Threat (original & overextended). Ethereal, cinematic, it’s an underwater ballet for the ghosts of sunken luxury liners. The nearly fourteen minute work is fueled with a certain level of fleeting emotion oft hinted at by Chartier, but realized in this ‘pink’ format. It’s moody, drone-filled without as much structure and restraint as his other work – yet he remains fully in control of these gorgeous gauzy layers, that are draped like a sweeping red velvet stage curtain, opening and closing in slow motion. Yes, that sweet sense of elegance at play. But just like that curtain, it conceals something that we only get sneak peek glances of intermittently, a time-released teaser.
At under two minutes Travelogue is the connective tissue between the trio here. More insect-like than anything else in its chordal structure that grows, building on a cicadian atonality. It comes and goes rather quickly in order to make room for Palepalmdeathpalimsest which is by far the sleeper piece on the recording. Though it balances an earthy sensibility with a revved engine ready to take flight, it lays clear an enigmatic path.
The background drone could be a jet engine, or is it a large stadium crowd, or further, maybe it’s Mother Nature’s gentle wrath at work. It’s haunting mid-tone ambient texture is covered with a windscreen effect that is keeping the noise out, but near its breaking point. Ghostly howls are exquisitely woven into the mix like dying cries for help. Everything is shaded, dissipating like a fine mist. The ‘threat’ is real + it’s out now!
(toneshift.net)
That’s right, Romantic Threat EP(LINE) follows the super-tripped-out Indelicate Slices(room40, 2017), featuring three ambient zoners for your listening pleasure. “Romantic Threat (Original &Overextended),” from which this thing obviously gets its name, is the prolonged, unedited version of Indelicate Slices’ leadoff track, which landed there at a mere two minutes and fifty-seven seconds. Which is short when you consider that track 3, “Minimumluxuryoverdose,” clocked in at almost twenty five minutes. So, there you go.
Hilariously, if this is the sort of thing that makes you guffaw coffee out your nose, this version — the “Original &Overextended” one, for those of you struggling to keep up — “was deemed ‘too romantic and positive’” for Indelicate Slices. I know, right? Richard Chartier had to chop almost a full four-fifths of it off. Well, now it’s here for you to enjoy in its entirety, to get all joyous over, to rile your smile. Romance and positivity will pulse effervescently throughout your body, almost constantly. Will you join me in this ecstasy?Excellent.
(tinymixtapes.com)
Romantic Threatis illusory music; a shimmering, surreal amusement park with a nauseating funhouse as a premier attraction, loud hollers of ‘roll up, roll up, get your hot dogs here‘ from the food stalls, and high-pitched cries drunk on helium emanating from the mouths of eight-foot-tall cartoon characters. As if that wasn’t surreal enough, they parade around the streets, signing autographs. But storm clouds are on the horizon. This isn’t The Happiest Place On Earth™ .
Its ambient tones swirl around the room like FUBAR’d rides in a drugged-up Disney World. A rollercoaster zooms past, thundering through the gates of a castle in its Magic Kingdom, architecture fit for a princess, uh-huh, when in reality the whole she-bang was built by workers, i.e. slaves, struggling on the minimum wage. Oh, boy!!
Romance can be true or illusory, lustful or lovely. As sweet as chocolate or as sickly as a splash of vomit. Don’t eat that hot dog! Those hot dogs look tasty and tempting, but they’re not going to do you any favours. Just look at the calorie intake.
That strangely designed mascot is a little toocartoonish, and its black dots seem to follow you around the room, coming across as grotesque and odd. Romantic Threat‘s map is like the Horrorland park in Goosebumps with its fixed smiles at photo collection areas and its locked exits. Something isn’t quite right here. The perfume is pungent, overwhelmingly so. Date night carries a thrumming, under-the-radar threat. Romance isa rollercoaster (the unrequited lovers are never allowed to get off, as much as they’re desperate to), catching you unawares. Sometimes, Cupid uses a bear trap instead of an arrow, ensnaring a victim, and love can throw you into the ride without the safety of a seatbelt.Things just feel off here. Because when you’re on the ride, you’re unaware of potential dangers, and there’s also no way to disembark.
At other times, the ambient music settles down, passing through a Tunnel of Love peacefully, the two-seater gliding over the surface of an ambient pink lake with a flow as smooth as candyfloss. Soft sighs are elicited from lipstick-covered lips. Her perfume hovers over untroubled waters.
Richard Chartier’s Pinkcourtesyphone conjures up a stalking threat that develops when a romantic interlude turns sour, lurking in the cobwebbed corners of a Ghost Train ride, or recalling the decade-old murder that took place in the depths of the funhouse. The killer was never found…
Growing increasingly eerie and ominous, the atmosphere darkens as the park empties come ten o’clock. Like a jilted lover, the music haunts and threatens to turn even darker. Absent of fireworks, the only sound is a distant one, and that’s the sound of the sea as it claws at the shore, the white-tipped surf breaking against the hard sand, and the wind wafting over the hazy sequins of late-night-lights. The music darkens even more, as if love has truly been lost, or given up on. Going its own way and moving on after a summer fling.
Enjoy your vacation. Enjoy the intoxication.
(acloserlisten.com)
Het melancholische titelnummer van dez digitale release betoverde on al op het album ‘Indelicate Slices’ (room40, 2017). Juicht, want deze originele versie duurt maar liefst vijf keer langer. Eigen aan de ambient-neven-activiteit van microcomponist Richard Chartier is de dromerige sound. Melodieuze drones en nevelen van vaag herkenbare geluiden (kerk-klokken, harmonium, aaaah-gezangen, zeereguis, enzovoort) cirkelen traag rond ons hoofd. Sommige passages doen denken aan het half wakkere onywaakmoment tussen droom en slaap, terwijl er twee verdiepengen lager iemand naar een pianoconcert luistert. Heel even wordrt de sfeer harder tijdens de koorte machinale loop ‘Travelogue’, maar be sterke afsluiter ‘Palepalmdeathpalimsest’ sleurt one terug naar onderbewuste dieptes met een aanzwellende draaikolk van repetitieve drones, galm, en aangenaam bewerkt gerius. De romantische en spookachtige sfeer wordt vervolleddigd door het fascinerende artwork in de karakteristieke rozige tinten.
(gonzocircus.com)
