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Interdimensional Space Commander (1996)
by “Indeed” (Brian Hirsch)
and
Quest for Truth (1994)
by Brian Hirsch, (RIP, we will miss you . . .)
Self-published CDs
You are a 12-year-old boy and it’s Saturday morning. Time to play
“Interdimensional Space Commander” on the computer. This album is the
background music for the game. You don’t know that 25 years ago, endless
reels of this stuff were created by synth-rock bands in Europe and the USA.
But there are plenty of cool sounds from the machine, there’s some good fast
guitar and keyboard playing, and no real tunes to distract you from the
game. So listen away and blast those aliens!
Yep, this is basic synthesizer-driven space rock – I don’t know whether it
is really a game soundtrack or not, but it sure sounds like one. Back in the
old days, guys like Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd, and the legendary “Emerson,
Lake, and Palmer” did this material far better, with vocals added; Hirsch’s
album is all instrumental. Or rather, synthesized instrumental. It twirls
along with a lot of competently played but bland rock music-product; perhaps
the best adjective for this would be “generic.” Occasionally there are
moments where an interesting synthesizer sound or chord sequence makes me
turn my head and pay attention, for instance at the beginning of cut 7, “In
Another Dimension,” or in cut 9, “Aquamarine Terrace,” but most of
Interdimensional Space Commander passes by unremembered. It is,
ultimately, somewhat on the amateurish side, though it is saved from total
garage-ness by the mechanical precision of the synthesizers which can’t play
out of tune or count bad time.
HMGS rating: 3
Quest for Truth, another effort by Brian Hirsch, is more cinematic
and less rock-oriented. It is heavy on “sincerity,” featuring lots of
“romantic” piano playing a la Yanni or John Tesh, accompanied by predictable
electric guitar riffs, synthesized harps, artificial string sections,
pompous (synthesized) drum rolls, keyboard noodling, and “spiritual” –
sounding synthesized “chorus” settings. There are some seventies-synth-rock
stylings here, too, though without too many spacey electronic special
effects; in general the harmonies are pop-classical rather than rock.
Track titles like “Pearl of Great Price,” “Peace! be still!”, “Land of
Light,” and “Man’s Last Stand” point to some sort of religious, Biblical, or
even apocalyptic scenario in Quest’s musical program, though I was
not given any explanatory material for it. There’s obviously some agenda
somewhere when one title is called “The God of Truth, Illumination, and
Understanding.” But without any context, it’s hard to get this message from
the music alone.
The album, on the whole, has a kind of noisy, Vangelis-like heroic
quality, which counts in its favor, as long as you don’t pay too much
attention to it. If you do pay attention, it begins to sound both
pretentious and artificial. The trouble with attempting to do “heroic” with
only synthesizers is that unless you carefully mask and customize the
sound-timbres, it ends up sounding like a canned fake orchestra rather than
the desirable “wall of sound.” Like the other Hirsch album, it tends to pass
through one’s mind without leaving any trace, despite the ambitious
spiritual intent of the album’s conception.
HMGS rating: 3
~ Hannah M. G. Shapero, EER-MUSIC.com
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