Platonick Dive - Take A Deep Breath (Moment Of Collapse Records)

Anyone who thinks that instrumental music has less to say than its lyrically-minded rival hasn’t listened to the right instrumental music. The problem I have, though not to the extent that it keeps me awake at night, with lyrically-driven music is that, by and large, it leads you to a singular and absolute conclusion. The one that the artist intended all along. It tells you what the song is about and posts exactly where it is going as you travel with it. It takes you by the hand and takes you to the preplanned lyrical destination. How can it do otherwise?

Instrumental music, especially that made by Platonick Dive, works in more mercurial, subtler, and supple ways. With only the title indicating what the song may be about, the listener can interpret the music any way they want. And so if worded songs take you by the hand and pull the listener kicking and screaming to the one point that the artist is trying to make, albums such as Take A Deep Breath allow you to head off in any direction you like, guided more by your own experiences and thoughts than that of the artist’s intentions. The music is inspiring and evoking rather than lecturing the recipient.

And what a suitably free-spirited sonic adventure we find ourselves on here, one that sees us skip through ever-evolving, post-rock soundscapes and trip the prog-rock light fantastic. Cinematic and sensational, tracks such as “Faro” build and bubble up into elegant sonic fountains of grace and grandeur, “Naked Valley” is lush and luxuriant in its musical splendor, and “Blue Hour” is both chiming and charming, building a dynamic by ebbing and flowing between space and soundscaping, lulling lows and shimmering crescendos.

This is not music bereft of language; this is music AS language, and as such, it is more lucid, more eloquent than simple words, more descriptive and poetic, better at communicating, and able to hold a different conversation with each individual listener simultaniously. Why restrict yourself to mere words when music such as this has so much more to say?

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