Keith Canisius
This time it's our high
Darla Records
It takes a concerted effort not to judge this album by its cover, and opener "People's faces" does a pretty good job at shifting one's attention from the hideous, frightening artwork to the intricacies of Keith Canisius' music. Then you get about halfway into the song and you're not sure why it hasn't evolved into something else. After five minutes of repetitious instrumentation, the song finally starts going somewhere -- and promptly ends. Unfortunately, this pattern repeats throughout the album. Every song that opens with promise eventually self-destructs. The album feels like a meandering three-hour film that could have, in the right hands, been edited into a 90-minute masterpiece, and there are plenty of moments that betray the talents of the composer. Sadly, these moments just aren't enough. As background music, it's not half bad; as the follow up to Canisius' "Ferris wheel makeout", it's perplexing and, at best, a shadow of what it might have been.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
