CANVAS SOLARIS
"Penumbra
Diffuse" (Sensory; 2006) 
Reviewed by Christopher J. Kelter
I was a little green with envy when I found out my colleague and good friend Snidermann got the opportunity to review Canvas Solaris’ “Sublimation” a while back. However, lucky me, I received Canvas Solaris’ latest release “Peunumbra Diffuse” for review.
Like most bands and CDs that are a bit difficult to categorize (or explain!) Canvas Solaris surely give every music reviewer a bit of a tough assignment due to their impressive array of challenging songs. Even after one listen I realized that “Penumbra Diffuse” is so good it actually made me a little fearful to write a review. Typically the words flow right out of me when I set my mind to describing what a band has to offer – but I was hard pressed to do that when dealing with the complex, intelligent brilliance that is “Penumbra Diffuse.”
Songwriting is a critical element of Canvas Solaris – you can tell from the riffs and the song structures that these songs weren’t thrown together. There is a sense that Canvas Solaris could have actually ‘over thought’ the songs on “Penumbra Diffuse” but there is a logical and casual flow even during the 11-plus minute tracks that defy that kind of expectation. The first track echoes the band’s more chaotic and aggressive past. However, the rest of the album is a bit more clinical and studied and keeps the aggression at bay most of the time for the sake of something a little more atmospheric, meatier, and melodic. One example comes to mind regarding the abilities of Canvas Solaris: there is a Primus/Les Claypool moment about 32 seconds into “Psychotropic Resonance” (a section that is repeated a couple of times thereafter) that is simply mind-boggling. It sums up the entire Canvas Solaris raison d’etre by way of infusing the past with their own forward-looking reality.
Equal parts progressive, technical, and experimental Canvas Solaris excel at pushing boundaries and creating new musical realms. Canvas Solaris and “Penumbra Diffuse” have raised the modern bar for technical metal. This disc is for fans of Cynic, King Crimson, Spiral Architect, and Gordian Knot.
Canvas Solaris’ “Penumbra Diffuse” is instrumental technical metal I can really sink my teeth into. It is safe to say just over three full months into 2006 that “Penumbra Diffuse”will end up on my Top Twenty list for the year.
“Penumbra Diffuse” was produced by Jamie King and Canvas Solaris.
Canvas Solaris is Nathan Sapp, Ben Simpkins, and Hunter Ginn.
For more information, check out http://www.tribunalrecords.net.
"Sublimation"
(Tribunal; 2004) 
Reviewed by Snidermann
There are few words to describe Canvas Solaris's "Sublimation," but I managed to come up with a few: jazz, rock, techno and a few more styles that I simply cannot identify.
The music on this CD is great, but a bit hard to understand. After a few cuts, I just closed my eyes and let the music take me where it would. Man, what a fucking awesome ride.
Canvas Solaris is a three man "brutal jazz" outfit, with music based on outer space. A few of the cuts tend to drag on, but they didn't detract from the overall coolness of the recording. In a way, "Sublimation" reminds me a little of a Frank Zappa release, "Jazz From Hell," and it's almost as good. I'm a huge Frank Zappa fan so that's no faint praise. "Canvas Solaris" is an instrumental album so there are no lyrics, just a solid avant-garde musical style that is strange, twisted and just bizarre enough to be fun, with an off-center, space-tripping approach that fits them with innovators in today's progressive metal scene.
According to the CD cover, Canvas Solaris is: Nathan Sapp - lead and rhythm guitars, guitar synthesizer, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, micromoog and Yamaha cs-60 synthesizers, speckle interferometry at infared wavelengths of 1.6 and 2.22 micron; Ben Simpkins - rhythm and lead guitars, bass guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, gravitational wave signal of spiraling neutron stars in coincidence with a gamma ray; Hunter Ginn - drums, doumbek, djembe, table drums, congas, shekere, muon wobble, possible door to supersymmetric universe.
Man, that hurt my head just to copy it from the CD.
For more information, check out http://www.tribunalrecords.net.
Rating Guide:
A classic. This record will kick your ass.
Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.
So-so. You've heard better.
Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.
Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.
Copyright © 2006 by R. Scott Bolton. All rights
reserved.
Revised: 19 Nov 2008 01:31:54 -0600.
