Moonlapse is back and better than ever in his second 5-track LP, “Fade Construct”. Concocted in the confines of his dorm room, Moonlapse masterfully created metal-infused tracks using an updated set of instruments from his debut LP, “Conscious”. Staying true to form, “Fade Construct” remains dark and cinematic with the similar aim to take each listener on a cerebral journey. In regards to musicality, “Fade Construct” is heavily focused on exploring polymeter, complex patterns, unique sonic textures/world instruments and exotic scales like Phrygian dominant. It is worth mentioning that Moonlapse is only 21 years old.
Moonlapse explains the title “Fade Construct” stating, “Construct is used as a noun. A construct, in mythology, is something that was purposefully animated or brought to life. It could be a stone construct or something like that. This album is a Fade Construct, being made of ‘fade’. Fade refers to musical notes because even though music fades away just as it is heard, a construct of a song or riff is formed in the listener’s mind.”
Moonlapse, who comes from a musical family (his father is exec Danny Strick), further states, “Anytime someone is listening to a song, the notes sort of transcend time. For example, the last chord someone heard 5 seconds ago has a melodic impact on the current chord they are hearing, even though it has completely ‘faded’ away”.
Just so happens that “Construct” is also a favorite map of Moonlapse’s from Halo 3.
Moonlapse is the progressive cinematic rock project by 21-year-old composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Strick. Strick came by his love of progressive rock at age 14 via classic bands such as Genesis and King Crimson. Soon he moved on to more contemporary prog metal like Dream Theater, Opeth and Porcupine Tree. “I studied them and learned to play their music,” Strick says. “In doing so, I was introduced to a lot of strange and beautiful chord progressions, which I didn’t hear in other music. Gradually, I began to compose my own songs using a lot of those chords and scales.”
Strick channels the spirit of axe god idols like Dream Theater’s John Petrucci, Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt and Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders on the Moonlapse LP, but what’s striking and altogether revolutionary about the guitar parts is that they’re not performed on the guitar at all. Strick, who studies computer science at Northwestern University, recorded all of his guitar tracks on a computer using MIDI and a plugin called Omnisphere.
“Omniphere is really useful because it has tons of electronic instruments that are designed to sound like the real thing, and you can manipulate the tones and frequencies in some really cool ways.” Strick says. “I could never get guitar tracks to sound the way I wanted using a real instrument, but by orchestrating them digitally, they sounded new and original. For drums, I used Battery 4. Everything, including mixing, was done on my computer.”
Moonlapse describes “Fade Construct” as a dark progressive endeavor that explores cinematic mood, complex instrumentation, heaviness, abstract song, structure, world instruments and experimental sonic textures.”
The Rocker 