ReMix: Parasite Eve 'Beauty's Abomination'

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Parasite Eve's been getting the love lately, with ktriton and now Mr. Kee paying homage to the title, whilst Symbiont Dawn is sadly neglected. Or not; biology humor ftw. This is some very cinematic solo piano work, with Reuben ditching the taikos and other accompaniment for a return to his ivory roots. It's not necessarily a more complex arrangement style compared to his initial pieces, but in the performance you can hear an approach and depth that reflects the passage of time. I love the very minimalist, almost Eyes Wide Shut intro, which segues into natural, arpeggio-anchored motion at 0'20". Oscillations of dynamic and tempo are synchronized to effect a deliberate, swaying motion that can best be likened to natural phenomena: trees in wind, waves, or the uncertain, fluctuating surfaces of estuaries. The preceding sentence clearly illustrates how a lack of judge quotes affects these write-ups. But I digress; it's over four-minutes long, but feels more like a journey than a destination, even though things develop and waves crest several times, more notably circa 2'21". I'd like to see more solo piano arrangers try alternating time signatures and implementing more unorthodox rhythmic progressions, but I can't argue that the regularity present for those criteria in this mix have a hypnotic, lulling influence. This wouldn't be out of place in a stoic, subdued British film about unrequited love between a single mother and a repressed, bearded, seafaring wharfmaster, who figure out only too late that they're soulmates, because one of them has terminal cancer of the mustache, and dies... in a good way. Seriously, for some reason this piece keeps making me think of ocean imagery and water; your nautical mileage may vary. Great work from Reuben, who manages to switch between Eastern and Western styles on his compositions very fluidly, and with seemingly equal talent.

― djpretzel