Sonic Boom's first record under his own name in too many years is a best-case scenario for what fans of his long-running career as an explorer of vintage synth sounds and a believer in expression through repetition might expect. All Things Being Equal is a synthetic, psychedelic dream built on whooshing, squelching, whining, and echoing old synths, many of them the kind of EMS units
Brian Eno and the BBC used in the '70s to create otherworldly sounds. The album was initially meant to be an instrumental journey into the sequenced mind of Mr.
Boom, but after years of collecting dust, the songs seemed ripe for lyrics and vocals. The words alternate between heartfelt messages of hope and scary images of confusion, sung in a robotic monotone that melts into the mix like another keyboard. The more lighthearted tracks are those that are easiest to embrace. The notions of simplicity found in "Just Imagine" are reassuring and the sunny keyboard blips adds some warmth, "Things Like This (A Little Bit Deeper)" rides a loping gospel mood similar to the kind that
Spacemen 3 used to deliver (only with walls of synths that whizz and click like pinball machines hitting the jackpot), and "On a Summer's Day" is a beautiful ballad made sweeter by the artless vocals. This side of the album is topped off by the closing track "I Feel a Change Coming On," a droning jam that brightly stretches to almost nine minutes and feels like a summation of
Sonic Boom's past incarnations as a psychedelic dreamer, electronic explorer, and visionary producer as well as a statement that he's only getting started. The almost bubble-gummy "The Way That You Live" shows that he might even have a hit single somewhere up his striped sleeve. The darker moments of the album -- like the menacing "My Echo, My Shadow and Me," where the vocals are treated with what sounds like battery acid, or the doomy "Spinning Coins and Wishing on Clovers" -- clash a little with the good feelings brought on by the happier songs, but not to the point of distraction. Overall, it's a lovely return to the scene for
Sonic Boom that finds him in full control of his vision and making music that stands proudly next to the best work he made in his so-called glory days in the 1990s. ~ Tim Sendra