Reviews of "To Be Infinite"

Amazon.com

Halcyon High is basically a one-man project, artist, etc. from Portland, Oregon - whose sole member is Roger Anderson, whose responsible for the guitar, electronic sound effects, loops, hypnotic drone and the disc's occasional vocals. First two tracks - "Close Your Eyes, See The Light" and "Last Breath" very much reminds me of Spacemen 3. "Iris" is an expanded eight-minute shoegazing piece (possibly the CD's best cut) and "The Aftermath And Damage Done" is a well-played airy dream-pop song. Was sort of surprised with Anderson's cover of Bardo Pond's "Tommy Gun Angel" (off their 'Lapsed' CD) and all this too-brief of a sonic journey comes to an end with the pleasant sounding "Soul Slides Away". Recommended for fans of Spiritualized, Pell Mell, Flying Saucer Attack, Spectrum and maybe Kinski. Make sure you check out Halcyon High's My Space to view their couple of very cool videos they've posted there. Very nice.

Online Rock

Halcyon High, a one-man band lost at space, sends off spindly electric guitar lines and whitecaps of white noise in a Spacemen 3-style shoegaze zone-out. To Be Infinite is a dense collection of spectral melodies, stuck somewhere between blissed-out indie rock rupture and trippy, seventies-sounding planetarium background music. Sole member Roger Anderson finds the perfect balance of drone and melody on these mostly home demo tracks, occasional dipping into audio samples and kaleidoscoping loops to flesh out his bare-bones guitar and feedback compositions.

"The Aftermath and the Damage Done" finds Anderson channeling Sigur Ros in a beautifully glacial landscape of ambling chimes and meandering guitar hum. The track channels a respectful chaos, barely held together by its sparse, but perfectly chosen moving parts. Bardo Pond cover, "Tommy Gun Angel" finds Anderson whisper-talking the curious demand, "Melt away like the snow," while his multi-tracked guitars linger and evade, as if taking his advice and disintegrating with each collapsing moment.

The chill-out space-blues of album opener "Close Your Eyes, See the Light" orbits around Anderson’s fragile vocal approach, twisting delicate, looping chords from tremolo guitar and droning acoustics. The track eventually doubles up, splitting into a fierce feedback breakdown before burning itself out.

Before moving to Portland in late '07, Anderson left his long-running online community resource for Bay Area post-rock and shoegaze bands, Cool Waves SF, to float indefinitely into the black space of the web. Hopefully, he’ll be able to establish a similar resource in his new digs as any scene would be lucky to have a leader capable of delivering a disc like Halcyon High’s To Be Infinite.

The Mass Media

Halcyon High hits the mark, Sigur Ros-inspired project is brilliant

"Glorious crescendos of noise and beauty"-that is the mission of Roger Anderson's solo project, Halcyon High. Created in 2004, Halcyon High combines melodious keys, intense guitar riffs, warped pitches and a hypnotic sound that can be likened to greats like Sigur Ros and Spiritualized.

Halcyon High's debut CD, "to be infinite" (Vibraphone Records), combines efforts to enlighten and uplift the listener all the while staying true to human emotion and evoking feelings you never knew existed. It's music for the soul, without being boring or lullaby-ish. The orgy of instruments and sounds creates a vivid picture in the mind of the listener, to create whatever visual they choose. The epic soundscapes displayed on "to be infinite" are moving and powerful, a welcome experience. It's transcendentalism in musical form; no illegal substances needed.

"to be infinite" rips you from your fast-paced, noise-infested life and hurls you into a world of an almost erotic and angelic musings. Tracks like "Last Breath" and "Souls Slide Away" channel Sigur Ros, in the sense that the colorful and rich language of the instruments and the brilliant mix of tones evoke raw human emotion that is moving. The California-based Halcyon High, though only one mastermind behind the brilliance, comes across like an orchestra, a collective merging of talent and uniqueness.

"to be infinite" will be released April 1, 2008, to select retailers and outlets. You can pre-order the CD on Halcyon High's website via PayPal for only $6.00. Even the hardest metal-heads and hip-hop homies can appreciate the talent and emotion in Halcyon High's music. It's a great CD to listen to as you wind down after a hard day or to reconnect with yourself. It's a great CD and definitely worth a spin.

The Daily Tarheel

Halcyon High's debut album, To Be Infinite, is brimming with lengthy anthems that have the feel of being recorded in an echo chamber.

Beginning with slow electric guitar chords that linger throughout each track, the experimental project continues to add cycles of noise, to various degrees of success, reaching crescendos of such madness that the resulting sound is an assault of the senses.

High-octave electric guitars and synthesizers resembling an annoying vacuum cleaner chorus are supported by drum machines, a xylophone and central figure Roger Anderson's sustained voice, culminating in sonic extremes both unbearably heavy and light as a feather.

It's an experience of so many looped layers - too many at times - that it begs to be interpreted visually.

Engaging if only for its ability to elicit a range of strong emotions, To Be Infinite is a fantastic voyage through sounds from way out, a few of which manage to make sense.

Toxic Flyer

Dizzy (but in a cool way) spacey art rock with good melodies that have a post wave / alternative feel, that at times reminds me of Mazzy Star, Sigur Ros, Space Needle and Eno.

Plug In Music

The debut album from Halcyon High might seem delicate at first, what with the gentle buzz of dreamy melodies spiraling slowly into oblivion, but “To Be Infinite” has a strong and steady spine that while bending is never yielding. Halcyon High tune in then drop out, letting their soft melodies roll like ocean waves before being overtaken by clouds of static for a constant contrast. (B)

redefinemag.com

An M83-esque offering of ambient electronica-influenced rock, Halcyon High’s six track EP is a good one, despite being annoyingly short. That’s actually saying a lot, though, considering the album is over thirty minutes long -- longer than some full-length releases these days. Tracks like “Iris” and “Tommy Gun Angel” stand out. A little more diversity and experimentation with other mediums might help them go a long way. And oh, their EP is only $6. Pick it up.

Losing Today

From a very rough but funny online Italian translation site:

Often understood that underground the American succeeds to produce able discs to astonish for freschezza and musical solutions. The Halcyon High is the creature of Roger Anderson has formed who them in 2004 with to some friends. "To Be Infinite" is their miniums album of debut, thirty-six minuteren of bliss out music incredible, put molding on following the traced routes years before from never forgotten 7% Solution ("All About Satellites and Spaceships" is listens not to lack). Slow psichedelica music and wrapping, straight on electricity carpets you blow to us like the cream as soon as mounted. The disc and "Close Your Eyes leave, See The Light" calibrate the neurons on stratospheric trajectories, while cleaving of guitars the electrical workers they show the own lisergiche qualities. It seems to also listen to Jason Pierce in saddleback to its Spiritualized to the time "Phase". The atmosphere slows down ulteriorly in the successive "Last Breath", four minuteren of arpeggios to zero gravity before a end that removes the breath. "Hard Iris" nearly the double quantity: a travel in which the electricity it is free to stimulate the farther neurons of the mind, those predisposed to make to dream to open eyes. The end of "The Aftermath and Damage Done" seems to have been recorded in the studo-swimming pool of the Sigur Ros a lot is intriso of same melancholy beloved to the Icelandics. "Tommy Gun Angel" is taken from the repertorio of the Pond Bard but sound like a cover of the Slowdive riletta from the guitars of the Mogwai: an outbreak of romanticismo without aim. Same effect in the song that closes the disc, the wonderful "Soul Slides Away". The ingredients in music of the Halcyon High are famous: vortices of electricity that turn on if same in loop infinites, drones that ipnotizzano and little acoustic sounds from time to time to accompany a voice nearly whispered. But the talent used for miscelarne the amounts is indescrivibile.