Ion is a new solo venture by David J. Hughes, by many known as founder member of T-Bass and the last man standing in the Skin Mechanix collaboration.
Ion cuts off at a tangent and is, according to Hughes, an attempt to get back to basics, to shift the emphasis away from keyboard chops and screaming solos and towards a more symphonic and, dare one perhaps suggest, a more mature and maybe even a more relaxed state of mind.
“Future Forever” is in fact the first part in Dust to Dawn Trilogy. The melodic music, which is still inspired by the Berliner School of music, doesn’t contain powerful chords and dynamic elements known from his previous projects.
Instead, there’s plenty of room for some nice moody vintage sequencing, melodic and even dreamy outings.
One of the track even happened by accident as David was dabbling around with his new Zeit sequencer, which led the way to more kindred experiments.
The cd nicely kicks off with the slow sequenced, nine-minute title track with a warm, melancholic sounding lead on top, after which “Logoscape” journeys into relaxed, dreamy territory.
Next come the smooth soundings of “Minerva” and Evensong, both including some nice TD-kindred sequencing. “The Silent Scream” sounds superficial to my ears, lingering on without taking direction, but the inspired, rhythmic soundings of the almost 12-minute “Tangents” puts things back on track.
The album ends with the strong piece “Flying over Blue waters”, which made my thoughts wander back to TD’s beautiful ’80 music.
Overall, “Future Forever” is an interesting piece of work certainly worth a listen.
The release is available as cd-r and download, but the downloadable version is different from the normal cd version and features an eight-page booklet complete with extensive sleeve notes.
