Humanoid

Mathieu Marcotte, already well known as the accomplished guitarist in Montréal tech metal titans Augury, has raised his own bar of success with his debut solo album, Remembering Universe. "The Quest Begins” opens with back-masked guitars, white noise and deep space utterances reminiscent of Mandible Chatter. "Consciousness of the Universe” smacks of Robert Fripp’s Soundscapes, specifically his collaborations with Japan’s David Sylvian, while "Passages Part 1 (Eidetic Memory)” could be one of King Crimson’s ProjeKt splinters. Marcotte’s classical guitar turns the organic "Unearth Treasures” into a Raymond Scott-influenced fugue, chasing imaginary runaways, while "Lunar Nostalgia” has fun with pedal effects and delays. The watery axe in "Visions Made of Glass” complements the 12-string acoustics of the Rush-like "Fragment,” yet both cuts are juxtaposed with the rapid pickings of "Passages Part 4 (Forms).” The fretless bass of Augury’s Dominic Lapointe and snare shuffles from Neuraxis’s Tommy McKinnon augment the Canvas Solaris-heavy "Passages Part 3 (Exoplanet).” With a bristling array of acoustic, electric and synth guitars, Marcotte makes remarkable headway as Humanoid, and Remembering Universe is a prog metal masterwork.