Conveniens - 1986/2024 - Victims Of Convenience

(57:29: Conveniens)

Track list:
1. Commercial Dance Song (single Version) 4:28
2. Industrial Mylasia 3:22
3. Pidgeion Memory 4:12
4. Geomoshadowdive 5:07
5. Salmineo 4:36
6. Piano Piece 1:45
7. Victims Of Convenience 6:43
8. Onn (Ond) 5:21
9. Cigarette Tric 6:00
10. Diyddiyd 2:47
11. Tonsure 3:43
12. Nellimonk 4:47
13. Commercial Dance Song 4:38

Line-up:
Dave Smith - synthesizer, piano
John Maz - drums, synthesizers


Prolusion.
US twosome Conveniens were an active creative unit back in the 1980s, and released three full length albums between 1984 and 1987 before disappearing from view. What they have done since then I don't know, but the albums from back then have been subject to some reissues over the years. "Victims of Convenience" is the second album by this duo, and was first released back in 1986. A reissue of this album appeared in 2024, with four additional songs added to the album in it's reissued form, as well as the track listing being rearranged.

Analysis.
As a bit of an inexperienced writer I didn't really know what to make out of this band's album "Clear" when I reviewed it many years ago, and as a more experienced writer many years later I'm still not quite certain about how to describe or categorize the landscapes explored on this production.

The song 'Commercial Dance Song', featured in two different versions on this reissue, kind of sounds like if Vangelis had supplied his speciality kind of keyboard textures to a tune made by a synth pop or new wave band for instance, while the song 'Industrial Mylasia' feature a rhythm section partially out of rhythm with each other and a similar off pattern feeling for the gentler Vangelis style keyboard textures and the more dramatic progressive rock style keyboard runs. An intriguing but also a chaotic experience.

Some of the songs brings in conventional as well as more free form types of jazz inspired rhythm details to the proceedings, but we also get cosmic sound effects and electronic sounds and textures that may have been pulled or borrowed from the likes of both Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. With keyboard or synthesizer sounds that are surging or circulating but that have drone like properties also one of those details that are on the border between intriguing, interesting and plainly off kilter.

These instrumental escapades all exist inside of the unconventional context somewhere, a bit on the outside of form, style or specific direction that is according to the defined musical genres. A bit of synth pop there, some jazz here, a touch of progressive rock perhaps while progressive electronic music and ambient music are undeniable contributors to this amalgam of sounds and unusual escapades. Whatever else that may be said about this album, the landscapes explored are certainly not of a predictable nature, and they rarely stick to any of the more common conventions. If you ever want to present an example of what niche music is, this is most certainly an album that can document this with relative ease.

Conclusion.
The landscapes explored on this 80s album by US twosome Conveniens is one that exist inside of a fairly narrow musical niche, where the unconventional nature of the compositions can lay the foundation for an argument about whether experimental or progressive are the best words to use for these escapades into territories of lesser known matter. Those with a soft spot for musicians that desire to go their own ways and that combine elements from various forms of jazz with progressive electronic music and ambient music should be just about the perfect audience for this album, at least in my opinion, and a certain affection for music that have that 80s sound will probably be an advantage too.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, July 2024