[music] VAST, Visual Audio Sensory Theater (1998)

Elektra Entertainment
Total Running Time - 51:33

Personnel
Jon Crosby - All instruments; James Lo, Steven Garver, Fred Maher - Drums; Sarah Sain Ambrogio - Cello

1. Here
2. Touched
3. Dirty Hole
4. Pretty When You Cry
5. I'm Dying
6. Flames
7. Temptation
8. Three Doors
9. The Niles Edge
10. Somewhere Else to Be
11.
12. You


At it's heart, this is an electronica thing, with lots of big lush soundscapes, and samples of Bulgarian choirs. But there's a rock element to it that alternately reminds me of the Who (at least the drums on the single "Touched") or Radiohead. The album scores points sheerly on the strength of the sonic palette used, but that same palette can obscure whether or not there are any good songs beneath it.

I've also heard VAST brainchild Jon Crosby mentioned in the same breath as Nine Inch Nails recluse Trent Reznor, but that's seems to draw more on using the word "fuck" prominently in a song ("Pretty When You Cry" in this case) than on their parallel roles as the brainchild, sequencer guru, and almost sole proprietor of their respective "bands." Crosby's view is more panoramic than Reznor's by a long shot, and may actually sustain itself better over the course of twelve songs.