Both kick ass to me, in 2 very different ways, but not-so-different at the same time.
V was mindblowing with both, and as a bassist, I drool everytime I hear Steve DiGiorgio's wizardry.
Some people will say The Focusing Blur has a more "straight forward" touch, but in my opinion, that's only a part of its complexity. Like a mask. It would also explain the title, the Focus being the more "direct" musicallity and the Blur being "there's actually more to it, the focus isn't done yet". There is 2 main ways in which I understand the title:
1- The Focusing Blur as a standing paradox being the more direct one, but as it is, pretty meaningless on its own. There again, to me this is a proof that the album itself has much more to it than we might think.
2- The Focusing Blur as space, the Cosmos itself, by naked eye or through a lens. So big it remains Blurry and pretty much impossible to understand, but the Human Mind is there, trying to Focus in on this immense and maginificient Blur.
On the other hand, Vision from the Spiral Generator has its "wtf" kind of feel put more in evidence, kind of a disclaimer from Mr V "yea, I did something a bit nuts but it still rocks". Through this, VftSG is, to me, more direct than TFB can be. And the title, Vision from the Spiral Generator, can be interpreted in many ways, but 2 ways stick out to view:
1- The spiral generator being a particle accelerator, giving off visions of the infinitely small (particle accelerator have "trace boards" where the the particles, accelerated to or near to the speed of light leave spiral like "fingerprints" )
2- The spiral generator can be seen as the Human Mind, given that we make the link to the famed Golden Spiral, the visual representation of the Golden Number, debated to be the sources of all life and consciousness. It would then be "vision from the human mind".
So as you can see, both albums would be much opposed in a way, VftSG dealing with particles, the Infinitely Small, and TFB dealing with the cosmos, the Infinitely Big. Both albums do link togheter at a point. That is, they both deal of the exploration of unknown concepts by the human mind, and that is, as I'm sure most will know, the base of all of Mr V's inspiration for those last two albums, and part of Cosmic Genesis also.
I'd like Mr. V. himself to comment my analysis, see how he likes it
Hear that great V?
