"Noise Reduction II" compilation Invisible Records INV 1998 (70:44)
Dijislov "The Crescent Cheek" (3:52)
Dijislov "Portadave" (3:21)
Romance "Throwing Caution to the Wind" (8:25)
Tribes of Neurot "Spirits (Sunshaper)" edit (4:19)
Waterwheel "Indians" (4:26)
Waterwheel.windmill "Heavywater Plateone" (1:17)
Waterwheel "Cascade Florale" (5:16)
Waterwheel "Tone Cluster for Melanie Morgan" (2:53)
T.V. Pow "Before, When We Could Still See the Lake" (4:34)
Resident Phase Shifter "Everything" (2:18)
Solaris "Starliner" (6:10)
Final "Light" (9:51)
Otraslab "Vessel" (6:05)
Otraslab "Supertrain" (5:19)
Otrasalb "Ricardo" (2:38)
Overall impression: ok. This disc compiles tracks from artists of the Alley Sweeper Records label ... yet another label that has worked out a distribution deal with Invisible Records / Caroline Records. All of the tracks are fairly minimal excursions in ambient electronic noisc ... kind of in the same vein as Dead Voices on Air and/or Not Breathing. Nothing here is particularly outstanding or innovative, but good nonetheless. The Dijislov and Romance tracks are pretty plain, the Tribes of Neurot track makes good use of feedback, the Waterwheel tracks are cool (nice ambience/sounds), the T.V. Pow track is nice (cool beat mixed with slabs of feedback and noise), the Resident Phase Shifter track would be much more interesting if it was longer than 2 minutes and developed into something, the Solaris track reminds me the most of Not Breathing's "The Starry Wisdom" only not as interesting, the Final track is a decent drone piece (somewhat similar to Coil "Time Machines" or Skinny Puppy's "Download" ... but not nearly as cool), and the Otraslab tracks are nice beat/ambience pieces except "Ricardo" which is rather bossanova. Don't quite understand why some artists have 1 short track while others have 3 or 4. Overall, good background stuff ... the Tribes of Neurot, Waterwheel and T.V. Pow being the most interesting.
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