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Ben Reynolds, "Outmospheric Arts of the Outmosphere"
The new album from Ben Reynolds is almost more of a collection of alien beeps, hums, chimes, and drones than actual songs since there’s little melodic interplay between these elements. As an interpretation of the cosmos, however, it succeeds splendidly.
A sad little melody does creep under outer space transmissions, as if two passing space ships are talking back and forth, on “Unmighty Plumes of to Moon Shit” while “Telecopter Ordinary Century” is like attending church on another planet with its stately organ. “Sweet Misty” features strange voices as well as bloops that could be from electronic music’s infancy. A crew repairs a space station on “Havoc Yawk” between bouts spent fending off enemies who blast lasers in a battle of some unknown war. Apart from the constant machinery pulse which goes on for too long, I like the rest of “Classic at the Sound World” with its gentle tones and skittering almost-melodies.
One of the album’s weak spots is that although it’s generally ambient by nature, the tracks are atmospheric in mostly the same way, with only subtle variations from song to song. In this sense, it’s excellent background music while exploring outer space, but it’s a little too fleeting at times to give it prolonged earthbound attention.
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