20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Resonant
Icelandic newcomer Orlygur Thor Orlygsson creates primarily short butsweet instrumental guitar pieces, and on his debut album he displays awide range of emotions and styles. Ölvis has the good sense toconcentrate on the good moments and not dwell too long on pieces, whichmakes for a streamlined debut that introduces his handiwork withoutneedless filler. Recorded and played by Orlygsson with a few guests ondrums and synth only, the album is also a self-made man kind ofachievement. There are moments where it's hard to believe that one mancreated all these lush and pleasant soundscapes, so on that level,mission accomplished. Unfortunately, there are some areas where I couldnot avoid the feeling that certain elements were particularly annoying.First, "mostly" instrumental means that there are vocals here andthere, and they are so drenched in effects and faded in the mix thatthey're hardly noticeable. However, occasionally they are audible justenough to know that they are ever so slightly off-key, and that makesthem unnecessary andoff-putting. Instrumental only would be preferred on those tracks,since the music itself is quite pleasing. Here and there, though, eventhat has its moments of what I like to call nails-on-a-chalkboardness,such as when the music is a bit too repetitive with not enoughvariation. Switching to the other section earlier would have savedthese tracks for me, but as it stands I would more than likely skipthem on repeat listens. These are minor complaints on an otherwisewell-rounded debut, however, as Orlygsson has all the other bases morethan covered. Memorable melodies, a good mix of instruments, peaks andvalleys, and the incorporation of varied rhythms and styles make this adebut full of things to like. There is room for improvement, but that'sall in good time; for now, there's plenty more present to make up forit.

samples:

• The Sea
• Tonight
• Do You See the Light?

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

This release ties up some loose ends, collecting the studio material from a few elusive Current 93 releases: Looney Runes, Lucifer Over London, Tamlin and Misery Farm. It's a welcome release for those who didn't spring for these limited-edition EPs back when they were released, or for people who are just now getting up to speed with Current 93. What immediately sets SixSixSix: SickSickSick apart from other Current 93 compilations of previously existing material is the superior quality of the music.Durtro

Specifically, the songs from 1994's Lucifer Over London and Tamlin EPs, are among the best that Current 93 has produced. The epic song "Hitler as Kalki (SDM)" from Thunder Perfect Mind was the first time Tibet collaborated with Nick Salomon of The Bevis Frond, an oft-overlooked cult British brand responsible for psych-rock masterpieces like Triptych and New River Head. Nick Salomon's mindbending electric guitar soloing lent a heaviness and majesty to Tibet's crepuscular musings that is without equal in the Current 93 catalog. David Tibet's oft-expressed affection for 70's progressive and heavy metal acts like Uriah Heep and Judas Priest was finally given an outlet, to startlingly powerful effect.

On the title track of Lucifer Over London, Salomon again contributes psych guitar, this time aping the famous riff from Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," spinning it out into a hypnotic, cyclical refrain, as Tibet unfolds one of his more chilling visions of Apocalypse. The material on Lucifer and Tamlin, (along with the Of Ruine or Some Blazing Starre LP, which was recorded during these same sessions), seems to represent a pinnacle for Tibet's lyrics, effortlessly weaving deliriously rendered Gnostic symbolism with precise poetic imagery: "All tiny blue pain/As the Mother Blood emerges/Then the Mother Grief/And the Blue Gates of Death/Open armwide/Open teethwide." "Sad Go-Round" is a Groundhogs song from the album Solid, Tibet and Solomon using the achingly beautiful minor-chord guitar loop to accentuate the circular motion of the lyrics.

Tamlin's B-side "How the Great Satanic Glory Faded," also features a stunning performance by Salomon on guitar. Recorded over the phone line, Tiny Tim introduces the track by relating his vision of the devil as "a beautiful angel...telling the world's biggest lie," Tibet launches into a densely lyrical paean to the double-gendered form of Lucifer. "Tamlin" is a long-form traditional ballad from the British Isles, relating the story of a noblewoman impregnated by a wood sprite. The music is another gorgeous medieval setting by Michael Cashmore, and Tibet's menacing whisper is flanged and multiplied to chilling effect.

The material from 1990's Looney Runes has not held up terribly well, a collaboration with Steven Stapleton that results in a raucous industrial tune filled with perversely mutated nursery rhymes and wacky cartoon sound effects. "The Seven Bows Are Revealed At the End of Time..." is Tibet in prophet mode again, unveiling a hallucinogenic William Blake-style endtime scenario that wears thin after the first few listens. Finally, "Misery Farm" is pure novelty: a music hall sing-along with barnyard animal noises. It's quite amusing, but it feels strange coming at the end of so much deeply wrought poetry. 

samples:

• Lucifer Over London
• Sad Go-Round
• Misery Farm

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Threshold House
Jhon Balance and Sleazy are no longer partners. Sleazy's moved toThailand, and Jhon's moved to London. The physical location ofThreshold House, where Coil used to live and record their music, hasbeen abandoned. Jhon Balance has a new lover and collaborator, artistIan Johnstone, he's grown a D.H. Lawrence-style beard, and seems tohave fallen once again into a vortex of substance abuse and insanity.Both Jhon and Sleazy have announced that they are now working onnon-Coil side projects. Despite all evidence to the contrary, however,Coil have continued to insist that they are not breaking up. The firstevidence of this came with their recent mini-tour through a handful ofEuropean cities, their so-called "Even An Evil Fatigue" tour. At eachof their concert dates, they've been selling this CD-R entitled Black Antlers.With the exception of a new version of "Broccoli" and a song called"Tattooed Man," (apparently destined for inclusion on the long-agoscrapped Dark Age of Love LP), the songs on this disc mirrorthe setlist of the recent concerts. In fact, the barebones packagingand low-fidelity recording of Black Antlers leads me to suspectthat it is nothing but a glorified concert rehearsal captured onrecord. According to various sources, Coil have plans to re-record andre-mix this material, and will eventually give it an official release.Therefore, I should probably withhold final judgment on these songs.However, it's hard not to notice the under-produced, impromptu natureof the music and vocals. There is a loose, improvisatory feel to thesetracks that I'm not altogether convinced is the final word for thesesongs. Jhon Balance's vocals are given too much prominence in the mix,overwhelming the Sleazy's laptop programming and Thighpaulsandra'svintage synthesizer squalls. However, approached as a series of "worksin progress," the album has quite a lot to recommend it. "The Gimp(Sometimes)" is a spooked, melancholic lament by Balance, set againstan eerie backdrop of distorted synthesizers and scattered percussiveelements. "Sex With Sun Ra (Part 1 - Saturnalia)" is the best song onthe album, Balance narrating an erotic fantasy partly based on Sun Ra's"black folks in space" prophecies as explicated in John Coney's film Space is the Place:"He dreamt of color music and the machines that make it possible/Hetook me for a ride on a space ship powered by natural music." The musicbears no resemblance to the cosmic free jazz of Sun Ra, veering closerto Musick to Play in the Dark-era Coil: gurgling synthscapeswith slow, percolating rhythms. "All The Pretty Little Horses" is anunexpected cover of the traditional British folk song made famous (toBrainwashed readers) by Current 93. Coil's version is quite lovely,with expertly played marimba as accompaniment for Balance's bestattempt at crooning. "Teenage Lightning (10th Birthday Version)"resurrects and expands the LSD track, giving it a moreopen-ended, organic feel than the original. "Black Antlers (Where'sYour Child)" ends the disc on a high note, a druggy rave-up full ofqueasy samples and chopped, distended vocal samples. With a littlefinessing, this album has the potential to be one of Coil's finest.

samples:

• Sex With Sun Ra (Part 1 - Saturnalia)
• All The Pretty Little Horses
• Black Antlers (Where's Your Child?)

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Mute
The subtitle of this new collection from Mute, A Beginner's Guide to the Music of Throbbing Gristle,is a fairly accurate description of what the disc provides. The problemwith a group as culturally significant and influential as ThrobbingGristle is that the music is only half the story, and that other halfis what this disc can't provide. Released to coincide with the glut ofThrobbing Gristle reissues and reformations surrounding the cancelledRE~TG event, this disc showed up in bins at the same time as Mutant TG,Mute's pointless collection of tepid remixes. I suppose this disc wascreated for the legions of curious who have read the enthusiastic,worshipful praise heaped on TG in various publications, but have noobvious entry point into the daunting discography of the so-called"wreckers of civilization." To that end, the compiler of this disc (thesuspiciously named Olivier Cormier Ota?o), has done a fairly decent jobof putting together a wide cross-section of TG's recorded output. Allof the major phases of the TG sound are present; the ominous industrialsoundscapes of "Industrial Introduction" and "Cabaret Voltaire;" theagitated, screamed provocations of "We Hate You (Little Girls)" and"Zyklon B Zombie;" the jagged psychedelic mutations of "Dead onArrival" and "Hamburger Lady;" and the proto-techno experimentation of"Distant Dreams, Pt. 2" and "Hot on the Heels of Love." There is adecided emphasis on more-or-less "accessible" material, although with aband as abrasive and uncommercial as TG, accessible is truly a relativeterm. Taken together, the tracks present a good argument for TG asmusical innovators, with a few well-chosen live recordings thatevidences their legendary talent for provocative live performance. Mymain complaint with the CD lies with the packaging. The total lack ofany historical notes or perspectives on TG is strange, especially for arelease purporting to be a Beginner's Guide. It is impossibleto separate TG from their historical and social context; to do so is tomisunderstand the scope of their significance. Further, the band'svisual presentation—in costuming, symbolism, record sleeves and thevarious "reports" and missives—is at least as important as their soundon record. I suppose beginners could seek out this material elsewhere,but would it have killed Mute to reproduce some of it along with thedisc? Adding to the problem is the cover art by Peter Christopherson.While I appreciate its powerfully grotesque, Salo-esquebrutality, it doesn't mesh with the visual strategies of early TGartwork, with its clinical style relating the activities of the bandlike some classified document from the KGB, slyly satirizing andattacking the status quo of music and culture. I can guardedlyrecommend The Taste of TG for its musical content, but for beginners, further study will be required. 

samples:

• Hot on the Heels of Love
• Dead on Arrival
• Hamburger Lady

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Mute
Now represents the first new music recorded by Throbbing Gristlein over two decades. It was available in a limited edition of 500 CDsand LPs at the recent live recording session event in London, which wasdone in lieu of the cancelled RE~TG weekend festival. The disc consistsof four lengthy tracks, which appear in shortened form on the LP. It'sfascinating to hear new material by TG, after twenty years of listeningto each member's musical evolution with their own projects—Chris andCosey, Psychic TV and Coil. It is immediately apparent listening to Nowthat each member has brought more experience and maturity to the table,and are not content merely to rehash or resurrect the familiar oldstrategies of the original incarnation of TG. In fact, Now fitsquite nicely into the current underground scene. The music is not milesaway from the new wave of young, TG-influenced acts like Black Dice andWolf Eyes. "X-Ray" rides in on a cold tractor beam, canceling allthought with its refrigerator drones and oscillating distortion. It'ssomewhat similar to early TG material, but it's also refreshingly new,taking in all of the developments in noise, experimental and industrialmusic in the last 20 years. "Splitting Sky" is my favorite of the newtracks, a 12-minute dub-influenced journey into the dark heart ofelectro, with Genesis providing gravelly, mutated vocals. The songinvokes the looming figure of Detroit Techno, viewed through thetransgressive lens of four of the most talented luminaries ofunderground music and culture. Chris, Cosey, Peter and Genesis seemwilling to confront their legendary status head-on, and confound anyexpectations or controversy that their reunion may have sparked off.Some may be disappointed by the relative tameness of the material on Now,but could anyone really have expected them to recapture the fierce,political aggression of their earlier material? That might have been alittle calculated and pathetic coming from a group of musicians nowpushing 18. It's tempting to hear echoes of recent Coil and Chris andCosey (or Carter-Tutti?) music in the mix on Now, and it'scertainly not an unwarranted comparison, considering thehallucinogenic, distended disco-dub of "Splitting Sky" and theatmospheric jazz of "Almost Like This." The stand-up bass andxylophone, and Genesis' tortured croon on "Almost Like This" deliverson the promise of their parody of Easy Listening LPs on the 20 Jazz Funk Greatssleeve. The fourth track, "How Do You Deal?" comes the closest torecreating the dark urgency of early TG live performances, with itsdistorted basslines and metallic guitar swipes, Genesis screaming:"Life is a vacuum pump/Strangeness/Sucking in/Wasted time/You can'twin." This dystopian negativity is a refreshing salve to the hokeypersonal-empowerment sermons that Genesis has been boring us with forthe past twenty years. The song builds to a series of noisy,apocalyptic crescendos that each try to outdo the last for sheerindustrial-strength aggression. Whether or where exactly Nowfits into the TG canon could be discussed and argued at length, but inthe meantime, I'm going to enjoy listening to it. It's a trulyimpressive record by a band that until recently seemed like the leastlikely candidates for a reunion. 

samples:

• X-Ray
• Splitting Sky
• Almost Like This

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

2.nd Rec
Following his self-recorded O+EP, Christophe Stoll aka Nitrada decided to invite guest musicians fora more collaborative approach on his debut album. The resultingcollection of songs is a varied and intense soul-searching experimentdrenched in ambience and trickery. There is an almost uncomfortablefeeling of anticipation that surrounds each song, like waiting forsomeone to flick on the lights and discover what was hidden before. Thelights do get switched on in every song, so the release that follows isalso heard, and it's a complex emotional exchange that I've never heardcrafted and executed quite so expertly. Literally I was on the edge ofmy seat listening to most songs. Stoll has used the formula to createsomething truly wonderful that, while not entirely unique, is full oflife and songs worth listening to. Where the first track is a bitmellow and vacant, with very little going on, each subsequent track hasa strong melody, catchy beats, and a steady build and deliver process."Everthing Is Not Alright" has a classic but muted dance beat and fadedfield voice samples to start. When the echoed keyboards join in,suddenly there's a new life to the song, and the beat changes slightlybut accordingly to compensate. The songs evolve to become betterstructures as they progress. Vocalists provide meaning and variety,becoming true practitioners of the collective vision. Even the quaintrecitation on the title track has some umph to it, and adds aninteresting new taste. Although Nitrada is a fairly new artist, he hasa classic vision and concept, and as his debut full-length shows it'snot a bad combination. -

samples:

• Everything Is Not Alright
• We Don't Know Why But We Do It
• Old Love, New Idea

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Glitterhouse
If I were to see this second album by Edison Woods in a record store, Iwould buy it based on the album title or song titles alone — a processthat has served me well, despite the occasional misses ("Bowling forFuckers" sounded like a good song, but I was wrong). Even though theband name sounds like a character from a soap opera or Everwood, thisBrooklyn-based band is far from a caricature or a parody of itself. Seven Principleswas released in October last year, but I just got around to listeningto it, and it floored me. Led by sultry vocalist andmulti-instrumentalist Julia Frodahl, the band is one that carefullyconsiders every aspect of their being, like the placement of a realfeather under the CD tray. More of an artistic collective than a band,their music is still paralyzing in its raw beauty, and the simplicityof its design. The arrangements are sparse, with most songs featuringone main instrument and several others added almost as accents only.Guiding it all is Frodahl's voice and poetic lyrics on a variety ofsubjects where everyone can find something personal. "So now let mego," she sings several times on the opening track "Secrets," andhonestly it's easy to understand why someone wouldn't want to just fromthe way she sings it. Empassioned, naked, and full of emotion, it's themark of a person who knows how to love. Even when she warbles away fromthe melody a little ("Like a Jewel"), it sounds so assured and plannedthat it doesn't grate like it would from most other artists. As thealbum progresses, the songs venture more into jam territory, as theband members let it out a bit and improvise for effect. On the fewsongs where there are no vocals, the songs still soar, unencumbered byanything that might bring them down. Edison Woods are an impressiveband with a unique sound, and this album shows there's plenty ofstrengths and variations to keep them going for years to come. 

samples:

• Secrets
• Rio Abajo Rio
• Shirts for Pennies

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Here's another gem of miniature electro acoustics from Bowindo, the Italian label that, within only a few years of activity, has become a bright beacon on the Mediterranean front, producing a modest string of thoroughly uncompromising releases, all of which will be featured on the Brain in coming weeks.Bowindo

Bowindo 03 is an uneven split dominated by two tracks from Alessandro Bosetti who will be better known for his challenging sax-playing as a contemporary of John Butcher and Bhob Rainey, working in a similar strained style of ultra-dry landscaping and small, human-scaled tensions. His first piece, the 18-min. "Sardinia and Japan are Islands," however, does not offer the sun-kissed change of pace that its title might suggest. Though expansive, even "breezy" sounds such as wind chimes and bird calls do find their way into the mix, Bosetti's islands could be just as easily represented using ink dots on a blank page. The piece is a bizarre trip over chemical waters, adrift on sharp pure tones and the odd analog crackle with enough extended silences to keep the mood cool and detached. No saxophone will enter at all, the only organic sounds limited to faraway thumping (barrels afloat, knocking?), the ghostly chimes, and some abrasive voice sampling, a section of which includes a text listing island names.

While there doesn't seem to be much of an internal logic behind this work, its drift is quite effective in creating feelings of discomfort that seem vaguely oceanic, a paralyzed-at-sea, Ancient Mariner-type vibe for sure. An interesting comparison could be Nurse With Wound's Salt Marie Celeste, music that works towards a similar effect but through different means. Bosetti's other contribution, the 22 min. "Kitchen Piece," likewise is not the sort of embracive or heartwarming creation expected from, say, Yoko Ono if she'd chosen the cooking area as a setting for one of her many "pieces." Sourced using sounds from an in-kitchen improv by labelmates Guiseppe Ielasi and Renato Rinaldi, the track is, at first, a monster of crudely cut-up noise sounding like average dish-clatter folded over-and-over on top of itself. Just as brutal are the quick stops and starts of Bosetti's cuts, the interjections more damaging each time, allowed little release in the piece's long and slow descent towards the chorus of layered pure tones and murky static that forms its conclusion.

The third and final track belongs to German experimental dramatist Antje Vowinckel, and, at barely half the length of the other two, it feels a bit unnecessary, though certain comparisons exist, especially in the stunted, silence-ful pacing carrying over from Bosetti's works. Hers, however, suffers from a sound palette that feels too varied for its own good, allowing only cryptic referencing to be made and causing the certain bold, even humorous inclusions (like sped-up martial arts grunting) to clash broadly with any kind of mood emerging elsewhere. The Bosetti pieces, however, were not such easy sells either, and the fact that they feel as strong after several listens gives hope that this disc might prove more well-rounded upon future consideration.

samples:

• Sardinia and Japan are Islands
• Kitchen Piece
• NIPPS

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Sub Rosa
Although I've still found much to enjoy on the new Fennesz record, Ihad to sympathize with Lucas' review in last week's Brain. I too havebeen struck by just how much of the artist's output seems to relysquarely on the simple act of obscuring his sound sources. Fennesz'scontinuing reinvention of shoegaze doesthrow his guitar to the front of the mix, but places it immediately inthe service of the walls of distortion and powerbook fuckery thatexist, it would seem, only to inflate the instrument into theshimmering pools of sound-dust that coat his recent work. Funny thatthe guitar, the instrument that has come to define Fennesz's style andgrant him immediate mention anytime stringed instruments go digital(this being no exception), has been the one thing to suffer most in hiswork. What I think Lucas was getting at is that all of the opulence,all the "dressing" on a Fennesz record, has taken the place oftechnical innovation and, sometimes, even compositional discipline. Andwhile I find both parties equally irresistible, I can't help but thinkthat Fennesz has taken guitar, for the electronic medium, whereStereolab took it within the rock/pop domain, their interchangeabledriving two-chord anthems now as predictable as the Viennese's grainy,melancholic churn. Mitchell Akiyama is a Canadian musician oftengranted the Fennesz comparison because of the way he works through asimilar method of sound disintegration, a practice made explicit in thetitle of his last release as one half of Desormais, Iambrokenandremade....Lucas liked that record a lot, the reason (I gather) being thecomplexity and risky nature of duo's rigorous reassembling process.Akiyama and Joshua Treble (whose solo disc on Intr_version is anotherrecent wonder) took what would have been impressive lines of nakedguitar, piano, and percussion and set about an intricate splicingmethod, reshaping their parts into elegant, labyrinthine hulks of soundthat opened up onto the process of their construction (or previousdeconstruction) but were also propelled by a new logic, bigger than anyone constituent. Akiyama's newest solo release doesn't pack quite theepic sweep of that prior work, but it does show a similar interest inallowing each instrument a unique and resonant spot within the soundpalette, regardless of the digital manipulations applied. If Night is a Weedcould be Akiyama's vision of chamber-glitch, the music growing out ofminimalist trumpet, piano and cello patterns, lent enough room to lettheir own often rigorous compositions show. The production keepscertain lines tactile and wonderfully present while others bend wildlyinto sunny aerials, this time glimpsed within quiet door and windowframes rather than Iambroken's jagged, industrial-scaledfoundations. The majority of the tracks feature a surprising opennessin which instruments engage in call-and-response with the effects-ladenghosts of themselves. Subtle builds lead from barren piano and cellointeractions to carefully-melded noise ascensions. One piece, dedicatedto Steve Reich, beautifully suggests his Music for Large Ensemble,its clipped, cyclical melodies rendered weightless by only a finedusting of static. That Akiyama can so readily duplicate his elder'sdelicate technique, place (even create) it within the record's"manipulated" context, and not have the result sound tired by eitherera's standards is testament alone to the beauty of this record. 

samples:

• enfin, rien est gagn?
• with hope that (for Steve Reich)
• fall away fall away

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20 June 2004

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Albums and Singles

Headphone Dust
Late at night in the USA there's this syndicated talk show all over AM radio called Coast to Coast AM.It's all about the paranormal: making contact with UFOs, the dead andbeyond, and other mystic things that science mysteriously avoids.Perhaps some of it is true, perhaps it's all a hoax, but it sure makesfor some addictive entertainment. For the latest Bass Communionrelease, Steven Wilson has constructed a series of amazing soniclandscapes inspired by Konstantin Raudive's attempts in the 1970s torecord ghosts. Similar to Coast to Coast AM, Wilson could beeither completely serious about reinterpreting ectoplasmic audio or itcould just be a hoax in its own way. Either way, the output isphenomenal and undoubtedly multidimensional. Wilson's interpretationsof the dead are constructed from munching the sounds of choral voices,scratchy old vinyl, wind, piano, guitar, flute, and variousunrecognizable things into a dense soup of thunderous roars, cracklesand landscapes that are rich with visual imagery. Speakers warble,objects in the room vibrate, earwax loosens, roommates come wanderingin, but nothing can disturb the serenity. Of course, it also helps thatWilson's been hanging out with Jonathan Coleclough and Colin Potterrecently, two of the Jedi Masters of modern drone. What Wilson bringsto the drones is a rich musical history, as he's "played" music inbands like Porcupine Tree and No Man. Calling this album a work ofdrones is somewhat limiting, as melodic movements permeate the disc.Whether it's a sparse one-note melody on "Part 1" or symphonic-likegrandness on "Part 4," never does the melody simply sit idly andsustain. The music can be so quiet however, it's effective to listeneither with headphones or high volumes in complete darkness. Ideally, avisual component to be projected on a large screen with superb digitalsound would be a great place to experience this amazing album, but fornow, we can lie back and dream it ourselves.

samples:

• part 1
• part 2
• part 4

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