2001! A spaced oddity... As in the previous millennium, this space is reserved for interesting odds-and-ends such as e.p.'s, first-timers, older releases and/or slightly off-topic miscellany. Unpredictability abounds! Adrian Stone: The Dream Captain   (Adrian Stone - 1999) (8.5) Take a divergent ride as Tony Kendrick leads the The Dream Captain on a sonic voyage through several musical realms, both familiar and fantastic... Listeners first pass through the spellbinding murk which is The Gate; amorphous pulsations are decorated with sparkling synth sweeps, faint textures and dark dronings. Whisper's flowing choral ethereality is topped with an intertwined duet of strummed acoustic and soaring electric guitars. Moody and windy, the brief transition of Myst (1:23) spreads its tumultuous weather into and underneath the sweet pluckings of Shadow in the Hall whose nimble fingering points back to prog-rock predecessors of the '70s. Beyond the Light (7:02) lies a spacious realm of magically twisted electrons where buzzing molecules wash up like waves upon a vast shoreline. The lively reel of Spell kicks up some dust with its spirited strings and drums. From its mystical beginnings, The Gauntlet is soon lashed with the power of guitar chords and serpentine solos; bass and drum set a rock-and-roll stage for squawling six-string gymnastics which take me back a few decades... Overall an excellent merger of ambient and rock worlds, rendered with an obviously heartfelt earnestness. Boards of Canada: in a beautiful place out in the country   (Warp - 2000) (8.9) On the outside I look as I normally do, though smiling a bit more, with head and toes bopping along; but inside... I'm like a shrieking pre-pubescent girl at an N-Sync concert... "Aaaaahh! New sounds from BOC!" 4 tracks give a 24-minute teaser while a new full-length is in process somewhere... The lazily drifting electronic dust and organ-like tones of kid for today (6:23) are spiked by crisp, slow percussion in a definitive BOC blend of softness, rhythm and digital grit. amo bishop roden's rippling glimmer/sheen is dappled with light cymbals and periodically penetrated by puffy bass blurts. Hints of childish laughter are sprinkled throughout the lovely wisps of in a beautiful place out in the country as are subdued-yet-insistent beats and fizzily effected vocal phrases. Though pretty enough, zoetrope (5:18) is the only track that smacks of being a bit of a toss-off ; its unhurriedly chimey pulsations set a tempo without aid of percussion, though its dreamy, cascading layers seem to be running on automatic. Horizon 222: through the round window   (DOVe/Hyperium - 1992) (8.5) Deciding to catch up on a little ambient history, I've been checking into Zoviet France members' side project. I'm pleasantly surprised at the beaty, psychedelic sounds within, often laced with Middle-Eastern essences... six quite transcendentally musical tracks add up to almost 74 minutes of worldly bliss. touch (groovin' with the Tuvan), though the trippy beats and hypnotic synchronization really leap to the forefront. Seems a little bit of everything is dashed into opening track, Trance out for a quarter-hour as spirit level (lost in space) (15:01) lays down "deeper" synthcycles, bass riffs and entrancing rhythms. "Short" track ancestor (discarnate in Alantis) (9:21) takes an island tour through dub-laden atmospheres of echoey shimmers, bubbly bass, flute wisps and poitically-oriented samples. A surreal pastiche of samples and ethnorhythms ripple through beyond the horizon (mother of everything) karda estra: thirteen from the twenty first   (No Image - 2000) (8.4) Richard Wileman heads this musical ensemble. The first five tracks (subdivided as "surrealisms") are gently inspired by surrealist art from the likes of Yves Tanguy, Edward Burra and Salvador Dali. Soft feminine crooning from ileesha bailey is threaded through these pieces, backed by cool breakbeats in the ribbon of extremes and by lite strings, reeds and xylos in john deth (where their combined lilt is underscored by ominous swirls). sleeping venus (2:15) even applies ladylike lyrics to its acoustic guitar and woodwind tapestry. Two "miniatures" feature classically-inclined quartets; flutes and oboes twinkle through bathed in light, while the toy musician plays in spurting rays of oboes and violas. The six remaining pieces are generally somewhat eerie "soundtracks" Wileman has scored for short films (and radio); these range from the ethereally oceanic swells of evolution - theme from "the jag man" (revised)... to the spookily slurred choral/symphonics of soulsearcher... to river (6:48) and its haunting stairstep vocalizations and sparkling chimes amid grand medieval soundscenery. Very pleasant even it its darker moments, thirteen from the twenty first follows a decidedly musical course under the impeccable direction of Wileman. The karda estra web presence offers more. Muslimgauze: Citadel   (Extreme - 1994) (8.6) Steely shimmers are steadily pummeled by ethnopercussion as Citadel opens another of Bryn Jones' many Muslimgauze outings. Though Jones passed away two years ago this month, his voluminous body of works lives on, still transporting listeners to those dusky, dusty deserts of his twisted vision. Airier Dharam Hinuja (4:55) evokes the shifting of sands (and perhaps other subversive political shiftings as well). Spoken samples (and later, wails) are filtered into the surreptitious percussions of Masawi Wife & Child (7:31); the beats here prefer shadowy stealth (and a bit of electronic sleight-of-hand) over straightforward bludgeoning. Having been previously exposed to the Infidel CDEP, its wheezy chimes and cinematic atmospheres seemed quite familiar, though in busily welcome way. Shakers occasionally shake as bassy drumskins are rapped and tapped amid Ferdowsi's darkly resonant spaces. repeat: select dialect   (cutrecords.com - 1999) (8.2) repeat are toshimaru nakamura on the no-input mixing board (?!?) and jason kahn providing drums, metals and electronics. 10 experimentally-inclined pieces explore a variety of unusual sonic disturbances, many of which are quite intriguing... The enigmatic bleep-and-churn of 1 squeals, scrawls and boils then is followed by the more relaxed expanse of 2; its quietly radioative backdrop is overlain with fluffy chimes, which give way to the hazily rhythmic thump-and-clang of the 3rd track. The squeaky wheel gets no grease as evidenced by the rattly squawks of 4. 6's (2:56) mechanical thrums are topped with periodic soft tonal bursts. Murky tropical-like drumbeats pound beneath 9's careening soundwaves, though everything eventually slurs into dense wavering clouds. Resonator: myworld   (waw - 2000) (8.4) Martin Warnes is the main man of the UK's Resonator... Smooth violins and a pulsing bass-synth riff are seductively battered by digital drums as Imogen and the Fish groovily opens the disc. Breakbeats abound as My World takes a grittier approach, with angry, profanity-laced samplings from gangster films. Electric guitar riffs and rapped lyrics are incorporated into Knightfall. Slick e-percussion stirs the various spicy guitar flavors of Texas Dawn... like ZZ Top gone electronica. Soft synth-organ floes are topped by choral clouds, guitar and beats as golden The Morning After (2:44) awakens. Stella Page contributes violins, violas and vocals to the sweetly melancholy pop of Out Of My Head. Dark finale Anchored (9:06) spreads a black satin blanket of droning energies upon which synths, beats, violins and more are piled into an increasingly trancey musical structure. 50 minutes of nicely produced-and-performed emusic by Warnes and friends. Various Artists: Miditations   (Ceiba Records - 1999) (8.6) Here's a case where I judged a disc by its cover and came out a winner... Kim Zimmerman's dark, cyber-organic artwork lured me in where I found a drum-driven collection of aurally-ingested hallucinogenics from Southern California. The neo-shamanic tribal-techtronics of kode IV's "raptor"are delivered with spunky verve yet plenty of spaciousness. Backed by a shifting effervescence, "flughund" from patchwork thrives on a coolly grooving bass run and trance-portive synthshowers. Amongst burbling synth tones and exotic utterances, waterjuice's strutting beats-n-bass saucily swagger through "inversion layer" (7:44). Hazily sputtering drumbeats, jazzy bass inflections and streaming flute-tronics give antediluvian rocking horse's "it's ok, mosquito" a more urbane feel, though laced with occasional talk of "the spirits". ceiba's bamboo clatter and rippling chantlines sprawl beneath the slightly-overcast "sky spirit" where breezy electronics flow. midi brotherhood achieves "violin bliss" (2:13) via a droning current of e-strings Nicely produced works capture the desert-spawned essence of electronic drum-worshippers without too many cheesy cliches (despite liberal sound/word samplings) entering into their trance-cultural worldsounds. Posted January 28, 2001 | 1999/2000 Overviews Index

AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).