Can you believe another Year has flown by!? As steadfast as the sprinting of time, the AmbiEntrance Overviews section will continue its revelations of odds and ends from across the sonic spectrum. Yay! Does anybody read this part? Koji Asano: A Second Dam   (Solstice - 2001) (7.9) Koji Asano continues his inexorable output of eclectic longform explorations... Unfortunately (with an aversion to continual high squealing noises) I have to file the continual high squealing noises of A Second Dam (67:38) under the "uneasy listening" banner... not that there aren't interesting contours in the thin, slightly glitchy, ever-twisting streams, it's just that 67 minutes of such screechy stuff can frazzle one's remaining nerve endings. When listened to with any real volume, it can be a truly ear-piercing experience. If you like it especially edgy though, visit the Solstice site to learn more. Jorge Castro: The Joys and Rewards of Repetition   (Public Eyesore- 1999) (8.4) The 17-minute opener hiss doesn't behave as one might expect... rather than sibilating, it simply expands in long, slurry strands of unknowable vapors, rippling and morphing in its own due time. Thus opens four expansively droning cloudscapes from Jorge Castro; much of this gentle, amorphous material seems to be processed guitar sounds, but who can tell? (and why ask anyway?) Eerier cloud (8:52) rides in on whispy highs which are joined by rythmically thrumming echoes and trepidatiously shifting lower streams. Brassy beams spread in multiple directions when feel (20:03) begins to hover through several enigmatic phases. Nicely pensive moods within. Cooldown: Vivid   (Spark Records - 2001) (8.3) Blonde, beautiful, alterna-cool Miss Benny certainly has the look and sound to be Canada's newest electropop princess, like a less-agressively-quirky Bjork, perhaps. Cooldown's 11 Vividtracks vary from plenty of downtempo crooners like Several Independent Films (though some of Benny's breathily sustained highs have my head turning with that quizzical listening-dog twist) to all-out stompers like Tunnel Rat, whose pumping technobeats are topped with synth sweetness and effected girly vocals. "Everything is hazy" in dreamlike Amazonia (3:46), pulsing with cool groves. Drifting on multi-track melodies, sultrysmooth Tahiti Sweetie (7:27) unfurls exploratory violin jams amid its psychedelicate core. Infused with smokily drifting ambientronica and tricky-enough e-percussion courtesy of the boys in the band (which includes producer/cowriter Michael Balch, formerly of Front Line Assembly), these tunes are nearly radio-ready, being still too-left-of-center for those mainstreaming airwaves (which of course is a good thing!). Elton Dean & Mark Hewins: Bar Torque   (MoonJune Records - 2001) (8.3) What difference a drone makes! Jazzy noodling generally doesn't hold my attention, no matter how well-played... just too normal, I guess. But when improvisational duo Dean & Hewins inject a brooding monotone beneath their reeds-n-keys meanderings, it adds another dimension which allows me to slip in there too. Said drone morphs into clangorous bells and ethereal haze as Bar Torque (24:46) shapechanges through several styles and moods in its continual and leisurely evolution. Sylvan (13:25) features assorted non-traditional guitar sounds from Hewins (more resonance and thumps than "playing"); he lays down unusually contorted terrains, which would throw less capable musicians into a tizzy... Dean, though, navigates with aplomb; his lips, lungs and fingers steer his sax through daredevil gymnastics in all unpredictable conditions. Dean's articulate hornwork rings throughout third and final piece Merilyn's Cave, buoyed by sci-fi ripples and other out-of-the-ordinary pulsations. He then takes a well-deserved break while Hewins cuts loose with synth/guitar acrobatics. Funki Porcini: The Ultimately Empty Million Pounds   (Ninja Tune - 1999) (8.8) Go man go! Playing the various styles off each other like a seasoned combo, Funki Porcini expertly blends retrojazz with more-electronic elements, enhancing the sassier sides of each. From free-wheeling roustabouts (such as 123,3, 4) to so-cool beatnik/loungecore (Butler's Groove) to lush, haunted River, I have a blast with this Funki stuff! And the kooky little societal jabs in the art and samples are fun, too. Secret Agent Gel: P as in Peter, F as in Frank   (Opiate Records - 2001) (8.3) Defying convention from the get-go, Secret Agent Gel puts 20 experimental songs of musical noise into 15 tracks (which are numbered up to 9, then lettered... ?). The glassy chiming of trk 1 echoes into quiet spaciousness which eventually is consumed by obliquely churning radiance. A continual mix means that trk 2 (0:16) just slips by unnoticed, while trk 3's ripply "lead" is pummeled by notably sassy bass'n'beats. The rhythmic and arrhythmic thumping/blurting of trk 7 gets a bit overbearing in its in-your-face weirdness. The low pulsations of cool trk B (5:17) are injected with spattery percussion and moodytonedrones. Unconventional stylings to be sure; my favorites are the more relaxed pieces, as opposed to the couple which get all crazy in a "Hey, look at me! I'm gettin' all crazy!" kinda way. Check out Opiate Records for more. Vainio Vãisãnen Vega: Endless   (Blast First/Mute - 1998) (8.3) When Pansonic's Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vãisãnen merge their gruffly stripped-down power electronics with Alan Vega's vocal influences, strange things ensue... reverb-soaked Elvis-drawl-meets-Morrison-trip-out intonations spew psychedelically into rocking buzziness. Brooding Motor Maniac wafts on pulsating rhythms and enticing desolationism. No Home Kings on the other hands rides more uncomfortably on deep elastic bends and gutteral, quite-possibly-drunken yowls. Vega sing-growls (and even quacks) in this quite simply bizarre convergence of disparate audio forms. Perhaps if Jim Morrison were still alive (and still doing a lot of acid and into rough Finnish soundesign), he might sound like this. Worth looking into for eccentricity's sake alone! When: The Lobster Boys   (Jester Records - 2001) (8.4) Rarely ambient, these unusualities come from the fun/pop side of experimentalism via Norway's When... Sweet Beatle-esque harmonies emerge from bizarre style-shifting arrangements which are sprinkled with spoken bits and other unexpected miscellania, such as in the increasingly dense-and-drummy Cut. Murky strings and voices (and maybe street sounds?) emerge like a forgotten recording from antiquity in quiet Z 33 (1:46). Despite its seemingly negative implications The Greatest Sorrow On Earth emits exotic violinguistics and a rather peppy rhythm and bass. Ruin Yourself (7:05) adopts a similar faux-Arabic stance upon which effected vocals and slurry strings play (followed by strange breathing and thunderous drum blurs). The piece flows into its own deconstruction Ruin Mix, whose rippling contusions abut the twee tweedling and soft vocals of fab popsong Too Much Hello Goodbye Again?. An untitled closing piece (16:15) is a dizzying patchwork of everything-inlcuding-the-kitchen-sink musicality and noise which defies description by its sheer, schizophrenic transformations! File under Quirky with a capital Q! Jester Records are distributed by Voices of Wonder. Posted December 3, 2001 | 1999/2000 Overviews Index

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