Ho Ho Ho and Happenin' Holidaze to all. Strewn under the AmbiEntrance Xmas tree is the following load of yuletide cheer, a little something for everyone hopefully. Hope we'll see you back next year... boards of canada: hi scores   (skam - 1996) (8.6) For fans of boards of canada's music has the right to children, there aren't as many other listening options as we'd like; just re-released is this 1996 EP, with 33.5 additional minutes of their gorgeously fun mix of beats and electronics... well, 28.5 minutes if you exclude the cool xylophoney atmosphere of turquoise hexagon sun which also appears on their previously mentioned full-length. Grungy electronic rhythms percolate and buzz under the smooth synth surface of hi scores. A certain funkiness is injected into nlogax and an unwieldy number of layers is piled on top; one of the riffs is clearly identifiable from mhtrtc. Darker synthstreams flow through june 9th, then active rhythmication and brighter keyboard noodling lightens the day. seeya later (4:12) is a more-subtle outing with all the usual elements acting and reacting in a murky, softening haze. An even-more-subtle belltone haze opens everything you do is a balloon (7:03), which is soon enough bolstered by stronger flows and steady mid-tempo beatronics. The EP is an appreciated diversion while we wait for their next release (sometime in 2000, according to the Cosmic Crofter's boc website). curtis grant: floating   (curtis grant - 1999) (7.9) Floating through 10 beatless, subtly droning synth arrangements is what this disc is (generally) all about... whether it be levitating through the darkened atmospheres of dragon's lair, hovering down the faint Gothic hallways of the castle in the clouds, or being awash in the tranquil, organ-ic flow of woods lake. The (not so marshy) sounds emanating from the haunted marsh are less droney, operating more in a spooky-music-box style, laced with atonal chords. The 20-minute-long dawn chorus closes the CD with a prolonged final floatation. The tracks tend toward the subdued, minimally layered, not too much going on... Musically, everything's fine (in a weightlessly wafting way), but the recording quality is sometimes on the hissy side (and inside the dying spaceship, there are several surely-unintentional buzzy distortions). Talk to curtis though at his website (and listen/order there, too); despite a few technical shortcomings, it's certainly worth giving a listen if you're in the market for some moody new space to explore. pablo st. chaos: when you force me against the breaking earth   (lo-bango music - 1999) (8.0) Pablo St. Chaos lives in Texas and he plays guitar, but you shouldn't expect pickin', pluckin' or twangin'... instead envision dense staticy drones accompanied by ambient drifts, grungy interference and occasional lyrics, buried deeply in reverb and further muffled by the swirling mix. á bouche ouverte comme point repére includes cello accompaniment, though it's difficult to discern, blending into in the dark soundstream. Cool and gray, austin in december resonates with a bleak drone and buzz, and is my own favorite track. in the subtle frequency of life is rippling, pulsing and surging with the power of electronic feedback and echoing distortions. Long running closer soft as the underbelly is almost 10 minutes in length, wafting its way through sparser territories, all oddly beautiful and hazy until it just stops. In this excursion into moodily psychedelic noise/sounds, I personally prefer the vocal-less tracks. For more info, pick your way through the Pablo St. Chaos website (and its interestingly somber design). BTW - Pablo is a fan of loveliescrushing and love spirals downward, and it shows. As for when you force me against the breaking earth, he says "play during deep sleep". Santé: Into Light   (Santé Music - 1999) (8.1) This aptly titled CD leads listeners to sweetly enveloping electronic/new age destinations which are glowingly illuminated, though bearing occasional patches of darkness. Warm synths groove through Airstream to be joined by lilting keyboards, sparingly applied percussion and various thunders and shimmers. The moodier sweeps of Cetacea are permeated with interesting, organically active textures. To my ears, several tracks linger too deeply in overt "new aginess" (the faux-Oriental Terra's Lullaby or the saccharin, but undeniably lovely, Archangel, for instance), though others are more adventurous (such as 3D World which blends beautifully sonorous strings and brass sounds with intriguing background patterns). Exciting as well as soothing, Stephanie Santé's release is impressive, injecting her own magic into, and effectively expanding, new age themes. Test the waters at the Santé website (and/or at her mp3.com page) and see if it's for you (or simply place your order at Backroads.) Seofon: Immanence   (Self Released - 1999) (8.5) seofon (interviewed here recently as part of ATOI) offers this solo release at his mp3.com page. The spacey atmospheres of Dai soon enough erupt into rippling beat explosions. Many tracks on this disc (beginning with Eth) tend toward a mecha-micro-tribal sound, with tiny computerized beats pounding in neo-primitive patterns; the effect is interestingly incongruous. Deep, churning, beatless space revolves around the core of Mantic [free] as it segues into the dreamy celestial nirvana which opens Mantic; glitchy hyperrhythms begins to pulse in multiple layers amongst the wafting ephemera. The smooth, lovely darkness of Immanence is punctuated by a myriad of sparkling percussive hits, resulting in another spacious exploration. A bit of digital flashback is provided with Timeloose, a bonus track from Causal Collapse era, circa 1994. An oddity: when I pop this disc into my Mac and open it through the Apple CD Player, it lists the track names from disc two of ATOI's Y2KAOS, another Seofon project. (Doesn't that mean the discs' lengths must be identical to the thousandth of a second?) Akira Yamamichi: Pulsebeats   (FIRE, Inc. - 1999) (8.4) This 3" CD (16:36) contains three untitled tracks (ranging from 4:43 - 6:00) all operating in that microscopic/electronic soundstate that has come to be known as "microwave". Indeed Yamamichi's works minimally pop, hiss and stutter with the best of them, as the tiny fragments of sound rhythmicate amongst themselves. Behind the staccato patterns of track 3, deeper electromagnetic pulses radiate and warm the glitchy mechanical syncopations. Visit the FIRE, Inc. website to learn more. Posted December 28, 1999 | 1999 Overviews Index

AmbiEntrance © 1999-97 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).