Antenne: #1

ant-1.jpg (7k) Antenne: #1
(Korm Plastics - 2000)

Copenhagen's Kim G. Hansen is the main man behind the light-but-brooding sounds of Antenne. Several of #1's tracks venture into song/lyric territories of a loungey-electronic vibe kept distinctive by their ghostly sparsity and somber moods.

In Here To Go, swishing cymbals and pulsing bass are somehow dispersed into almost vaporous forms; from this syncopated haze, ML Munch's quietly sultry feminine vocals slip in an ethereal-lounge mode. More overtly drummy, though still decidedly low-key, Like Rain floats amid hovering synth wisps and H. Liegott's lighter-than-air guitar strands. Machine-made breezes segue into the spacier drifts of instrumental Let Me Ride It, flowing like a miniature jetstream between ones ears, dappled with reductionist percussion. The beats become more pronounced, steering the track to its ultimate destination...

Echoey guitar strums radiate from Whispering (9:36), enjoined by pattering rhythms, wan vocalizations and fluttering sonic atoms. Buzzily distant drones filter through the sporadic beats and muffled chimes of PPG HOLD PRG. 11, marked with occasional static blits.

Ms. Munch's intonations seem more impassioned in Something Not To Do, still weighed down by palpable weariness even when buoyed by more-active e-drums. Gruffer beatronic distortions and radiowave frenzies ensue. Phasing in on hypnotic guitar loops, word-free Memo (5:24) ripples in a twilight void of digital twinkles and blurts.

Hardline ambient-purists may feel that Antenne's song-structures bar it from their realm, but the eight pieces of #1 represent a definitely subdued side of the electronic music movement. Microscopic digital blues from a lonely cybernetic nightspot generate a mellow (practically depressed) langour and warrant an 8.3 for sheer moodiness. 8-3.gif
This review posted March 28, 2001

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