dual: caste

dua-c.jpg (8k) dual: caste
(CEE - 2000)

Add dual to the list of ambient guitar explorationists... and put the name high upon that list, particularly if you're into a dark vision of what six-string transmutations should be. colin bradley (with some help from julian coope) belongs to a caste of sonic-creators who forge irresistably bleak soundworlds.

Warmly buzzing guitar-spawned fluids swirl around blicks, spiked with gritty occurences and semi-rhythmic pulsations, some of which growl like a distantly raging locomotive. Those enigmatic atmospheres flow into the quieter regions of chpst:k (4:30); an isolationist's dream, these faint waves of feedback billow and sometimes squawl obliquely across a panoramic-though-sparesely-populated soundscene of indefinable activities. Those hushed sonic molecules become spydel (10:39), a mutedly thrumming zone which abruptly cuts off, leaving only the most minute traces. Eventually a cyclic pattern emerges, like a tiny metallic jackhammer, which is swept into...

...the ringing gasclouds of wirm, which rises, falls, expands and contracts, combining roughness and smoothness like a sand-carrying wind. Seemingly alive with organic lifeforms of alien nature, crain develops a bit of bass and beat to propel its amorphous evolution. Screeching gleams fade into isochemic, though this closing piece shifts to a flat expanse of foggy resonance which dissolves slowly into nothingness.

The ambient soundscapes of dual hover in a slightly-rough neverworld awash in the grey movements of vast guitarnoisedrones and decorated with other unexpectations. I found the desolate realms of caste to be a most enjoyable visitation... An 8.7 for unguitarlike abstractions of somber beauty.

Of course you'll want to check out the dual site.

8-7.gif
This review posted June 30, 2001

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