Various Artists: 4x Various Artists: 4x (Dark Duck - 2001) If you've been reading these pages regularly then you should be familiar with Dark Duck's "x" series which takes a new approach to the Various Artist/compilation thing... the anonymously mixed sounds of 4x come from Geoff Varosky, Stephen Philips, Ben Summers and Alex Cornhill. An inscrutable cacophony of little noises buzz, blur, swish, click and zoom through Transponder (3:33). Even more enigmatic, the weirdly fluctuating soundwaves of Reflective are battered by clanky industrialized pounding; things take a turn for the swampy, when frogs invade the watery aftermath. Crisp, rough bleeptronics echo through Specifity. Busy Drongo spastically sputters amongst droning rays, glitchy textures and other densely swirling audio-oddities. Ahhh... more hospitable atmospheres are found in the lightly simmering, cymbal-speckled grayness of Dawdle; watch out for the passing traffic though. Seeming to arise from deep within some digital jungle, Contrasting Elements is awash in synthetic-organic occurences and tribal-ish binary beats. Emerging from the silicon voidspaces of Comatose, Transponder II takes a trip into trancier beat-driven microscopics, while Ort goes for an appealing ambient-dub thing, laced with spacey ripples. Distant mechanical pulsations and closer electro-grit expand into Omni Orbis (14:07), a mucho-minimal closing to this volume. An eclectic blend of sounds from Various Artists are taken in various directions; the first four tracks of 4x tend toward more raucous sonic experiments, then the latter six explore quieter realms of computerized materials with even a slight musical prescence here or there. These final tracks keep the rating up in my ears, for an overall 8.2. Previous editions include: 1x, 2x, 3x or fly on over to the Dark Duck home. This review posted May 31, 2001 AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).