IAN BODDY: The Climb CD DELETED
The starting point in 1983 and a completely new sound and style for the synth music scene that didn't really bear any comparison with anyone from the so-called vintage '70's and, even today, still sounds fresh and original by virtue of its combinations of melodic flow and changing tempos, with a deceptively full sound. It has a warmth, and even with its chunky rhythms it has depth, but what makes it, and a good many subsequent albums, so long-lasting, is an unusual quality of mesmerising tunes and melodies that are enjoyable from start to finish, yet none of which stay around in your head once the album's ended, the result being a fresh and original set of listening pleasure each time you hear it.
IAN BODDY: Spirits CD DELETED
The sound and compositional style are, even at this second album point in his career, trademark Boddy, yet the album has a harder rhythm content and the tunes/melodies are more complex, more layered, mixing sheer invention and accessibility once more, with a twenty-three minute title track that twists and turns like no other before it, synth soaring away, drums rattling along one moment, almost church-like musical reverence the next. Add to that, the presence of a lone voice on track 2, and you have what is still a refreshing yet complex and flowing musical treat.
IAN BODDY: Phoenix CD
The beginning of the trend to make every album sound nothing like the one that precede it, started here. Lush synth multi-layers, a wider range of electronic textures, a choral voice, heavier and more deliberate rhythms, the use of sax as a co-lead solo instrument in the mix of smooth and thunderous music that is the track 'In Your Eyes', and an overall inbuilt power, not previously witnessed. No matter how much you knew the first two, hearing this for the first time, you'd never immediately recognise it as having 'Ian Boddy' stamped all over it, since it has constantly moving ideas with cohesion, consisting of a sense of melody and consistency that makes the listener work for the reward, with the reward greater than the effort required to find it. The bonus track on the CD reissue is a superb example of his live work at the time - a twenty-five minute suite recorded by Ian Boddy and David Berkley in London in 1986, also showing that the studio sense of adventure would be carried into the live arena, effortlessly and to maximum effect.
IAN BODDY: Jade CD
From 1987 and an album of sonic grace, passion and delicacy; a kind of 'new age with substance' as a set of quite expansive, vast tracks mix an endless ocean of synth backdrops with a gorgeous top layer of majestic melodies, possessing a heartwarming quality, a wide array of textures and rhythms, with classic filmic qualities including sinuous violin-like synth flows, delicate piano and solid harpsichord-like passages with Oriental-sounding sections, all of which combine upon an exotic array of rhythmic and melodic undercurrents to produce a dynamic set of music that spans a range of synth music tastes from '80's Richard Burmer/Braheny to Kitaro, I.C. label and beyond, yet somehow still managing to be original and organic.
IAN BODDY: Odyssey CD
Displaying a new, more dramatic style of music with synths playing the role of 'horns, strings, guitars, choir and percussion'. Right from the opening track, you witness a more mature musician with a musical vision as wide as the Union Canal and a quite magnificent symphonic opening track that should graced many a blockbuster film epic. There follows a more reflective yet no less grand five minute track that illustrates the dynamics that he strives to achieve, the music constantly flowing, changing and soaring, to ensure you have something to get your teeth into, yet something that is emotional, deceptively intricate and a joy to hear. The 5 other tracks on the album continue the mood of inner peace combined with an adrenaline-rush of pleasure and the towering film-like soundscapes that sum up the rich and varied music and can't fail to uplift the listener.
IAN BODDY: Drive CD deleted
The culmination of a project that began life as a live affair for the UK Electronica performance at Sheffield in 1990 involving Ian, David Berkley and EWI musician, Julian Maynard-Smith. Having got no idea who was in the group (since Ian had it advertised just as the group name), the audience was blown away to see a tight trio playing a combination of driving rhythms, with more melodies than you've had hot dinners, on shorter, solid compositions that are light years from anything he'd previously done. The album generally follows this theme and you hear the nearest thing he's yet issued to an overtly 'commercial' album. In fact some of the themes are so good that you can imagine the likes of mi-late '80's Tangerine Dream being well anxious to get their hands on them, particularly the amazing 'Atlantis' track.
IAN BODDY: The Uncertainty Principle CD
An album of sheer class that has more consistent musical ideas within sixty minutes than many musicians achieve over several albums. Exploring all musical dimensions from space through symphonic to melodic, this has to be regarded as a landmark recording and certainly one of the top ten albums to come out of the '80's UK synth music scene. The imagination, scope and construction are immense, the sense of dynamics at a peak, the musical layers flowing as one, with melodies, tunes, rhythms and textures to die for. Cosmic, symphonic an dwith a real bite, this is an extraordinarily beautiful album.
IAN BODDY: The Deep CD
Remains one of his most popular albums among European synth music fans, and it's easy to see why - with its Vangelis-like synth layers plus some use of Tangerine Dream-style sequencers and choral sections, this is an album that, despite its musical sonic familiarity, still manages to sound fresh and alive, the sort of album you can't wait to put on time and time again for its refreshing mix of retrovison and originality. But, as ever, the difference is in the composition and construction of the album's sixty minutes, with him filling the album with flowing musical ideas that somehow interlink to reveal a mighty set of tunes to shake the foundations, and celestial soundscapes that leave you in awe of the music.
IAN BODDY:Continuum DBL CD
Now I don't want any arguments, OK. If I say this is the most important and most incredible Ian Boddy CD ever issued, I expect you to take notice and at least hear me out. So.......this is the most important and incredible Ian Boddy CD yet issued and I'll tell you why-because he has produced what, to all intents and purposes, is a varied, slowly unfolding, atmospheric, spacey, cosmic, ambient, ethereal composition, not only ladting the entire length of a double CD, not only conjuring up the most magical set of synth sounds and layers that you will have the privilege to hear in a single composition, but also, in one fell stroke, managing to lay waste many previous releases by the likes of T.Dream, Steve Roach, Richard Burmer, Pete Namlook and Tesu Inoue, to name but 5. Here Mr Boddy ahs produced a 'magnum opus' that is so 'magnum' it puts him on a pedestal with the 'greats' of space synth music. For a start, the way CD 1 unfolds with its sinuous, flowing layers of sound puts you right back at the legendary Royal Albert Hall gig that T,Dream did in '74 (I think that's the year), but this is no retro music, this is the stuff of today with the warmth and 'feel good factor' that many do not ascribe to the non-analogue music. CD 1 creates an environment of soundscapes where the music flourishes and changes so that there is always some variation in the sonic tapestries that unfold pass by your ears and into your waiting head, constantly keeping the listener absolutely riveted with the sounds and textures that rise and soar through the heavens. Brief hints at rhythms come and go but the mood is predominantly spacey but with a sound so rich you'd think it had just won the lottery....and when the choral layers emerge at around the 50 min mark, you are just heaven bound and that's for sure.
CD 2 eschews the predominantly space music and brings us right up to date with a much more rhythmic set of sound sculptures that would not have sounded at all out of place on any of the last 2 Namlook/ Schulze 'Dark Side' albums. In fact I would go as far as to say that this whole double CD would not only be perfectly at home on the Fax label but that Namlook is actually missing out on a bit of talent here by not having this on Fax. However, I digress. There is much more of a rhythmic content but not in a particularly predictable or orthodox way yet still producing layers and waves of sequenced sounds and more that flow superbly in the context of the grand thematic possibilities that are explored throughout the duration of the CD. But it's not all one rhythmic trip as there is still a huge new range of space music
landscapes to experience and different from what's on CD1 yet it all still flows superbly and is very much in the same spirit. The clever use of the odd non-synth sample enahnces the proceeding at various points. I could go on for a long time about this music but suffice to say it is by far and away his best to date and he has, albeit in a typically different way from any other synth musicians you could name, come up with an ambient-synth music project that bridges 25 years of synth music to perfect effect without at any stage being 'over the top', 'difficult'. 'boring' or 'clicheed'. It doesn't get any better than this.
IAN BODDY/RON BOOTS/HARALD VAN DER HIJDEN: Phase Three CD
The amazing result of a one-off live concert that followed just one day of rehearsals, the three never having played together before, and from this came the album, consisting of five lengthy tracks and an unashamedly rhythmic, powerful album giving the impression of a well-seasoned group in full flight. Being a true fusion of '70's and '90's music, this outpowers even the mighty Ash Ra, with rattling rhythms, dynamic melodies and a full-on set of playing that carries you along in its wake and doesn't deposit you until the storm has passed.
IAN BODDY: Rare Elements DBLCD
Even when it came to looking back, he proves he's never one to re-tread long-cherished music industry ideals, so the idea of a 'greatest hits' album became a massive double CD, half live and half studio, of all previously unreleased versions or completely new tracks, all bar one, taken from activities between 1993 and 1995, the result being essentially a brand new album. Far from being an album of 'leftovers' or 'fillers', the quality and class of the music on display is absolutely mindblowing, with everything from spacey to attacking, a fifteen minute title track that is a true 'magnum opus' in its own right and the nearest thing that Boddy's yet come to an 'anthem' in a similar way to the manner that Shreeve's 'Assassin' title track became his 'Free Bird'. In addition, there are some cracking version of live favourites, all in excellent sound quality, with material from 'Jade', 'Uncertainty Principle', 'Drive' and 'The Deep' to name but four, and all adding to the versions that previously existed. Far from a 'looking back' type of album, this is an absolute belter and no mistake - the surprise essential album that you should own but don't yet realise it.
IAN BODDY: Shrouded CDbr> A USA radio broadcast whereby Boddy performed in front of a small audience for the USA "Star's End" radio programme late at night, and the music that ensued is presented here as a very special edition, at a really great price. Featuring five tracks in fifty-three minutes, the album can be viewed as a natural extension to the flowing passages revealed on the classic "Continuum" album, only here the ideas are more distilled, the sounds more organic and the music more layered, with a flow to it that commands your attention as the synths drift, soar, fly and drive. But before you start thinking it's just going to be a space-music or cosmic fest, after the scene-setting tranquillity of the opening track, you are heading out for deep space on a sea of cascading synth rhythms as a percussive sequencer line chugs away, and melodic layers are mixed with the ocean of cosmic backdrops, until a lone solo string-like synch rises from the deep and gives the piece even more life, in many ways a bit Schulze/Gottching-oriented only here somewhat classier and more direct, on a twenty minute track that has you riveted. The six minute 'Drift' does as its name suggests but in such a beautiful set of soundscapes you can't possibly fail to be captivated by them. The ten minute title track is a slowly building cosmic piece during which are introduced assorted percussive textural backdrops (as opposed to rhythms and assorted cascading synth backdrops (as opposed to melodies). The final track is a nine minute slice of wondrous textural cosmic synths that move over and flow into each other with a fair amount of subtle additions in the proceedings. Overall, it's one of his finest more cosmic works and should have an undoubted appeal to both space music, Boddy and synch fans in general.
IAN BODDY/MARK SHREEVE (ARC): Octane CD
When you hear this, you realise why they felt they had to do it under thr group name rather than their own names, as it is immediately clear that everyone's musical preconceptions were about to be shattered. In a parallel universe to Namlook's Fax label, the two musicians came up with a set of tracks that explored the nature of electronic music, largely abandoning familiarity and safety in favour of reaching out, stretching the musical boundaries and coming up with soundscapes, rhythms and the occasional melody that would make many demands on the listener, the patience and persistence returned, bringing its own rewards on 5 tracks that are highly creative, totally uncommercial and unique.
V/A: EMMA I & II Live DELETEDOrder now from CD Services
Now this you have to own if you haven't got it already, especially as how we can now offer it for a limited period an this ultra-bargain price. With all tracks in absolutely perfect quality, recorded at the two EMMA electronic music events in Derby from 1994, this is th eonly way you have now of obtaining this set of tracks, all exclusive to this CD, from the best of the UK synth music scene, and two non-UK musicians, notably Tranceport, Paul Ward,John Dyson, Ian Boddy, Julian Shreeve, Merge, Synthetik, TK, Michael Shipway, John Serrie and Node. As synth music goes, this is one superb album from start to finish and I promise you that there isn't one part of it where you won't be riveted to what is going on, from the space music of Serrie through the soaring melodies and synth rhythms of Boddy's 'The Deep (Medley)', to the ten glorious Tangerine Dream-styled minutes of Node.
DIN LABEL:
ARC: Radio Sputnik CD£12.99Order now from CD Services
OK - picture the scene - you're on holiday in a sunny place and it's come on to rain, you're fed up because you want to get out and have fun. Then , out of nowhere, the weather brightens up, the sun comes out, it's all warm and cozy, and you're absolutely delighted.
If the first album was the storm, this is the sun. It's superb, and a whole lot more accessible than the previous album for a start, even though you'd still never guess, apart from one track, that it was Shreeve and Boddy playing. The opener alone starts with some synth effects before a rumbling synth bass rhythm enters alongside cascading electronic percussives, then the two combine to form a sort of galloping rhythm over which an assortment of melodic synth leads weaves some spectacular little webs as the sound is spacey, rhythmic, atmospheric and full-sounding, all at the same time, with burst of mellotrons coming in and out of the mix while various synthscapes are built and layered over the solid rhythmic base - a great thirteen minute start to a great album. Almost without a break, the feel extends into track two where a string synth layer appears over a twittering percussive synth rhythm and more melodic lead synths soaring overhead, as the two musicians proceed once more to build and layer like some outer world musical builders creating a towering work of great beauty, only this time with a lot more sparseness and sense of vast space in the music. Track three is quite darkwave in its cosmic scope with brief melodic sections, but largely staying on the space music side of things, while track 4 slowly builds from sparse beginnings into one gorgeous slice of synth flow with rhythms to the fore and gentle synth leads flying alongside, again at thirteen minutes, quite sublime. Track five starts with synth choirs and bursts of space synths, the mood becoming darker once again, as it leads into the mighty track 6 where, entirely unexpectedly, this massive Tangerine Dream-like sequencer line appears out of nowhere and a lone synth voice circles around on top before the sequencer gets louder and more solid as the emerging synth scape begins to build, threatening to leave orbit as sequencers, synths, mellotrons, synth choirs and all, positively go into meltdown, on a simply magnificent track at close on thirteen minutes long. Track 7 ends the album with a mix of synth bass rhythms, flowing lead synths undulating rhythmic synths and deep synth bass, the last a common feature throughout the album on music that possesses some of the finest most resonant synth bass undercurrents that you're likely to hear. Overall, this is a major step forward from the last album and shows that both musicians really can work together and pull off a killer album.
IAN BODDY: Box Of Secrets CD£12.99Order now from CD Services
The new CD on a new label as part of a brand new project - the only thing you are left asking yourself at the end of this album is 'if only there was more where this came from' as this is a senartional new album. Track one begins with twittering synths to which are added edgy synth/percussive rhythms and the whole thing slowly builds, managing to be melodic without any tunes and modern without any dance connotations. The overall effect is very atmospheric, with a haunting feel running through it and, for those who can't get by a review without some frame of reference, a bit like Namlook/Schulze in a parallel universe with no '70's references and no dance elements. Track 2 starts way slower - in fact you're 4 minutes in before the rhythm starts to break through, and that's slow as well. All this time a beautiful soaring synth backdrop is floating silently at the back, while again a variety of synth layers are added, here, again, being melodic with the merest semblance of a tune, while lush synth choirs are aded to the ever more engaging musical landscape and the whole thing is both solid yet crystalline, modern and old at the same time. Track 3 starts with nearly 3 minutes of beuatiful space music before a sprightly, lurching rhythm enters that quickly mutates into a decelerated mix of Can and Kraftwerk with a bit of drum 'n' bass on the side, while the lead synths weave various lines to the skies. Then it all drops back to haunting but in a slightly diferent setting, before picking up the sl;owly lurching rhythmic foundation and heading off to parts unknown in the comapny of distant synth choirs, rising synth leads that are exotic and fragile over the crispest of Eastern-influenced synth/perc rhythms. The piece build and layers to great effect, fading toward the end at 9 minutes with just the rhythms gradually heading into infinity. Track 4 features a few minutes of abstract space music with a difference that serves as a neat intro track 5 which has a 4 min cosmic intro itself then move into a soundpool of cascading percussive and synth layers, a gently galloping rhythm base and clipped layers of flowing, lightly echoed synth lines, again adding more electronic layers slowly and deliberately as the piece continues, melodic, light and purposeful but wuith a strength and originaltiy that separates it from any other synth music around. As a 13 minute track, it is one of his finest pieces. Track 6 hisses and whipsers its way in with a wicked bass undercurrent amid the slowly flowing space synth layers. This emerges into a melange of synths and samples that are like a barely heard distant conversation, alot like the stark yet haunting msuical landscapes in the final section of the '2001' film, and a real gem for apace music fans. Finally, track 7 ends the CD with a heavy sequencer rhythm that bounces and drives but turns into a more galloping rhythm with sets of synth layers and electronic fx bubbling up all around the central rhythmic framework that keeps on changing shape as the piece continues, to the added enjoyment of the composition. Eventually it turns into a supreme slice of melodic/rhythmic grandeur and rises, phoenix-like, to a powerful multi-synth climax. Overal, not a bad second on the album and one of his best ever releases, this is essential listening for all synth music fans and is a clasic example of real ambient music for the end of the millennium.
IAN BODDY/MARKUS REUTER/NIGEL MULLANEY: Triptych CD
The new one on his Din label, and another gem. So far we've had eight or nine releases and not one that is anything less than magical, the perfect combination of accessibility and innovation whilst not forgetting your roots but being completely contemporary and fresh sounding at the same time. This one features just four track in seventy minutes and allows the musicians room to move, the compositions space to breathe and the moods to develop and travel. The opener is just amazing with a whole galaxy of chilled-out synths, tonal coloration, heartbeat rhythms, echoed layers, resonant synth work, shuffling rhythms and, above all, a heart and a warmth that embodies thirty years of deep feeling space music, from the early German pioneers to the finest nineties ambient producers. It's insistent, there's a whole feel about the track that takes you along with it as it builds, develops, rises to a swell, calms and manoeuvres its way through the regions of deep space that it inhabits, surprisingly melodic all the way as the instruments weave their magical spells for over fourteen minutes. The first six minutes of the second track set the controls for the heart of space, and then all of a sudden the trio take off into what can only be described as 'space-jazz' mode as undulating Chapman stick style bass, shuffling electro-percussive splashes and rhythms provide the backbone, while Boddy turns in one of the tastiest, jazziest synch and electric piano-sounding solo features you've ever heard him play, as the track travels on in this manner to the end of the piece. The twenty-five minute title track is a masterpiece of space, chill-out and synth/sequencer music as its three constituent elements flow effortlessly to create a track where you'll hear everything from deep space synths and atmospheric textures, through mid-seventies Tangerine Dream put through a progressive-meets-jazz blender, with some seriously fine electric guitar work from Reuter, to a dark, eerie climax. The final track, 'Ionosphere', returns to the shuffling percussives and electric bass of the opener, but this time with a more obvious lead guitar layer shining through as Boddy's synths frame the track with layers of melodic flow, atmospheric depths and above all, a feel to the whole thing that is the heart and soul of modern electronic ambient music, but taken from an old style angle. From start to finish, this is one of those albums that has you so hooked, that you actually not only want to listen to it in one sitting but it's the sort of relaxed yet solid album you will put by the player and keep returning to its heady delights on many many occasions from thereon - one superb album and that's for sure.
IAN BODDY/MARKUS REUTER/NIGEL MULLANEY: Triptych CD
The new one on his Din label, and another gem. So far we've had eight or nine releases and not one that is anything less than magical, the perfect combination of accessibility and innovation whilst not forgetting your roots but being completely contemporary and fresh sounding at the same time. This one features just four track in seventy minutes and allows the musicians room to move, the compositions space to breathe and the moods to develop and travel. The opener is just amazing with a whole galaxy of chilled-out synths, tonal coloration, heartbeat rhythms, echoed layers, resonant synth work, shuffling rhythms and, above all, a heart and a warmth that embodies thirty years of deep feeling space music, from the early German pioneers to the finest nineties ambient producers. It's insistent, there's a whole feel about the track that takes you along with it as it builds, develops, rises to a swell, calms and manoeuvres its way through the regions of deep space that it inhabits, surprisingly melodic all the way as the instruments weave their magical spells for over fourteen minutes. The first six minutes of the second track set the controls for the heart of space, and then all of a sudden the trio take off into what can only be described as 'space-jazz' mode as undulating Chapman stick style bass, shuffling electro-percussive splashes and rhythms provide the backbone, while Boddy turns in one of the tastiest, jazziest synch and electric piano-sounding solo features you've ever heard him play, as the track travels on in this manner to the end of the piece. The twenty-five minute title track is a masterpiece of space, chill-out and synth/sequencer music as its three constituent elements flow effortlessly to create a track where you'll hear everything from deep space synths and atmospheric textures, through mid-seventies Tangerine Dream put through a
progressive-meets-jazz blender, with some seriously fine electric guitar work from Reuter, to a dark, eerie climax. The final track, 'Ionosphere', returns to the shuffling percussives and electric bass of the opener, but this time with a more obvious lead guitar layer shining through as Boddy's synths frame the track with layers of melodic flow, atmospheric depths and above all, a feel to the whole thing that is the heart and soul of modern electronic ambient music, but taken from an old style angle. From start to finish, this is one of those albums that has you so hooked, that you actually not only want to listen to it in one sitting but it's the sort of relaxed yet solid album you will put by the player and keep returning to its heady delights on many many occasions from thereon - one superb album and that's for sure.
IAN BODDY/MARKUS REUTER: Distant Rituals CD
Reuter is an electric guitarist. But not your normal electric guitarist - oh no - this guy creates huge flowing soundscapes that are a synth fans dream; full of multi-textured, multi-faceted layers of gorgeous sound that will take you to heaven. So, imagine a guy who can do all of this, playing music with Ian Boddy, whose emrging talents as one of the finest ambient music sound sculptors around, are gaining him ever more recognition, and you have an album that is nothing short of mind-blowing in its beauty, originality, accessibility and just the whoie immense sound of the creative compositions and improvisations. The opening track, with a distant organ-like undercurrent, and its encroaching layers of synths and textured guitars gives you the feel of every cosmic music classic from early Cosmic Jokers to modern Hypnos/ Fax lebel efforts, a brilliant cosmic intro to what turns out to be a truly amazing opening track. What makes it even more of an enjoyable album as a whole, is the fact that - shock, horror - they do use rhythm in the music on a couple of tracks, albeit slow yet solid percussive/synth layers that only serve to enhance the melodic quality of the music and provide sufficient variation to keep you hooked for the duration. The combination of Boddy's synths and drum samples and Reuter's soaring, effectively used and beutiful electric guitar on track 3 in particular is just one of the highlights on an album that oozes passion, atmosphere, grace and quality, at 9 minutes , a track that would have been equally enjoyable at thre times that long. Track 4 presents a setting of richly textured synths and almost Fripp-like guitar textures that flow and drift with great sensitivity, strength, and one of those soundscapes of which you just can't get enough. Track 5 is another rhythmic job, this time combining all the elements of melody, space and texture within the rhythmic framework that has an almost drum'n' bass quality to it, and all the better for it. The final two tracks are back to ethereal, celestial multi-textured space music epics with lots of flowing layers that really transport you off into another universe. As a complete album of truly original soundscapes and varied landmarks, this is a total success from start to finish. More, please.
IAN BODDY & ROBERT RICH: Outpost CD
The first track on this ten-track, fifty-eight minute collaboration, lasts juts over a minute and segues directly into the longer (eight minutes) second track. The result being nearly ten minutes of what you might call' exploratory ambience with percussive' (synths actually I presume) 'tinkling and clanking' all combined with a sort of doppler feedback effect that sounds more like a processed electric guitar - and to my surprise, really is, and it sounds just superb.. The pictures slowly mutates into an almost dub rhythm, although it's too slow for that really, while the synths paint a canvas with all these layers and textures, threatening to break the whole lot out into a trot at any minute, as the clanking percussives move to the fore, then back again, all kind of ethnic and ambient without being what you'd call 'familiar' - the more you listen to it, the warmer it becomes. Unlike the near four minute third track that is positively chilling, as opposed to chilled, with an icy atmosphere to the slow (and I mean slow) moving mix of subtle synth ambience, bass resonances and more percussive clanking. Track four feels more structured, with pulsing bass-/synth rhythms across a spectrum of tone colours, as string- and choral-like synth flows weave in and out of the pulsing mix, all quite pleasant after the icy wastes of the openers, without a break, it moves straight into track five, whereupon a river of amorphous celestial synths introduces what turns out to be a supremely celestial space-music composition that inhabits territories both light and dark, as it progresses, ten minutes of bliss. Again, moving straight onto track six, the dark space is replaced with rolling electronic rhythms, deep pounding bass depths and a gorgeous string synth texture, as electronics, swoop, soar and chatter around the mix. Gradually building, becoming ever louder, and then falling away to its original languid state for the rest of its near seven minute, down-tempo, chill-out journey. Yet again, original and hypnotic. You swear track seven will be pure space music, until, close on three minutes, a massive prepared piano chord rings out, bell-like, and the whole mood becomes a lot darker, as the combination of piano chord, deep, minimalist synth backdrops and stuttering electronic 'rhythms' paint a positively unnerving scenario. So, we segue straight into track eight and here you get the first real cosmic piece (in that the rhythms are largely absent) of the album, a most addictive sea of dark, eerie, crystalline synth layers. Without a break it's into track nine as a slow but deep sequencer rhythm begins, accumulates and eventually pretty well gallops, while this warm surround-sounding synth atmosphere
covers the sky with waves of pure pleasure, as good a soundscape as any you'll hear, the combinations of rhythm and string-like layers working perfectly. Finally the album ends with a couple of minutes of darkwave space music, minimal atmospheres, what sounds like a distant short-wave radio and assorted percussive clankings, almost end the album as we began, all quite mesmerising really. Conclusion: this is wholly original, unlike anything really turned out by either artist on their own and produces the goods with every listen. It's not 'easy' but then you wouldn't really expect that, would you - but it is good.
IAN BODDY/CHRIS CARTER: Caged CD
Well, it's a new one on the Din label project, and you can definitely say that it's space music. It starts out as slowly rhythmic with synth music overlays, but gradually follows a minimal path to take the listener right out into the uncharted regions of deep space. It's dark but not unpleasant, atmospheric but in a totally relaxed state, spacious in the sense that there is as much to take in from the spaces as much as the actual music. Track six, of the nine, returns to the undulating rhythmic path, but overall this is one seriously cosmic, dark, minimalist, almost gothic synth music album, all very hypnotic, peaceful, and totally unlike any other cosmic album around right now - you have to credit Ian for following such an adventurous musical path.
IAN BODDY & FRIENDS: Index 01 CD
A while back, well-respected and long-established synth musician Ian Boddy set up a new CD label called Din, not the most obvious of titles for the amazing music contained therein, but one that would rapidly become synonymous with the finest meeting of synth and ambient styles to this date, sometimes fusing styles, sometimes content to let synth dominate, sometimes more one than the other, but always with richness, textures, quality production and nothing less than riveting music. From rhythm-less space music (Protogonos) through melodic atmospheric (Boddy/Reuter) via the sprightly chunkiness of Dub Atomica, dark ambient (Boddy/Carter), early seventies influenced Kraut-synth (Arc II), the sublime and magnificent soundscapes of Centrozoon and more, this label finally proved to be one of the major labels, moreso than the German Fax label, to unite synth and ambient fans in one common cause - the pursuit and discovery of excellent, accessible and heart-felt electronic music.
Yet the breakthrough to world domination was slow coming - and so we have this amazing CD, priced to allow you to enjoy it in its own right (and enjoy it you most certainly will), and also to allow you to sample the label artists and releases to discover what a goldmine of music you have been missing by not keeping up to date with these releases. To further enhance the enjoyment of this CD, he has mixed the tracks so that they flow into one another, creating one massive seventy minute single track made up of assorted constituent musical elements yet with a flow to it all that you simply wouldn't have believed.
So, drop your preconceptions, and let this music into you life - for at this price, you absolutely have nothing to lose and everything to gain
CENTROZOON: Blast CD
Space music that hearkens back to the best parts of early '70's, pre-Virgin, Tangerine Dream- full-sounding, flowing, well arranged and played, occasional rumbling rhythm bases, plenty of gorgeous, sinewy lead synth/guitar textural masses sailing like icebergs through the cosmos, and just four long tracks that have all the hallmarks of becoming a cosmic music classic. Can't say fairer than that, really.
PROTOGONOS: Strange Geographie CD£12.99Order now from CD Services
The third release on the label, with no Ian Boddy involvement (apart from the fact that it's his label), comes from a synth group who I first encountered several years ago when they contacted me with adebut cassette to see if I would like to distribute it. The resulting cassette turned out to be one of the most satisfying examples of real cosmic synth music around at that time, and this brand new set of music on their debut CD, is no less an amazing achievment. With just 3 lengthy tracks in 61 minutes, and not a rhythm or tune in sight, this is cosmic/space music (call it what you will) that evokes all the right atmpospheres, giving you the genuine feeling that you are travelling through space to the fra reaches of an uncharted galaxy. The music allows you to paint your own pictures in your mind as the layers of synthscapes, from haunting to richly textured, evolve and time pases as you are transfixed by the resultant creation. From deep bass synth undercurrents, through Blake-esque swoops and swooshes to expansive layers of synths, this is amorphous synth space music at its finest, totally justifying and one of the finest examples of the style that you will come across. You can't fail to fall under the spell of this music, which is firmly UK-based in its style and construction, far from the sweet sounding elements that inhabit a lot of the USA musicians operating in a similar sphere. You get the feeling that labels such as Hypnos would kill to get something as good as this on their books. Overall, it's one of the finest space synth music albums on the planet, and no arguing.
