AMBIENT/TRANCE/TECHNO, etc:
MATT COLDRICK & MATTHEW HILLIER: Elemental Journey CD
A veritable ambient music super-duo as the guy out of the legendary ambient trance act Green Nuns Of The Revolution teams up with the guy better known as Ishq to take the listeners on what truly is an ambient electronic journey of epic proportions as 5 tracks stretch out over nearly seventy minutes to provide a fantastic set of landscapes that are so varied it would take a week to describe them in detail and yet so cohesive, so flowing and so NATURAL sounding, it's the sort of music from which you couldn't tire if you tried. Using predominantly synths and electronic and sampled drums and percussion, with the odd smattering of guitars in a few places and keyboard undercurrents here and there, it's a massive sounding and wondrous ride through every classic ambient style in the book - endless waves of cosmic synth-filled bliss, rivers of resonant bass, miles of flowing melodies, backdrops that would cover an ocean, occasional swirling flutes and chiming guitars but above all, soundscapes that will delight and amaze as the whole thing unfolds, composed and played immaculately by two of the leading musicians in today's ambient music scene. This oozes quality from every pore and is stunning from start to finish, a truly classic ambient electronic music album.
MATTHEW FLORIANZ & ERIC T'SAS: Molenstraat CD
A sixty two minute unbroken ambient, chill-out epic that was recorded live in one night at the Molenstraat in The Hague, Netherlands, the idea behind being the way the onset of and the actual nature of night coming and then going, reflects the mood of the musicians and the music that they play as a result. Each segment represents a time from the early onset of evening with the external noises dying down and the still of the night approaching through the night to early in the morning when dawn rises and life begins to return to the streets. As an atmospheric slice of electronic music, it is one of the finest things you'll hear, full of layers and textures, often quite dark but always somehow optimistic, the whole flow of the electronics, synths and keyboards forming the most gorgeously chilled-out ambient epic that you'll find as the music drifts on and unfolds. In many ways, it's the perfect album to take you through the night in a tranquil fashion, and I could just imagine putting this on repeat and having it playing for about 6 hours as the atmosphere and that serenity of being alone takes hold. Entirely cosmic, with more textural variation than most, this is one spellbinding album that anyone into spacey, blissful and calm yet substantial electronic music, would do well to get into as it will have you in its synths-laden web for years to come. Superb!!
GAUDI:TESTA: 1105 Continvvm CD
You have to hand it to the recently reborn EM:T label people - every release they turn out is an absolute ambient music sensation, managing to break new ground and old ground at the same time. Despite having 11 tracks, this plays as one long seventy minute track and the way it builds, layers and develops, is nothing short of mind-blowing. Through full-sounding uncharted regions of deep cosmic space, through other worldly soundscapes, through thunderous yet slowly moving ambient dub, through multi-textured electronic heaven - through all this and so much more, the two musicians create music that flows almost organically and it's one of those albums where you'd be a fool to isolate any of it - for listening or review purposes - this is a gigantic, vast and faultless album of modern, inventive and yet wholly accessible flowing, primarily ambient/chill-out electronic music that has a soft centre and a hard edge, plus all points in between - unparalleled and quite amazing. It's now at the stage where you only have to look at the cover, look at the name of the label - EM:T - and you KNOW you're going to get something special, consistent, magical and utterly addictive when it comes to nu-ambient music.
ISHQ: Magik Square Of The Sun CD
Second studio album and seventy three minutes of beauty. The album opens with the twenty one minute "Nomad" and it's an absolutely classic slice of real early nineties-styled ambient music, with tons of synth backdrops, atmospherics and flowing melodies over chunky electronic and electro-percussive rhythms, the sort of thing you just don't hear enough of anymore and the sort of track that you never tire of hearing, with its lush but solid layers that soar so effortlessly into your head. The following seventeen minute track, 'Green Sun Prismatic Sky' largely drops the rhythm content apart from some faint electro-percussive beats in the early part of the track, and some undulating resonant bass work in the latter, but by and large, it's one of those cosmic electronic pieces that twists and turns yet still flows superbly, the sort of mix of atmosphere and adventure that would not have been at all out of place on the early classic solo ambient albums from Pete Namlook. The next five tracks last between five and eight minutes. The eight minute 'Iqooa' follows on the strange other worldly feel of the previous piece before the synths open up like a flower in bloom to reveal a wondrous sea of textures that fall all over one another as they well up and become a soundscape of exquisite beauty. 'Blue Helix' features some more deep resonant bass below cyclical synth rhythms that are truly spacey over which an assortment of cascading electronics provides the thematic flow of the piece, and the effect is like a cross between Namlook and the more ambient side of System 7. 'Sun In Venus' is a full-sounding slice of cosmic electronic music that really blossoms while 'Utopian Moon Garden' carries on the space synth effect only this time with sparser territory and yet just as magical an effect from the slowly moving synths and samples. 'Infinity Beam Home' ends the album on a wave of cosmic synths, occasional bass backdrops, multi-layered flowing synths of a more abstract nature, lilting keyboards and choral effects and an altogether more subdued but spellbinding soundscape. Overall, it's a thoroughly gorgeous album - more cosmic than I might have hoped from the amazing opening track, but still one absolute gem of an album.
LUX: Northern Lights CD
You'll have heard some of this album already - well, you will if you watch TV or shop in all the right places, since two tracks from this have been used in programmes for USTV, BBC2, Channel 4, TV adverts and in-store music for all sorts of upmarket department stores. The musician behind it is one of the leading lightsd in chill-out music, having worked alongside the likes of Jose Padilla, Chris Coco & Lenny Ibizarre. But all of that counts for nothing if the album's no good - luckily it's jut the opposite - this is sunshine on a silver disc. With 11 tracks of suitably lush sounding, downtempo ambience, this has a magical melodic content that runs through its veins choc full of blissful beats and laid-back Balearic brilliance. The production is top notch so that you catch every facet of the suitably chunky electro-drums, while all manner of synth melodies, string backdrops, samples, subtle guitar chimes and synth leads that flow and sparkle, appear on an ever expanding musical horizon. As atmospheric as it is tuneful, as accessible as it is enjoyable, for such an easily digestible album, this is remarkably playable, as addiction sets in and you find yourself with an all-purpose electronic ambient album to suit most moods and tastes - the chill-out album for those that don't like chill-out. Sunny, warm, golden and glowing, this is more the coffee table end of things, but coffee table at its finest, nevertheless.
V/A: Dissolving Clouds CD
Now you might think, with a title like that and being on the leading Canadian ambient label Interchill, that this might be a more cosmic affair - far from it - this is a rhythmic tour-de-force of steaming proportions, with most tracks revolving around all manner of rhythms from throbbing ambient dub through house-trance mix to electro-ethnic and all points in between. A collection of exclusive tracks, it begins with no less a n opener than Eat Static who provide a storming slice of chilled-out ambient dub to set the scene for what follows as well as being a superb track in its own right. From there, a plethora of acts including Kaya Project, Legion Of Green Men, Gaudi vs Tripswitch and more, provide a further 10 tracks that can't fail to have your feet tapping and your body swaying, while at the same time having more than enough musical and home listening satisfaction to keep this CD glued to your player for months ahead. A feel-good album if ever there was one, this is one potent brew, full of heady rhythms, deep bass, crunching beats and acres of electronic and keyboard-based splendours. As an overtly ambient dub flavoured album goes, this is at the top of its tree and a fantastic set of tracks that you can't ignore.
V/A: Left Coast Liquid Vol 1 CD
Oh yes!!!!!! The return of real ambient music compilations is upon us and this is but the first that we shall be unleashing on you in the future. It's been a long time since we heard a lot to the stirring and vibrant, stunning and long-lasting ambient music scene of the early '90's and what it became for many years hence, but then seemed to fade away. Well, if you had a soft spot for anything like the Planet Dog label, artists and groups such as Pentatonik, Salt Tank, Opik, Astralasia and the like not forgetting the more recent ambient practitioners such as Makyo and the Dakini label series of 'Sky Dancing' albums, then this will be manna from heaven for you as 10 exclusive tracks unfold in all their brilliance with blessed-out beats, chilled-out soundscpes, crunchy ambient rhythms, flowing melodies from synths and keys, and stretched out miles of electronic excursions before you. From the amazing Tangerine Dream-meets-Orb-like ambience of Bluetech's 'Leaving Winter Behind' through the almost classical ambient dub of Retna's
'Autumn' with an almost Verdeaux-like quality to the layers and melodies and rhythms only chunkier and more cohesive, to the almost Balearic ambience of Desert Dwellers 'Parabolic', this is a stunning album with nothing but gorgeous and substantial music on it and one that you'll treasure for a long time to come.
V/A: Listening Pearls Vol 2 CD
The jazzier, cooler more lounge-directed art of ambient-drum 'n' bass-techno at its full crowning glory as this CD testifies. With virtually no two tracks alike yet all following the same groove, this is an engaging album that ranges from chunky rhythms, female vocals and flowing keyboard leads, to more expansive rhythmic excursions where the bass and drums are up in the mix and crystal clear. Overall, a solid, flowing, mid-paced and musically substantial and satisfying CD.
CANTERBURY/FUSION:
GONG Expresso II CD
The second album recorded by the late Pierre Moerlen's fusion version of what had once been Gong and so it was 1978 and the world ha previously eulogised over the excellent debut 'Gazeuse'. This album was, if anything, slightly watered down compared with that, but no less enjoyable with riches of melodies and even greater rhythmic riches travelling effortlessly throughout. Purely instrumental, the flow that exists on this album is both driving and reflective, much of the sound taken up by the three percussion players as it does from the keyboards, guitar and violin. Throughout, however, the presence of guest violinist Daryl Way (Curved Air) and guitarists Mick Tylor & Allan Holdsworth add that extra touch of satisfaction with some tight leads and red hot solos. All in all, easily digestible, this was and still is, the acceptable face of jazz-rock, with no pretensions, nothing flashy, just strong, flowing music.
SOFT MACHINE: Softstage CD
Reissue of the BBC Radio One In Concert Broadcast from 1972 with excellent sleevenotes and interviews plus previously unpublished photos. Musically, it's another example of a rare live recording from a line-up that existed all but briefly as original member Ratledge, nearly original member Hopper plus Jenkins & Marshall play a continuous fifty-four minute set comprising of segued tracks from the 4th, fifth and sixth albums - and it' a stunning performance that is actually every bit as good as anything turned out by the "classic" 'Third' line-up, with both Jenkins & Marshall as "new boys", full of and exuding the spirit of Soft Machine in compositional and improvisational terms, the sounds of oboe and sax flowing alongside electric piano and organ with the rhythm section keeping it tight and twisting. From gentle to swirling dynamics, it's a complete performance that travels down so many paths as it goes, you never hear the same thing twice and it's a seriously addictive slice of "Canterbury" fusion music, free of excess and indulgence but full of melody and invention, some fluid and solid playing and arguably one of the truly great yet least recognised albums of the band's career.
SOFT MACHINE: Virtually CD
The classic early seventies quartet - nobody else - in the form of Ratledge-Hopper-Dean-Wyatt recorded live in the studio for a Radio Broadcast in March 1971 - and it's just sensational. With a set of tracks taken from the classic 'Third' and '4' albums as well as a clutch of previously unrecorded tracks, the four musicians, freed of the constraints of recording an actual album, just let it all flow and the result is astounding. The interaction between the musicians is awesome as you hear Wyatt's busy and strong drumming coming through as clear as a bell, while Hopper's bass races up and down the scales, throbbing away before a wicked slice of fuzz adds the icing to the cake. This leaves the sparring partners of sax player Dean and piano/Lowery Organ player Ratledge to duel and coalesce to brilliant degree. As a set of tracks with just one break in nearly eighty minutes, this is one of THE finest archive fusion Soft Machine albums in existence and there should not be a fan of the band in existence without this album.
EURO-ROCK/CONTEMPORARY:
GROBKOPF, BALTES, HEILHECKER: The Jelenia Gora Sessions 2004 CD
What could arguably be called the driving force behind latter day Ash Ra - Steve Baltes & Harald Grobkopf - deciding, with Gottsching & Ulbrich charting altogether different musical paths - to re-energise and re-invigorate the work that the two live Ash Ra albums, including 'Sauce Hollandaise', began, recruiting electrifying guitarist Axel Heilhecker, taking on a new, more refreshing and contemporary makeover of the "traditional" Ash Ra style of things, and, further on from the unmistakably Ash Ra sounding debut studio album, now producing a live concert performance that is even more spectacular. Seventy three minutes and 7 tracks of electric guitar-dominated instrumental music, feature tons of chunky rhythms and solid beats as Grobkopf provides the empetus that propels and drives the music forward amid a plethora of acoustic and electric percussive delights, while Baltes fills out the sound with background synths, textual electronics and additional percussion, as the guitarist plays his heart out with a spectacular series of leads that range from searing hot and steaming to more intense and expressive, but always red hot and on fire. There's not a less than wholly engaging and enjoyable second on the entire album, and if you're into the likes of guitar-dominated Ash Ra, like your music to be a mix of chunky rhythms and furnace-heat guitar with a vast sonic backdrop, then this has to be your dream album.
KRAAN: Wiederhoren - Remaster + Bonus CD
Fifth album, and the first to substitute a keyboards player for the saxophonist, the result being an altogether more cohesive album - less jazz, more rock - or to be more precise, less jazz, more funk-fusion, with Hattler's bass right upfront, as you'd expect from such a highly rated bassist. The majority of what is a mostly instrumental album features the band sparring and duelling with no one instrument taking the lion's share of the lead work although the electric piano and electric guitar tend to dominate, but with a bass as high in the mix as this, it's like having three co-lead instruments. The bonus track lasts twenty minutes, is a previously unreleased live track from '76 and features a spine-tingling eight minute bass solo from Hattler - worth it, just for this!!!
KRAAN: Nachtfahrt - Remaster+ Bonus CD
From '82 when the seventies were but a dim and distant memory, in musical terms, the mainstream of adventure replaced by a new adventure that became the dawn of industrial dancefloor, new romantics and dance remixes - all of this taken on board by a jazz-rock band? Well, yes, actually, If you listen to this album, you'll actually hear one of THE most cohesive and consistent album's that the band put out after '76. How they manage to mix a thunderous fusion track such as 'Wintruper Echo' with as powerful and, at the time, modern a song statement as 'Faust 2000' then place those next to a typically fluid slice of Kraan song-writing that is 'Elfenbein' only then to wander onto a searing slice of fusion with steaming bass and twisting synth/piano leads, is a wonder to behold. Then, if this wasn't jaw-dropping enough, they launch headlong into the metal fusion song that is 'Playing For You' which features a lead guitar riffing and soloing away that any rock guitarist would be proud to call his own as the heavy rock fusion song tears the roof off. Just as you realise that this is no ordinary album, along comes 'Viel Zu Heib', three minutes of amazement that sounds more like something off Can's 'Limited Edition' album and is just sensational. The next couple of tracks are more typically what you'd think of as old style Kraan while the final track is an instrumental that features a wonderfully cyclical rhythm and some superbly strident bass work, over which the guitars and keys soar and fly. A bonus five minute track from the original sessions is almost funky-bluesy Hendrix-y and complements everything to a tee. Possibly their most criminally ignored album, this is actually a masterwork for this band, and if you've never before heard it, now's the time.
KRAAN: Live '88 - Remaster+Bonus CD
Always at their best live, a bit like the studio 'Nachtfahrt' album, this has always been the most neglected and least spoken about of their three live albums, largely just because it "was the '80's band" - but any listen to this will reveal a performance every bit as classic as the seventies bands. Complete with new guy on trumpet and keyboards, alongside the core original trio of guitarist, drummer and bassist, this, their first live outing for four years since the band split up, sees the return to what they were always best known for - primarily instrumental tight, solid and fluid fusion music. For seventy nine glorious minutes, the band sails through material new and old, much of it rightfully of "classic" status, with each band member playing their ass off as the album climbs from peak to peak, the use of a trumpet player providing just the jazz-y edge that the band had been missing for a long time before, and as a complement to the seminal fist live album, this is absolutely top notch. With the guitar gliding and flying all over the place, the keyboards performing more of a filling role, some incredible work from the rhythm department, this is a cohesive and magnificently recorded live album that sounds every bit as good 17 years later as it did back then.
FRANCIS MONKMAN: Jam CD
Now this album will astound you - trust me!! With Monkman playing just electric guitar, fellow Curved Air bassist and drummer plus second lead guitarist, it's an all instrumental series of jam sessions, edited down from five hours of tapes, to provide one absolutely storming album of dual-guitar jamming that comes across as a mix of vintage seventies Ash Ra Tempel mixed with the jamming spirit and, to a degree, style of artists such as Hendrix & Quicksilver Messenger Service. But, throughout its length, the one thing that comes across is the sheer excitement, energy and playing genius that these musicians exercised in a jamming situation, the creative process worthy of any of the more well known guitar jamming bands that came out of the seventies Krautrock boom. A track such as the eight minute 'Baghdad/Return To Calvary' being THE most obvious mix of the Krautrock and USA West Coast guitar jamming styles and, for a slice of more introspective music, utterly riveting as you could almost imagine it being an outtake from the legendary first two Cosmic Jokers albums, only then for the quartet to go on to the eight minutes of 'Sol Y Sombra' and tear your head apart with some of the most spectacular, sizzling psychedelic electric guitar duelling that you'll hear, here a mix of psych and Krautrock that blows you away. Across 8 incendiary tracks, this is twin electric guitar jamming that inhabits all the best facets of what made the seventies guitar bands so timeless, and has to be one of THE great "unknown" albums of the last 15 years - anyone into red hot electric guitar work that take from psych, Krautrock and West Coast, just HAS to own this album - you won't be disappointed.
ZAO: Live CD
Archive mixing desk recording from 1976 featuring Magma musicians Didier Lockwood on violins and Francois Cahen on keyboards, together with Gerard Prevost on bass and Jean My Truong on drums. What you get is a seventy minute concert that ranges from sedate to sizzling, the ensemble work being exemplary while the two lead instrumentalists shine throughout. Notable for being the only surviving recording of the quartet following sax player and ex-Magma musician Seffer leaving the band just a short time before this tour was due to begin. Witnes the fiery opener in the form of the near ten minute 'Sharrdaz' with some soaring and red hot soloing from Lockwood in particular above some solid Magma-like bass from Prevost, this could almost have been one of Magma's mid-song jams from earlier times. Then a contrast in the form of the more relaxed and stretched out eight minutes of 'Isis' with all members playing it delicately but purposefully as the track flows forwards into some sparkling dual interplay from the violin and electric piano. Throughout the album, the rhythm section play it tight and dynamic, the bass often as forward in the mix as the lead instruments, while the playing as a whole, keeps you hooked. There's a nineteen minute track called 'Improcol' where you'd swear you were listening to a guitar-less version of the early seventies Mahavishnu Orchestra which is a feel you get in many other places throughout this album. Possibly the most "rock" album you'll ever hear from Zao, this is a superlative slice of classic seventies jazz-rock, by anyone's standards.
GENERAL:
MELLONTA TAUTA: Sunfell CD
Ethereal and haunting female vocal over a mind-blowing backing of cascading, soaring and swirling electric guitars, awash with thick chords and feedback intensity, plus dynamic and solid drum work, pounding bass and a thunder that perfectly complements the magnificent voice. Absolutely incredible music.
27: Holding On For Brighter Days CD
As if by magic, I finish reviewing their rather wonderful split EP with Twin Zero, saying I can't wait to hear a full album, and what should come along - yep, their third album. 10 tracks and thirty five minutes of songs, all of which are absolutely sublime, Whether with a simple rock or more pastoral or positively classical sounding backing, all the songs are suitably chilled out and laid back, the exquisite voice of Maria Christopher, solo and multi-tracked, flowing through the songs with ease and eloquence, her high vocal range veering from soaring high register and totally laid back to sultry and deeper, full of mystery and promise. From chiming guitars and throbbing rhythms to soul-stirring strings and keyboards, the backings are many and varied but all within the emotional framework of the album's musical ideals and ideas. It's a gorgeous trip as you sway, misty-eyed and full of wonderment, wrapped in a unique, warm and safe environment, where heavenly vocals and lush instrumentation roam free. Paradise on a silver platter.
27/TWIN ZERO: 27.00 CDEP
Two tracks from 27 start proceedings with a gorgeous slice of female vocal and piano delivering a ballad that's truly heartfelt, as piano chords hang in the air and the airy vocal melts your heart for two and a half minutes. Their second track is totally different - founded on a chugging rhythm from upfront bass and crunchy drums, the multi-tracked female voice is a thing of great wonder as she swoons and soars her way through the four minute track, occasional guitar squalls providing an edge to the chorus-y bits. Two fantastic tracks and I can't wait to hear a full album - talent on the rise!!
Twin Zero begin their two tracks with gently strummed acoustic guitar as the wordless harmony vocals soar into being and about a minute and a half in, the lead vocal enters and the feel is a little like an indie acoustic Pink Floyd as bass and guitar alone accompany the vocal, as the song builds and the guitar work is a treat, six minutes of magic. Their second track starts with piano, at a similar pace to the previous track, and once again, about a minute and a half in, the male vocal comes along, this time more subdued as slow motion piano chords back the soaring voice as the ballad builds, the guitar strums along and the whole intensity of the track changes and rises towards a riveting eight minutes of indie ballad heaven. The final track is actually a remix featuring bits of all 4 of the previous tracks, a feat that produces a reward greater than you could have imagined, as a seriously hot and intense slice of instrumental music builds and strengthens with a huge, expansive and full sound, so much so that when it ends at six minutes, you could do with another six. Overall, one absolutely stunning EP.
