THISCO LABEL - INNOVATIVE AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC FROM PORTUGAL:
GHOAK: Some Are Weird CD
It's a sort of ambient techno - some quite meaty electro-percussive beats but over that a lot of chilled-out electronic layers that provide a sprawling and expansive feel to the compositions, as electronic leads and textures soar and drift to perfection. The pace and strength of the electronic drums varies, ranging from down-tempo almost dubby bliss to almost drum'n'bass strength beats. Sometimes it gets seriously strange as industrial sounding synths groan and moan over the chunky beats and soaring leads, resulting in something that becomes seriously weird and then completely addictive as the soundscape changes and the drive continues ever upward. On some, the rhythms positively take over, from solid drumming to wheezing synths, providing once again, something quite unique and substantial. In many ways, it's range is its strength, a world where originality and musical defiance run hand in hand.
MIMETIC TALE: Personal Plot CD
Neatly packaged 3", 4-track, twenty minute CD and it's got real atmosphere running through its veins - starts off with a slice of deep, dark, droning, resonant, multi-textured electronic cosmic music before the mood continues into the second track and here things pick up in the rhythmic department with crunching electronic drums that sound really solid, deep, rumbling rivers of bass, while the solid drone runs through the heart of the track, and all around, sparse synth melodies, more percussive layers and electronic layers, all combine to drive the piece forward on a solid sounding, seven minute voyage that just booms out at you. Track three is similar, only here the rhythms are even more powerful with giant percussive and electronic beats belting out as the main focus of attention, almost like an ambient drum 'n' bass, only better as three and half minutes of intensity leave your head in smoking disarray. Finally, track four continues the rhythmic assault and mixes it with space synth swoops and swirls to complete a decidedly massive and quite superb 20 minutes of music that doesn't put a foot wrong from start to finish.
RAS AL A'SAD: Asuna CD
It's space music, Jim, but not as we know it. The effect is tranquillising, the effect is mesmerising, the effect is fascinating - the mood one of serenity - which is surprising considering the fact that the music is a mixture of spiralling slow-motion synth galaxies, flowing electronic layers, samples and what amounts to a quite full, non-rhythmic soundscape, although a deep river of bass hints at rhythmic patterns unplayed. The string-like synths revolve around cosmic drifts while melody and rhythm is there unspoken but always present. Now the key thing on several of the tracks are the samples - what you will hear are excerpts of speech that sound like they came from an almost Shakesperian background or even some sort of radio play like "Under Milk Wood" as the warm, resonant tones of the male speaker cast an atmosphere that, at times, is almost buried in the cyclical waves of synths and electronics that soar all around, all creating this fascinating juxtaposition of old and modern, seemingly at odds in theory, but in practice working like no other. The third track 'Akshun' features THE most gorgeous sea of flowing, warm, cyclical, spacey, lush synths and electronics and in here you get just one line from an American male as the voice sample, sparingly used and so effective, but the track is just to die for as those waves of expansive synths soar all around your head to magical effect. The same could be said for 'Otaku' only here the voice sample that appears nearly two minutes into the piece, is a female with a wondrous pure English accent from radio days gone by, attesting to the joys of love as the lush synths entwine with a heart and yet an other-worldly feel that makes the track (and indeed the whole album) quite unique but amazingly rewarding and utterly gorgeous. 'Coolture' is similar only, if anything, even more heavenly, full of feeling and texture, the female voice once again just SO right and so full of feeling, you're almost in love just listening to it - and if that doesn't get you, when you hear the recitation on 'Earworm' the combination of romantic male voice full of silent passion and the romantic synths that hang suspended in light slowly moving clouds that move overhead, will have you melting onto the floor. Other tracks continue this whole feel and the album is like no other - full of sonic bliss, chilled-out ambience like no other, melody that's implied and circular rhythms that are so extraordinarlily hypnotic they'd put Paul McKenna out of a job. This is refreshing, new, warm-hearted yet chilled out, emotive and emotional, and simply a joy to let it wash over you like rain on a warm summers day - gorgeous and then some.
RASAL.A'SAD: Space.scape CD
It's space music, Jim, and we know it well. Four long tracks of deep, eerie, dark, drifting layers and textures of electronics and synths appear into view with an almost intense vein of deep bass electronics running through its heart, while the synths drift and slowly move through sonic landscapes, the likes of which have rarely been heard since the heady days of Tangerine Dream's epic work 'Zeit' with which this shares a lot of its mood, texture, feel and sound. It's cosmic but it's no joyride, yet the effect is spellbinding as the darkness descends and the sound horizon expands brilliantly. As space music goes, it's quite superb.
RAS AL ASAD: Lahva CDEP
A single twenty minute track that is THE most incredible example of dark, deep, dense and yet wholly digestible electronic cosmic music, this side of 'Zeit'. It rumbles - boy, does it rumble - it resonates, drifts, flows - in fact the title could not be more appropriate as you can imagine the lava pouring out of the volcano in slow motion set to this electronic darkening that blackens the sky and destroys everything in its path. As a slice of dark cosmic electronic music, it takes no prisoners and yet has a beauty to it, a warmth (wholly appropriate under the circumstances) that makes it such enthralling and enjoyable listening, the sort of track that you could simply never tire of hearing - timeless, filling the room with sound and just immaculately done - stunning and then some.
V/A: Symptom Of This CD
A Portugese project under the name of Bio, and Italian project under the name of Crid Cuervos and another Portugese project under the name of The Beautiful Schizophonic - what have they all got in common, apart from being on this CD? Well, the answer lies in the music on this CD - they all play electronic cosmic music - the first two are featured on track of nineteen and seventeen minutes respectively, while the last guy offers three tracks from five to nine minutes long. But it's not just any old space music - no siree - this is space music that takes you right into the heart of the universe - where blazing suns and black holes roam, where darkness surrounds and only the stars provide the hints of light that you know exists but you can't seem to find. Talk about transfixed, I was just glued to the sounds and explorations that emanated from the trio - a whole new dark universe of electronic dimensions opens up before you and sucks you right in. This is seriously riveting cosmic/space music - call it what you will - but it SOUNDS just fantastic and if you want your electronic music on the dark side but want something into which you can seriously dive, then they don't come much finer than this.
V/A: Thisco: Thiscology CD
If you just want to hear what the excellent and innovative Portugese Thisco label has to offer without diving into a full group album first, then this compilation not only serves that purpose, but is so good that you'll be playing this for a long time to come. It opens with a track from shhh called 'Mathematics' that is just one of the strongest and most incendiary electronic openers I've heard in ages with initial boinging electronics moving on top of some slow but seriously thundery electronic drum beats as the voice sample intones, squalling synth layers are added slowly and the beefy rhythms rise up to become positively nuclear, the whole soundscape having you absolutely riveted. Stunning! The following track from Oxygen is no less addictive, another completely original piece this time with soaring synth leads but cyclical backdrops, thudding electronic and electro-percussive rhythms, all manner of synthscapes swirling around in the mix as the piece drives on with a menacing vocal that conjures visions of The The gone completely electronic - and simply awesome a track it is too for nearly eight minutes. Flat Opak give us a thunderous slice of similar sounding proportions only this time with a distinctly Benny Benassi quality to the beefy beats and expansive layers. The track from Headshot is altogether lighter and more melodic, still in keeping with the album as a whole, and still as full-sounding while no less inventive and addictive, as all sorts of layers and textures, rhythms and melodies pour themselves into this track that builds and builds. Rasal Asad's track is just breathtakingly beautiful, the title track from the 'Asuna' album with soaring cosmic synths, slowly undulating melodies, gorgeous electronic backdrops and surrounds, all occasionally interspersed with a wondrously vintage male voice sample, as the whole thing stands before you in all its glory and if you like this, you have to get the album. 5 other tracks that follow are all of a similarly satisfying nature, making this one of the finest and best listening and most original sounding electronic music samplers for ages.
