There’s a little café in Chichester where I often like to sit and do some reviews, and it was there that I was grappling with this record, thinking that it was the Twin Peaks soundtrack with a hangover (no small compliment, considering Badalamenti’s stirring work there), when I notice this weird noise. The lights in the café had their own sound, being u/v, and seemed affected by the generator in the ceiling panels, so there was a rhythm building up that was clearly discernible and, whether accidental or not, was conducting an ambient orchestra all of its own. Now was that accident art in itself? As it hummed and vibrated, giving off a higher frequency from the glass itself being affected, with some piercing oscillation, there almost seemed a touch of reverb introduced. It was certainly weirdly enjoyable, and gave me a breath from this short album.

I had barely noticed when ‘Etude’ took over form ‘Imperial’ because this solid ambient material manages a fairly hushed atmosphere, with a terse percussive beat and you can easily fade in and out of the creepy world, and ‘Dirge’ was three minutes in before I noticed the change again, as some grumpier sounds came through, which makes me wonder about these modern composers.

They do these arty offerings which can be effortlessly enjoyable, as this is, but scarcely makes you blink or think, and then they include some remixes which finally invest the tunes with more actual life, which seems something of a copout to me.  ‘Lament is the best track, in the remixes, because it starts a thumping, with friction in the rhythm, where everything else had been music to bathe in when feeling slightly jaded.

Now what’s the point of that?

IMPERIAL
ETUDE
DIRGE
FUSION
LAMENT
LAMENT (IMMINENT MIX)
LAMENT (KLANGSTABLE MIX)

http://www.frozenempiremedia.com 
http://www.synth-etik.com
http://www.eyelyft.com

04/15/04