Various - Trust In Trance 2

Outmosphere Records: 1994

I can't believe this happened again. Once, sure, a weird fluke of chance, but twice now? Not that I'm complaining, per se, as this is by far a more interesting item to review than what I initially set out to get. It's just bizarre that, once again, an order for an In Trance We Trust CD has yielded me something completely different. Right, not as egregious a mispick as ending up with Tiësto's In Search Of Sunrise 5 - this at least has the words 'trust' and 'trance' in the title. But yes, getting Astral Projection's debut album is a far better grab than another In Trance We Trust mix – guess that collection will have to wait a little longer for completion.

Okay, this technically isn't an Astral Projection album, but it may as well be. Though the famed Israeli group made their proper debut with The Astral Files, they'd spent a few years prior honing their craft under a number of aliases, including Mantra, Aban Don and SFX. Hitching up with the label Phonokol, Misters Avi Nissim, Lior Perlmutter, and Yan-Iv Haviv were given the green light in compiling the first Trust In Trance collection, launching the sub-label Outmosphere Records. That one had a couple other contributors, but by the time they put together the quick follow-up, it was strictly an Astral Projection joint, even if they were operating under various guises. Hey, if The Black Dog could get away with it on Bytes, why not good ol' A.P.?

What makes all this a bit confusing is Astral Projection did release an album called Trust In Trance ...two years after Trust In Trance 2 came out. Confounding things further is them renaming Outmosphere Records into Trust In Trance Records. To say nothing of an Indian re-issue on Vale Music simply calling it Trust In Trance, which was later re-issued as Karma Trance 2 (so sayeth Lord Discogs). Good God and Vishnu almighty, does this nine-tracker of proto goa trance ever have a weird history.

Oh yeah, the music! Mahadeva is on here, often considered among the earliest tracks shaping the genre's defining characteristics many future artists would emulate. Sure, Eat Static, Total Eclipse, and Juno Reactor were doing their own things by this point, but Astral Projection really put a stamp on tweaking acid and vintage synths in such a fashion you just couldn't help but conjure flailing about on the beaches of Goa. Still, there's no denying Trust In Trance 2 is some early-ass trance music, a hefty portion not quite yet transitioned from mainland Europe's idea of what the genre should entail. Some are blistering fast, while others, particularly the SFX cuts, have little 'goa' influences in them at all. I can see that being a turn-off for those weaned on the psy scene's latter years of radical, freeform, trip-your-face-off music. For those preferring their psy on the simpler side though, Trust In Trance 2 does hold up pretty good three decades on.

Massimo Vivona - Travelling Alone

Carpe Sonum Records: 2021

No sooner had I reviewed Mr. Vivona's debut on Carpe Sonum Records than he dropped a sophomore effort a scant few months after. And seeing as how I'm a couple years tardy on reviewing this album, that's likely given him plenty of time to craft a third outing for the spiritual Fax+ successor. Coming out any day now. At least, I hope so, because I wouldn't mind hearing more from him in the future, nosiree.

But first, a little correction on my part. In my Breathe review, I mentioned ol' Massimo had released a lone single on Pete Namlook's label, Elevator as Elevator. While that part is true, I neglected (overlooked) to mention he'd worked in collaboration with a few others during his brief tenure there. This includes DJ Criss as Xenon, Dr. Atmo as Gamma, and Bela Cox as Gorn. Most of this stuff is early German trance, with Gamma dipping a bit into goa trance's territory, but regardless, to claim Massimo only released one acid techno record on Fax+ is just factually incorrect on my part.

That sorted, I like Travelling Alone a great deal more than Breathe. Not that I disliked that album by any stretch, quite vibing on its retro Berlin-School approach to songcraft. I just felt it lacked an extra gear his looping synths hinted at building towards. And while there's still some of that in this outing, Massimo mixes things up enough such that I'm coming away more satisfied with the overall experience. Heck, even the inclusion of actual track titles, like Paradise and Submarine and Love Of Horizon, does more than the strictly abstract Phase titles of Breathe.

Opening track Beautiful Field doesn't waste time getting us on those vintage early '90s Balearic feels: gentle pads, floaty melodies, bleepy sounds like seagulls, and even a downtempo rhythm! In fact, this sounds like something you might have heard on a slightly sappy chill-out compilation, but, like, the best cut from said comp'. I could easily hear Beautiful Field sharing playlist space with William Orbit or ATB (it's the slide guitar additions) and being none the worse for wear. The Orbit feels get even stronger with the short piano interlude Dramma, if for no other reason than adding a little modern classical flair to the album.

Still, if you were coming into Travelling Alone for more of those looping, trancey arps as heard in Breathe, Mr. Vivona has you covered in tracks like Paradise (bouncy and spritely), Love Of Horizon (really getting on that Global Communication / Manuel Göttsching pulse; also, a Wu-Tang sample?) and Around The Ocean (lazily chugging along in a tribal sort of way). Topping everything off is Submarine, a dubby bit of retro-groovy progressive house with plenty of aquatic samples sending you deep into the abyssal plain.

And then it's over. Damn, does this album ever fly by fast, ending just as I'm primed for things to ratchet up another gear. Oh, dammit, Massimo did it again, didn't he?

Saphileaum - The Traveler

Silent Season: 2019

I've had Saphileaum's The Traveler for some time, bought among a bundle that included Beat Pharmacy's Safety In Dub, Mohlao's Landforms, and Wanderwelle's Lost In A Sea Of Trees. Items I reviewed two years ago now. Why, then, did I skip this one? Some weird quirk of my convoluted queuing system? Nay, 'tis a sillier reason: I simply forgot I had it.

As The Traveler is a digital-only release, I assume it got lost among all the other 'travel' albums in my folders (Travel The Galaxy, Traveler '03, Traveller, Travelling Without Moving... bonus points if you can I.D. what artists those are tied to!). Only now, during this run through the 'T's, did I realize I missed Saphileaum's EP. Oopsie on me, but that sometimes happens when I don't have a physical copy to confirm I actually bought something. And y'all wonder why I held off on the buying digital for so long.

Anyhow, Saphileaum. There's a lot of history behind this project of Andro Gogibedashvili, at least according to his Discoggian bio. More than I'm willing to divulge here, if I'm honest. Perhaps his biggest claim to fame (aside from being the grandson of one of Georgia's most popular singers, Temur Tsiklauri), is having a snippet of one of his tracks sent out into space, directed at a Neptune-like planet orbiting a red dwarf called K2-18. Huh, seems a bit random. Why not an Earth-like exoplanet, like Gliese 667Cc, or Trappist-1E, or Kepler-69C (nice). Guess the waiting list to transmit to those locations is a tad longer.

Anyhow, after spending some time floating about net-labels like Norite, Controlled Violence, and Oslated, Andro landed on Silent Season with a debut of The Traveler. And what an interesting debut it is, treading into sonic territory I've yet to hear the label venture into. Sure, opener Golden Tunic seems to follow upon similar, spacious dubby aesthetics so often heard throughout Silent Season's history, but there's something oh-so relaxing, calming, and soothing about these gentle synth pads and soft tribal rhythms. It's ambient dub, but for the New Age sect. Not that we haven't heard mystical-leaning music out of this print before, but almost always with a dub techno approach. Saphileaum shows almost no techno-fetishism in his songcraft, dub merely used to enhance the spacious vistas he creates. And boy howdy, does he create some deep spaces indeed.

That said, the tracks making up The Traveler do run a tad samey throughout. Establish a steady rhythm with a meditative melody and twilight field recordings, then subtly loop them for around six minutes each, throwing in a few rolling drum fills, layers of harmonic drone, and echo effects for flavour. It's all finely crafted, no doubt, but once you catch onto the Saphileaum stylee, you won't hear much deviation from it. Fortunately, The Traveler doesn't grow long in tooth either, wrapping up in a tidy seven tracks. A perfect length for a nice stroll through ancient forest paths.

ASC - Trans-Neptunian Objects 2

Auxiliary: 2018

James Clements taking his ambient explorations to the furthest reaches of our solar system? Hell, I'm sold! Let's follow that link to wherever the CD can be bought and it's already sold out. Okay, that's on me, rather tardy in getting 'round to nabbing a copy of Trans-Neptunian Objects. Ain't no way I'm missing out on a second edition of this concept series! Maybe I'll get fortunate though, and James will re-issue the first sometime down the line. Hey, he's been offering vinyl editions of his Silent Season albums this past year, so it could happen!

Anyhow, Trans-Neptunian Objects 2 doesn't waste any time letting you know the sort of outing you're in for. Opening track, Varuna (named after a Hindu deity; one of the more prominent bodies discovered in the early days of Kuiper Belt explorations) sounds appropriately desolate and remote, distantly echoing sounds skittering about as a deep space ambience settles in. Layers of drone build in intensity, bringing a sense of awe to the atmosphere, but we're still in the coldest reaches of our solar system, our sonic vista frigid and uninviting despite the subtle glisten of feeble sunlight upon icy bodies.

As if that wasn't enough, second track Huya (named after the rain god Juyá of the Wayuu people; has its own moon) is even more desolate, about as pure a piece of dark ambient drone as you're likely to hear this side of a Silent Universe outing. Deucalion (named after the son of Prometheus; part of the 'cold population') seems to start in similar fashion, but soon comes forth with a more prominent lead of melodic grandeur. It's still all presented in a dark ambient sort of way, the Kuiper Belt forever an uninviting place in Mr. Clements' view. Sometimes though, you have to sit back in your cryopod and respectably take in the impossible remoteness of your surroundings.

Which is just as well, since Typhon (named after one of Zeus' cosmic foes, possibly buried under Mt. Etna; is a binary 'centaur' object) is more melancholic compared to the preceding tracks. In fact, the layers of dubby drone James uses here reminds me more of ASC's Silent Season albums compared to the pure space drone I've heard thus far on Trans-Neptunian Objects 2. Same can be said for Varda (named after the queen of the Valar – that's Tolkien, folks; guess astronomers ran out of names from antiquity lore), but not so much the remaining two tracks.

The bleepy sounds of Mors-Somnus (named after twin Roman gods; likely a merged binary) had me initially thinking something from Fax+, but the ominous, eerie mood quickly brought it back to the realms of dark ambient. Rather cinematic, in fact, while Chaos (oh, c'mon! Naming any moving object in our solar system that is just asking for trouble) has a steady pulsing throb, the sort of rhythm I'd expect out of a Sabled Sun joint. And now I want ASC to somehow appear on Cryo Chamber.

Various - Tranceculture > Endless Universe

Hypnotic: 1995

This was a fairly popular CD among my raving peers way back in the day. When you're stuck in the hinterlands of Canadaland, in the Before Times of primitive internet, finding anything with a hint of the underground was like mana from heaven to the ears of high-schoolers. This wasn't some poppy eurodance rinsed out by MC Mario, this was European trance music, with sounds emitting from the deepest cosmic corners, conjuring sci-fi concepts like semiconductors, DNA structures, and Apollo moon missions, all throbbing at 160 – 200 bpm. It does all seem a bit silly in hindsight, doesn't it?

There's a lot about Tranceculture that can come off rather dodgy, even by mid-'90s efforts. Despite being presented as a compilation, it's abundantly clear all the tracks are produced by one man, Steffen Schuhrke, who barely gets an 'Operations & Navigations' credit. The alias Reverse Pulse had appeared on a few other scattered Hypnotic collections, so why not just bill it as that? No, this is just Hypnotic (re: Cleopatra) on their chintzy marketing shtick again, right down to a lenticular jewel case with lame- oh, I can't stay snarky at you, lenticular jewel cases. There's even a picture of Saturn, always frickin' awesome!

Besides, it's all about the music, right? Right, and Tranceculture features some of the purest forms of trance you can imagine. Like, ultra-retro pure. We're talking basic, hypnotic loops, performed in incremental waves, melody more of a suggestion of minor chord progression in backing pads. There's acid and bleepy arps, but served as a rhythmic rudder to the blistering pace of these tracks rather than prominent leads. Aside from escalating tension as loops build upon each other, there isn't any sort of typical song structure going on here.

It's an almost improvisational method of constructing each track, Steffen feeling out when and where each loop gets dropped in, whether a key change is warranted, and how much knob twiddling one earns. Nor does he seem encumbered by when and how a track should end, letting things run for however long feels right for the moment, even if that's nine, thirteen, or fifteen minutes. It rather reminds me of the old Spiral Tribe free-tekno tapes but with German trance sounds rather than hardcore techno.

Still, the dated nature of Tranceculture can't be overlooked. Heck, I'm sure some could argue A.I. does this now – it certainly ain't no th'ang for computers to emulate popular EDM, so why not three decade old (!!) trance? Plug in some stock loops, request a couple effects, and let 'er rip, right? I thought so at first, but the more I re-listened to this CD, the more I realized Steffen's still doing things that just can't be mimicked by technology yet. When and where such loops are utilized, just how much a knob gets twisted – a 'human intuition' sort of vibe, however basic or subtle it may be. Damn, didn't expect to get so metaphysical with a shameless nostalgic trip.

Tomas Jirku - Touching The Sublime

Silent Season: 2020

Continuing my ever so slow backtrack through Silent Season's catalogue, it's time for the third-to-last item the label released before going into presumed mothballs. Look, it's just a weird coincidence things turned out this way - I guarantee my next reviews from this label won't be Night Sea's Still or Yuka's Moon Song. Although, I see no reason why not, both still available as digital downloads. For how much longer though? While Silent Season doesn't look to close shop anytime soon, the lack of recent activity is cause for some concern. I'd hate to pop over to their Bandcamp and suddenly find *Snap!*, as if it never were.

Anyhow, here's Tomas Jirku's Touching The Sublime, a rather unique item in the Silent Season canon, and I'm not just talking the music. No, this album has the distinction of having a photo book tie-in, which... actually makes a whole lot of sense. Think about it: what's one of this label's defining characteristics? The plethora of naturalist beauty shots, of course. Yeah, the music within has always been class, but what really sold the idea of said music coming from some mystical land of the Pacific Northwest was the steady stream of picturesque scenery adorning the cover art. And now here's a whole darn book of them! I was oh-so tempted in buying one, if the $100 price tag hadn't pushed it to the back-burner of my To Buy bin before they were all bought up. Oh well, guess I'll settle for the CD.

It's a hard one to peg down though. Mr. Jirku released a number of items throughout the '00s, but seemed to go relatively quiet on the music front in the following decade. Lord Discogs lists Touching The Sublime as his first album after a ten year gap, though a smattering of singles filled the space between, consisting of everything from microhouse to dub techno to glitch-fuzz. And while what he offers here definitely fits within Silent Season mould, there's a restrained opulence to his productions that places Touching The Sublime well outside their typical dub techno lane.

Seriously, The Iliad & The Odyssey and Pele & Surtr go full-on orchestral in portions, but as filtered through a submarine turbine. And gosh, are Idiis Mortii, Entropy8, and Hypoxia ever getting on some dark ambient drone action. Even the opener, A Warm Place, is all sorts of moody and foreboding, almost deadly silent before blasting you with a massive wave of atonal drone. If Touching The Sublime was that sort of album throughout, this could have gone down as one of Silent Season's most daring albums ever, especially when coupled with a lovely picture book. However, tracks like Tectonic Monument, Eyeless Through Space, and other portions of Pele & Surtr (at thirteen minutes, it's the longest track here – plenty of space to indulge) do get on some 'typical dub techno' breaded butter. Guess the rest was just a bit too much for the label's regulars to handle.

Etic - Touch Ups

Trancelucent Productions: 2004

It was that fateful re-connection with the Trancelucent Productions compilation Buckle Up Vol. 2 that led me here, and what fortuitous timing it was. Had I not done that re-update of the CD when I did, I would have missed out on buying a few items off of PsyShop for the final time, the long-lasting psychedelic trance webstore shuttering its doors mere months after. Of course, if I really wanted to nab Etic's debut album, I could probably find a copy for a fiver on the Discog Marketplace, but it just seems more appropriate I got this when I did as I did. Makes for a better anecdote, y'know?

As for why Etic, his contribution to said compilation was an intriguing one, a rather deep prog-psy outing surrounded by a bunch of standard Israeli full-on psy trance of the day (plus one super-dope cut from The Misted Muppet!). I didn't know if that was just a one-off, or if the rest of his discography was like that, but since I couldn't find his music on streaming services (note: this is before I started using Deezer), I figured it best doing it the ol' fashioned way: blind buying the CD.

And what I got was... pretty much what I was expecting. Like, if 1 Day was anything to go by, he wasn't going to tear things out the same way his Trancelucent brothers had, but I was hoping for a little more than retreads of the same basic idea. If anything, Touch Ups is even deeper than I could have imagined, the sort of minimalist prog-psy that you might find on Spiral Trax or Iboga Records. Considering this came out in 2004, does that put Mr. Harari ahead of the curve? Well, not quite, this sound floating about corners of the psy scene since the turn of the millennium. It's just surprising to hear it on a label not really known for it. Definitely helps it stand out though.

The good news is this is still an era when this brand of deeper-than-thou prog-psy had some groove behind it, and Etic offers that quite nicely. While the sounds and effects used remain subtle and flowing, I never felt bored or impatient with whatever wibble he uses, the steadying rhythm keeping my reptile brain entertained. It also helps that Etay makes it abundantly clear he isn't in any hurry or need of dropping some big, mind-melting tear-out hook, perfectly content providing the warm-up vibe such tracks rely on for maximum impact. Even when something resembling a proper melody shows up, its always with considered restraint.

Touch Ups won't win the hearts of folks burnt out on prog-psy's turn towards minimalism, but it holds its own nearly two decades on. Frankly, if you switched the psy trance rolling bassline with a rhythm more rooftop appropriate, this stuff wouldn't be much removed from early Minilogue. Hey, Etic had a label with tech-house releases, so it's not as far-fetched as you'd think.

Yamaoka - Time To Time

Databloem: 2013

Had I come to this album when I first discovered Yamaoka, I could have claimed something like “finally wrapping up his Databloem trilogy”. Assuming I'd already gotten Short Films For Long Days and Simple Songs with Purl, that is. Turns out, merely a month after I dropped a review of the latter, Kenichi dropped another album on Databloem. And then another just last year. And another-another just last year with Purl. So, y'know, good on me being tardy with this discography and all, otherwise I'd have written a completely outdated review of Time To Time, and who'd want to read that?

Actually, I'm a bit surprised Yamaoka's returned to Databloem so often – that label isn't really known for a roster of steady contributors. Indeed, artists come and go from its catalogue like travelling troubadours, releasing an album or three while gallivanting off with their own labels or regular side-hustles.

I know this is far from the case, but since taking in a fair sampling of Databloem's output, it strikes me as something of a 'proving ground' for ambient techno artists abroad. Yeah, you may have a dozen releases on some obscure net-label, but if you get your shit on this label, you've definitively become a made ambient-man within the scene at large. You only need a couple records with them to achieve such status before being set off into the wider world abroad. And here's Yamaoka, throwing my theory out the window by having half a dozen releases on Databloem in nearly a decade's time. Curse you, Kenichi, for ruining my head-canon!

Anyhow, Time To Time is where he made his debut with the label, I assume after shopping around following the folding of his previous two homes, Secret Station and Somehow Recordings. I cannot deny being hit with massive deja-vu on this album's opener, Orion, as it starts similarly to Close Line, the track that opened up his Databloem double-LP Short Films For Long Days. They aren't exactly the same, of course, Orion a bit more stripped and minimal compared to Close Line, but man, did it ever give me a sense of trepidation. That for as cool and unique a sound he had,Yamaoka may have turned out to be a one-trick pony with his use of layered echoing loops. Never mind A Frozen Stream disproved that, it's those initial impressions that unfortunately linger.

Fortunately, Kenichi offers enough variation of sound among the remaining seven tracks that those fears quickly dissipated. Yeah, some tread familiar territory as heard on Short Films, though I can't fault that future album for exploring similar sonic territory. When Yamaoka moves closer to the realms of dub techno (Winter Garden, Radial), trancey loops (Hermes) or waves of melodic washes (Prose, Skylight), it helps stand Time To Time out as it's own entity. Nice and concise, too, because I couldn't help but tap out after two CDs worth of Yamaoka loops in Short Films. Maybe I need more Purl up in this house again.

Public Energy - Three 'O Three

Probe Records: 1992/2021

Hey now, don't look at me that way. I was one-hundred percent truthful when claiming completion with Speedy J records at this end of my alphabetical queue. I said nothing about any other of his aliases! Haha, gotcha', hook, line, and sinker! Unless you already saw this joke coming, though I'm not sure how. The original title of this EP was after the two tracks on the A-Side, Hemi-Sync, but for some reason, Jochem re-issued it on Bandcamp titled with the lead track on the B-Side, Three 'O Three. Maybe he felt it the superior cut out of all four tracks? Only way to find out is to dive right in, yo'!

As a record being released on the harder offshoot of Plus 8 Records, Hemi-Sync (Part 1) definitely fits the bill. There isn't anything fancy about it, just a steady thump of a kick, some fills that drop into an industrial grinder, little bleepy leads rotating in and out throughout the duration. One of those leads sounds suspiciously like The KLF's What Time Is Love, but it's so brief and muffled, I can't be certain. Wouldn't surprise me though, as I'm sure it was a highly common sample in the year 1991.

Speaking of brief, the track is but a mere four minutes long, which may as well be a progressive house epic compared to the svelte Hemi-Sync (Part 2), clocking in just over three-and-a-half minutes long. Heck, you could be fooled into thinking it's half that length too, as there's a one-second pause right in the middle of the track! Given Part 2 is little more than a drum tool, I'm sure DJs could have a lot of fun with this, but there isn't much else to it. Still, if folks ever complained about Speedy J's turn to the 4am warehouse bosh in the new millennium, here's proof positive he always had an ear for minimal techno functionality.

Anyhow, here's Three 'O Three, the track given the re-issued spotlight. This just might be the third dumbest thing Jochem's ever made. Not Pull Over dumb, thank God, but it's about as blunt an acid techno workout as you could make in the olden days. The beats are nothing more than a hardcore stomp, there's enough hi-hat action keeping things busy, and the TB-303 tweaks in suitable fashion. Again, more of a tool than a track. Mind, it's not like the fourth track on this EP, B.S.G. (Binaural Signal Generator), is any more brilliant in the beat department, but it at least has something of a hook going for it, plus more of a 'song' progression, such as early '90s bangin' techno could have.

Review wrapped, I'd like to take a moment to mention the passing of an old friend, Ritchie Banipal. We weren't especially close, mostly keeping contact through Facebook in recent years, but had many memorable times together during our Canadian hinterland raving days, memories I'll always cherish. I will miss your sharing of “fotos”, Ritchie.

Lucette Bourdin - A Thousand Voices

Dark Duck Records/Fantasy Enhancing: 2010/2021

How long have I been chipping away at this box-set? It doesn't feel like a 'forever thing' yet, but goodness, has it been an age since starting way back in ye' olde date of November 2021. My review of Ancient Memories may as well be ancient memories now, though it is nice things have kinda' ramped up to about a month-per-album rate. Barring any unforeseen happenstance or my gallivanting off on another month-long 'me time' excursion, I should have Retrospective Box Set (2005 – 2017) wrapped before the end of summer! Only thing that can stand in my way is another box-set with a silly alphabetical stipulation clogging up the queue, but what are the chances of that happening, eh? Haha, hah!

A Thousand Voices was the lone album Lucette released for Dark Duck Records in 2010, her time more spent with Earth Mantra that year. There wasn't any particular reason for that, just a fact of circumstance making some additional info I can burn a little more self-imposed word-count on. Look, when one's spent some 8,000+ words on an ambient artist's discography, the talking points run thin.

Seriously though, there is something a little more unique going on with this album compared to most others I've heard from Ms. Bourdin. While her choice in synth pads has remained consistent throughout, this one makes more use of voice synths and choir pads, bringing to fore the New Age aspects of her muse. Yeah, it's not that significant a difference, overall, but when stacked against Lucette's discography, it stands out. Just don't go expecting some artistically challenging conceptual art-house production. Like, if Tim Hecker released an album called A Thousand Voices, you bet your bottom dollar he'd literally use one thousand sampled and recorded voices in crafting an impenetrable wall-of-sound ambient drone opus lauded by music journalists who don't listen to much ambient in the first place as revolutionary. Or something. Nah, dawg, Lucette plays things simpler and direct, yo'.

As for what we get here, it's a straight-forward affair of ambient drone pieces. While the choir pads are heavily featured in a number of tracks, not every one contains them. Alien Prayer relies more on airy synths and a bit of sliding electric fuzz, I s'pose imparting a sci-fi feel to the piece. Strange Landscape has a subtle rhythmic bassline with delicate bell tones and acoustic guitar accompanying its synth leads, bridging that gap into the realms of ambient techno Lucette's flirted with on occasion. Closing track Once Upon A Time more heavily features piano over choir pads, lending the piece to modern classical opulence.

What really caught my eye (and ear, I guess), is In My Room, apparently a homage to The Beach Boys. I honestly have a hard time hearing whether this is a direct cover, what with it being over nine minutes long of choir pads. If it is more or less reinterpreting that classic little song's chord progression though, pretty darn cool, I say.

bvdub - Ten Times The World Lied

Glacial Movements Records: 2020

I feel like I've been name-dropping bvdub forever now, but it's only happened about a half-dozen times, according to internal blog stats. Granted, the first such instance occurred over a half-decade ago, but it's been sporadic since. I cannot deny that assumption in always mentioning Mr. van Wey's project is what led me to finally springing for an album of his. It just didn't make any sense to use him as a frame of reference if I hadn't actually listened to a single CD from the chap.

And as always, if I'm diving into a discography that's nearly fifty albums deep, I may as well do so via one of my preferred labels, in this case Glacial Movements Records. Actually, this choice is as much a statistical certainty as it is practicality, bvdub having featured on the print half a dozen times now, two albums of which were among their first dozen items (sure am dropping 'dozen' by the, erm, dozen this review, huh?). He's a bit of a regular with the label, is what I'm saying, though he has music out on Dronarivm, Kompakt, Darla Records, Quietus Recordings, Auxiliary, and... ooh, Apollo! Not to mention DJ mixes on such trendy music blogs like Resident Advisor, A Strangely Isolated Place, Headphone Commute and the old mnml ssgs. Dude's done the rounds these last dozen years, so plenty of material to gorge myself on should this first outing prove fruitful.

And, well... damn, but is this Ten Times The World Lied ever lovely. For sure it's ambient drone, but done in that melancholic way I typically associate with 36 these days. Not so opulent as Mr. Huddleston's work either, the production deeper and thicker with the layers of timbre – which is about what I'd expect from a project handle with the word 'dub' in it. Can't deny it sometimes gets a bit overwhelming, the endless cascade of reverb and delay almost drowning your senses. Still, it's never so much so that you can't hear whatever piano piece, synth sweep, or string melody is being performed underneath. Like, imagine you were among that herd of blizzard-blasted cattle in the cover art, the wailing winds and frosted ice obscuring your senses, your only warmth a huddle of other beings, weathering the onslaught of the elements. Yeah, it's like that, this album.

Appropriately with a title including Ten Times..., ten tracks make up this album. Brock apparently wrote one on the tenth day of a month, for ten months, spending ten minutes of live improvisation for each piece. Okay, only eight minutes per, because obviously we couldn't fit ten ten-minute tracks onto an eighty-minute CD. Does make me wonder if there's an extended version of this album though, one that could have been digital only.

Regardless, Ten Times The World Lied proved a solid entry point into the world of bvdub for yours truly. Not sure where I'll go from here though, because... well damn, just look at all them albums!

Speedy J - Tanga

NovaMute: 2003/2021

I've pretty much covered the bulk of Speedy J's '90s output now, at least that which he's re-issued through Bandcamp thus far (still no Oil Zone single?). Yet somehow, most of his post-Loudboxer material has eluded my orderly queue. All those Collabs singles, I get, since I didn't start this discography dive into Jochem Paap's works until after wrapping up another clutch of 'C' releases. The two other Loudboxer EPs though? Just... what were the odds?

Actually, calling Tanga and Bugmod singles spun off Loudboxer is generous. Yeah, they both use the familiar Designer's Republic art on their covers, but neither track appeared on the album proper. Maybe some loops were available in the vinyl edition of Loudboxer? I wouldn't know, because I haven't heard that double-LP featuring two-hundred locked grooves for discerning DJs with playful and inventive minds. All I can say for certainty is there ain't no Tanga, Tannga, Taanga, or Tangga featured around Loudboxer. It just didn't make the cut.

I almost wonder if Tannga could have made it regardless. We're still in a full-bore, head-down, 4am warehouse techno bosh here, which is what you'd expect from an EP aping similar cover art from an album full of the stuff, but this track is nearly eleven minutes long! Given Loudboxer was all about the quick mixes in service of keeping the party on the up-and-up, where could this behemoth even fit? Like, sure, a two-minute snippet of those thunderous beats could have slid snuggly in a warm-up or lead-out portion, but the whole track features those elements. Besides, there's something approaching an actual hook here too, a repeating synth squall echoing into the furthest, darkest domains your ears can imagine, with a little filter effect keeping each loop twisted until all you hear is its trailing reverb. Yes, compared to the relentless rhythmic action of Loudboxer, that constitutes a hook!

Taanga is basically the dub remix, all drums, slowly building in activity as the track plays out, a couple 'pull it back, bring it back' moments, and a nice lead-out. It's only half as long as Tannga, which isn't surprising since it doesn't make time for the hook (such as it is). Meanwhile, Tangga is the... ambient techno version? Whoa, going a little retro there, are ya', Speedy? Okay, it's only 'ambient' in the sense there isn't an omnipresent thudding kick through the track. Plenty of percussion, mind you, but a bit muted and flanged out with reverb, echo, and delay effects, I guess making this the Proper Dub remix. You can even hear an urgent little hook underneath it all, building its way out from underneath the rhythmic clatter. Considering I had Tanga pegged for just carrying on from Loudboxer's genre purism, it's nice hearing a reminder that Jochem could go back to more experimental techno, if he was so inclined.

And that's a wrap with Speedy J at this end of the alphabet! However, we're not quite done with Mr. Paap down here...

Best laid plans, gone awry: An EMC Update

I'm sort of at a loss for words right now. I had something in mind to write for this diary-blog update-athon post, but at the 11th hour, crummy news befell me. Not tragic or anything of the sort, just a sequence of events that put a damper on the whole day. The ULTIMATE Monday, if you will! Should I get into the weeds of it? Eh, probably shouldn't but to put it succinctly, due to scheduling conflicts, it appears I'll have to miss the Shambhala Music Festival this year.

And while that sucks, the real sucky part of it is, maybe it's for the best? I dunno', despite having one of the best line-ups I've ever seen them put on, I couldn't shake a vibe that something felt... off. Maybe things will go off without a hitch, and I'm just over-thinking things, but the sense I get is there's some major behind-the-scenes shake-ups going on at the little Salmo farm this year, and, well... Let's just say I don't want to go through similar issues as endured at another festival, a logistical nightmare for all involved. If nothing else, my bank account will be happier for skipping a summer.

No ACE TRACKS playlist this month. Though I do have one with sufficiant tracks in the works, it's almost all ambient music again, so I'm letting it sit another 30 days, hopefully with a bit more variety added by May's end. *glances at queue* A little more...