Equal Stones - Below Zero

Glacial Movements Records: 2019

We inch closer to Proper Winter now, the weather growing ever colder in our annual tilt away from solar warmth. Yes, even my seasonally smug corner of the world. Atmospheric rivers aside, we've been extra cool 'round these here parts, dipping below freezing temperatures. Sometimes. Usually at around 4:14am. By about one or two degrees. Honest, that's unusual for us, plus counts as a tie-in to this album's title and theme!

Yes, in my ceaseless need to chill the f' out, I've taken the most logical step in scoping out another of Glacial Movements Records items, an album titled Below Zero. Why, it even has a derelict boat on the cover art! Well, maybe not completely derelict, but certainly in no condition to travel, ensconced within foggy frost as it is. Interestingly, despite growing up in a port town well into the northern latitudes, this is not a scene I'm familiar with. In fact, that town is somewhat famous for having one of the deepest harbours that never freezes year round, which is handy when you want to move cargo without running into hull-carving islands of ice. Now if only it wasn't located in such a remote part of Canada's west coast, maybe it'd have grown larger than it did.

Anyhow, Equal Stones. One Amandus Schaap, he started out making droney, melancholic ambient music for the obscure net-label Hidden Vibes. Well, not that obscure anymore, as a few noted names have had releases out on it (SiJ, The Green Kingdom, Chihei Hatakeyama, Halftribe). They also aren't strictly a net-label anymore either, having gained enough clout to offer limited CD runs as well. Equal Stones was there at the beginning though, and remained fairly exclusive to Hidden Vibes for half a decade. He started branching out into darker strains of the genre as Death Star, and has now (well, a couple years ago) hooked up with Glacial Movements for a conceptual album of ice-cold drone.

Below Zero opens up with Presence, and if that doesn't immediately trigger feelings of unease that lumbering icebergs are about, the bitter cold sounds definitely will. With sounds of biting winds and grinding ice enveloping your headspace, Amandus does an effective job in putting you in a most inhospitable of arctic clime's. Even Ugasanie would shiver.

It's mostly industrial drone-tone from here on out, which is fine for what it is, but I feel loses some of the album's theme along the way. It's not until the final sixteen-minute track Fragmented Ice that things get back to something truly icy. Aside from an intermittent 'exhale' from sickly machinery, we're treated to desolate white noise for many minutes. Discordant tones and flickering electronics gradually swell in prominence, even getting on some '70s style flange. It's like being isolated in some remote science station, adrift on islands of gravel and ice. And always that heavy exhale, as though the deep freeze makes the simple act of breathing torture. Maybe best to hibernate, for a while...

Neil Young with The Stray Gators - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 2 - Tuscaloosa (1973)

Reprise Records: 2019/2020

The Archives series is a continuous project, segments coming out with great frequency. In typical Neil Young fashion though, it remains an erratic one. Instead of a steady, chronological re-telling of his discography, it's made massive time-jumps with each release of the Performance Series. Confounding things further are additional items released after they should have been properly sequenced, relegating them to x.5 in their numerical order.

Example: Live At The Cellar Door, a show recorded between the Live At The Fillmore East and Live At Massey Hall sessions, is designated PS02.5. This is all very dorky, OCD-levels of going about re-issuing one's discography, but it does leave some tantalizing hints of what else might come out, especially when there's a six volume gap between Live At Massey Hall and A Treasure (the country shindiggin' tour of Old Ways).

Cagey marketing aside, there's a more practical reason why some of these archival performances come out in non-chronological order: they're harder to resuscitate than others. Or put another way, even though Tuscaloosa (1973) was always intended to be volume four of the Performance Series, getting a good remastering of those recordings was apparently a herculean effort.

This is from the Harvest tour with The Stray Gators that went down as one of the most disastrous tours from Neil's long career, one that started on a rather bleak note when their practice sessions with Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten wasn't turning out, got sent home and promptly overdosed. Those arenas were already sold out though, folks eager to hear hits like Heart Of Gold live. So hit the road Neil and the Gators did, though not before financial wrangling added even more sourness to the proceedings. Throw in Mr. Young's insistence at playing new material over Harvest songs as the tour progressed, and it lurched to an unsatisfying end once the American portion was completed, a European stretch cancelled.

As fascinating as it would be to hear those shows, Tuscaloosa wisely gives us a glimpse of the tour in its earlier days, when things hadn't quite gone to such shite. Even then, there was only so much audio they could cobble, portions of it apparently going unrecorded.

So we get a couple solo acoustic numbers to open up, then it's right into the Harvest tunes with the Gators. The opening salvo of Out On The Weekend and Harvest sound great, the live energy vastly improved over the studio versions. Old Man and Heart Of Gold are as they are, but it soon settles in that, as professional as the Gators are as a backing band, that's all they are. Neil really wants to coax a little Crazy Horse out of these Nashville pros, but it just isn't happening.

The set ends off with Don't Be Denied, somewhat of a harbinger of things to come. Neil goes autobiographical, his voice gets harrowed and raw, and the music fades away, in doing so jettisoning the traditional post-song applause of a live album, the audience disappearing before us.

Various - 001005

Intellitronic Bubble: 2019

Did you know Lee Norris established another label? No, another one. No, the other one. The other-other one. Not that one, the other one. No, another one. C'mon, how hard is this? We shouldn't have to do this dance every time. Besides I've already reviewed one item from this new Lee Norris label, Synchronized Minds from last year. It's not my fault y'all didn't notice it after all the words I spent going on about his Norken alias.

But yes, back in 2019 (the Normal Times?), Lee hooked up with Árni Grétar (Futuregrapher) and launched Intellitronic Bubble, a specialist techno label featuring limited run 10” vinyl (lathe cut, a Very Important distinction). It would promote unheralded artists like Milieu, Scape One, G-Prod, and Carbinax along side a few Norris associates operating under obscure aliases (Mick Chillage as The Shape, Devin Underwood as Devroka). Little hype, little fuss, just a bunch of producers having some fun on the side with no worry or care whether their music gets noticed abroad. Until it does, by some hot, trendy techno DJ or music vlog, after which demand will skyrocket, causing future techno collectors to lament and bemoan why-oh-why did they not jump on these 10” vinyls with all the bubble artwork from this obscure Icelandic print when they had the chance? The cosmic ballet... goes on.

Meanwhile, here's a nice little CD compilation (glass mastered, a Very Important distinction), rounding up those first five records. Yay!

For a purported techno label, I was surprised in hearing as much eclecticism as I did in 001005. Mileu's Amber Petrol'r kicks things off closer to the domain of tech-house, if early Warp Records could have kicked off tech-house. Rekab's Winter Harmonics maintains those Artificial Intelligence vibes, while _Nyquist's Sudden Void starts treading down Neo-Detroit's back alleys.

So here I'm thinking, “huh, Intellitronic Bubble isn't strictly techno at all, but just a continuation of other Lee Norris ambient techno labels, but with a heavier emphasis on beatcraft.” But then we go full-in with the robo-menace of Devroka's All Show And No Go, and I simply accept my pre-conceived notions were incorrect. Oh, the humility.

Seriously though, things go further into the Detroit future-vibes, such that I'm quite reminded of the material coming out of the FireScope camps (holy cow, talk about killer crossover potential!). Not a one-to-one comparison though, as the B12 print leans quite heavy into the sci-fi vibes, while Intellitronic Bubble feels more at home grounded. The only outlier in these is final track Flying Cars from Futuregrapher, doing more a dubby tech-house thing that would have fit snuggly in a Swayzak set circa 2001.

Does all this make 001005 a good compilation? Yeah, guy, it does. Handy introduction to the label, nice variety of techno and electro tunes produced by fully capable musicians. What's not to like? The scarcity of their physical catalogue, I guess, but eh, such are the times.

Autumn Of Communion - Zosimus Alchemista

Fantasy Enhancing: 2019

Somehow, I assumed Lee Norris and Mick Chillage were moth-balling Autumn Of Communion for a while, letting other interests carry them forward? One could surmise that after seeing them release not one, but two retrospectives. The first came at the end of their self-titled numbered series, so that made sense. Then in 2018 came Moonstreams, consolidating some twenty CD's worth of AoC music. If that isn't a definitive cap on a body of work, I don't know what is. So naturally, Lee and Mick just kept on releasing more albums in the following years, two in 2019 alone. Gads, lads, I can't keep pace with all this, gettin' picky-choosy about some items. That Folk Etymology on Neotantra sure triggers my FOMO, but I think I'll go with Zosimus Alchemista on Fantasy Enhancing instead, as it looks to have more music for my money's worth.

Also, the title alone made me curious of what it might be all about. It seems like a Latin phrase, “Zosimus” perhaps even Roman in origin, but I couldn't recall if there was a 'Z' in the Latin alphabet. I asked a friend who knows more about these things, to which he replied:

“[The Latin alphabet] has 21 letters -- the "missing" ones are J, U, W, Y, and Z. But the V character can be a U, W, or Y depending on usage. And J and I are the same letter, make a Y sound at the beginning of a word and a long e sound everywhere else. And in some circumstances a soft 's' is used that kind of sounds like a z.”

Thanks, Ish'! That's more info than I'll ever need!

Sleuthing a little more, Zosimus Alchemista is most likely a reference to a Greek-Egyptian named Zosimos Of Panapolis, a Gnostic mystic who was one of the earliest recorded practitioners of alchemy. And now that I know that, I can't not see a beaker in the cover art (was it their intent?). Why Mick and Lee would find musical inspiration in this chap, I haven't a clue. Perhaps interest in his Gnosticism? They have shown fascination with ancient, obscure science-based faiths.

ANYHOW, the music. I don't want to say this album encompasses a lot of AoC's oeuvre, because they've covered acres of ground together, but it honestly does encompass much of what I've heard from the duo. The retro-leaning ambient techno (Keys Of Mercy, Letters To Theosebeia), the pastoral ambient (Zosimus Alchemista), the mysterious, spaced-out detours (Who Goes There?), the brief ear-wormy hooks, and some body-groovin' electro (Divine Water). Two tracks even got the EP treatment on Móatún 7, a first for AoC . There's a fair bit of stop-start song-writing in these five tracks, unsurprising given their lengthy runtimes, but at no point do they grow tedious. If you're late to Autumn Of Communion, Zosimus Alchemista does a solid job of summing up their various sonic strengths.

Oh, and I needn't feel FOMO over Folk Etymology, for I've already MO'd on it.

The Future Sound Of London - Yage 2019

fsoldigital.com: 2019

There had to be an end to all the back-catalogue material FSOL's been churning out for the past fifteen years (holy cow!). After nine volumes of From The Archives, plus six and a half sessions of Environments, it seems Dougans and Cobain are finally moving onto their next venture of future sound creations. And this new phase shall be... remix albums of old singles! Eh? Eh...? Oh c'mon, you know you want it.

As most of their early singles already were remix albums, I wasn't initially sold on the idea. How many more 'paths' could they take these compositions, after all? Turns out, at least a few more, but what initially got me to finally bite was this particular item, Yage 2019.

'Yage' can mean many things, depending how for down the FSOL rabbit-hole you're willing to go. For most it's the pseudonym Cobain and Dougans use as the sound engineer on all their works. Myself, I know it goes way back to their Earthbeat days, where they released an EP as Yage called Fuzzy Logic, and even put out a debut album in 2008 (The Woodlands Of Old). It was with this in mind that I thought we might be in for some additional Yage material on Yage 2019, but no, it's simply a remix album of the tune Yage off Dead Cities. Wait, that never got a single release. What gives?

Not that I want to throw out any wild theories or guesses here, but it wouldn't surprise me if Yage was slotted for EP consideration like My Kingdom and We Have Explosives, but fell through when FSOL's Virgin deal ended. Makes me wonder if any of these new rubs have been idling on harddrives for decades, though I figure such a thing would have appeared on Archives or Environments before-hand.

In any event, if you don't remember Yage, it's that track with the expansive, cascading, shimmering synths, all manner of psychedelic harmonics, clanging sitars, industrial flutes, operatic chants, and that bassline that I can only describe as a heavily manipulated didgeridoo. Basically, a remarkable piece of sample collage that sounds at once primal and futuristic, like discovering an ancient rainforest civilization with space-age technology. Where on earth (and beyond!) can FSOL take this track?

A lot of funky, thrashy, psychedelic places, turns out. Yage 2019 mostly follows a pattern of a more experimental piece followed by a version with mostly familiar sounds from the original, keeping things nicely varied as the album plays out. I can't say every track is a winner, the tune Voodoo Doll seemingly more interested in playing homage to Hendrix rather than maintaining the Yage vibe. And leave it to a Humanoid Rebuild to go as deep in the minimal techno hole as a project like this would allow.

Still, there's plenty of familiar FSOL twists and turns throughout that should interest long-time fans of the duo, even if Yage wasn't the most obvious option for a modern remix album.

ASC - The Waves

Silent Season: 2019

I've already blagged on about the wild notion that ASC has racked up multiple ambient albums. Heck, I was astounded by the few he'd released by 2015's Fervent Dream, and Mr. Clements hasn't stopped, pretty much every long-player of his now exploring beatless music. At first I thought, well, that's just what he releases through Silent Season. Surely whatever gets promoted via his own Auxiliary brings the d'n'b or even dub techno (as you do), but nope. You have to go to labels like Horo and Samurai Music to find that (not to mention the oodles of ASC EPs still delivering the broken-beat business abroad).

All well and good then, James finding multiple outlets for his various muses now. I'm not that surprised his past decade of music-making has led to this. No, what's flummoxing my brainpan now is somehow, someway, ASC has become Silent Season's lone Ambient Guy.

And you may ask, how is that possible? There's plenty of artists on the label that offer chill dronescapes with their dub techno beats. Absolutely there are, but in all that time, no other artist has released as many LPs of straight-up ambient music, and nothing but straight-up ambient music. That officially makes ASC their Ambient Guy, all the more remarkable considering James had been a fairly dedicated jungle guy before hooking up with Silent Season.

The Waves marks his sixth outing with the label now, this time an exploration of all things aquatic. Well, maybe not all things, but a pretty good range of regions. From the oceanic surface of the Surface Blue, the the blackest depths of the Hadal Zone, trenches deeper than the abyssal plain. What unfathomable horrors dwell in such unforgiving regions, such that not even the dreaded hagfish wanders forthwith? Slugs, mostly. Some shrimp, probably. Plus that one show-off fish that survives where nothing that size should. Always that one fish...

The music within does impart a sense of gently drifting through various wonders and splendours. From surveying towering Seamounts, to foraging through a mysterious Kelp Forest. Even making one feel nestled within the mechanical confines of a deep sea probe in Echo Location, all the while strange, lovely, bio-luminescent critters float by. Elsewhere, pieces like Nautical Depths, Marine Layer, and Ocean Shadow imparts feelings of isolation, lost adrift in an endless void, but not so cold as space drone goes. No, you still feel the warm embrace of life all around you, but just out of sight, only detectable by those with senses adapted to this aquatic realm. Oh, what wondrous creatures we may see in such- Ahh! A vampire squid!

So another excellent album of ambient from ASC. It almost seems too easy for him now. Is it just a higher batting average because these albums come out on Silent Season? A case of a prestigious label getting the best of what an artist can offer because of the associative rep? May need to scope out his Auxiliary outings to confirm.

Ambidextrous - Vision By Zero

Neotantra: 2019

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh me. When last I talked up Ambidextrous (also the first time), I made mention of wanting his Carpe Sonum Records album Geek Mythology, and now I've done missed my chance, the CD selling out. Sure, I can always pick up a digital version, but man, I never thought Carpe Sonum would run out of stock. On a typical ambient techno label, limited runs are often the norm, interest in the genre remaining rather niche to this day. Carpe Sonum though, they always have copies available through their Bandcamp. Some Autumn Of Communion associated stuff from way back, an Aythar and Motionfield release, that's about it for stock going dry. Maybe I need to get on that drøn CD before it's too late!

I bring this up because in the short time since I reviewed Echoes Of Science (two years is a short time, yes?), it feels like Nick Zavriev's stock has significantly risen. It's certainly deserved, Ambidextrous doing a retro ambient techno stylee that sounds quite modern on the production front. It also explains why Geek Mythology sold out on a label where sold out CDs are rare, so by gosh, y'all better get on anything else released under the Ambidextrous banner before they run out too. Oh no, a release on Neotantra now, where the colour-gradient nature of their cover art triggers one's OCD? The FOMO is real!

Jokes aside, I was quite excited to hear Vision Of Zero, enamoured by Echoes Of Science as I was. Oddly, I've kind of drawn a blank on that album now, maybe over my pining for Geek Mythology ever since. In any case, that has little to do with this record, as Vision Of Zero is a different outing compared to those two.

My assumption that Neotantra is the label ambient techno producers go to indulge their experimental side remains confirmed here, as Nick has crafted a beatless affair of subtle ambient pad work and freeform sound collages. Four lengthy tracks make up Vision Of Zero, with the first three almost forming a singular outing in of itself. Seriously, if you aren't paying attention – and the calming nature of these pieces certainly encourages a drifting sense of consciousness – you'll never notice the brief moment of silence marking each transition. There are attributes between them making each unique: the sampled conversations of Where Are You, the backing synth pads having more prominence in Mind Games Arena, the outworldly feel of Unspoken Word. Okay, all these have an 'outwordly feel', like you're wandering realms of lucidity, but more so there than the others.

Which pale compared to Salvador Ali, the nineteen-minute closer. Every piece had an askew, yet tranquil atmosphere about it, but things apparently go pear-shaped at the end of this sonic journey, with spits of harsh static, abrasive dub, disembodied chants, and even klaxons overtaking the gentle ambience struggling to make itself heard. Dammit, and I was having such a lovely dream too.

Burial - Tunes 2011-2019

Hyperdub: 2019

Folks were so anxious to hear a third LP in the wake of Untrue, they didn't realize Burial had low-key released a double-LP's worth of material in the decade since. However, it was scattered about some seven singles, so never thought of as a singular listening experience. If only there was a way to consolidate all that music into such a format. By golly there is!

I kid, but honestly, Tunes 2011-2019 is quite handy for the casual Burial listener. While I'm sure such a compilation is highly redundant for a dedicated follower of Mr. Bevan's music, not everyone has time or interest in getting every EP as they come. Even myself, an individual who quite enjoys (and sure relates to) his post-clubbing come-down urban vibes, only ever sprung for the Rival Dealer EP. I had thought about getting others, even eyed the double-EP option of Street Halo / Kindred on many an occasion. I guess that procrastination paid off in that now I have them all in a single package.

Still, what's the big deal? Just all the singles appropriately aligned in chronological order, right? Been there, done that. Not at all! In fact, things have been arranged such that Tunes Of The '10s plays out like Burial had planned all these EPSs as a double-LP right from the get-go. Just, he needed a bit of an obtuse angle to initially approach it from, before realizing what overarching themes manifested with all these disparate compositions. Or it was just a big ol' coincidence things worked out they way they did.

Basically, each CD serves as its own narrative, disc one the more conceptual of the two. The first half mostly features his ambient and experimental works, and if nothing else, effectively creates a mood of back-alley squalor. Some of it does meander too long (too much field recording dithering in Subtemple), but all of it effectively builds a sense of isolation and loneliness that's only broken free from once the shimmering synths of Nightmarket hit. Then, we're off into the uplifting messaging of the Rival Dealer tracks, with the ol' school garage vibes of Claustro serving a perfect companion piece to them. Why there's even a call-back of sorts, the haunting ambience at the tail end of Hiders having been given expanded exploration in the earlier Beachfires.

By contrast, CD2 is the 'clubbier' of the two, if you could ever call Burial's post-Untrue works club worthy. For sure there are moments where a house groove or 2-step shuffle is in action, but the lengthy, stop-start nature of most of these tracks makes them rather unwieldy for the dancefloor. It's all about the atmosphere anyway. Especially with the final two cuts off the Street Halo EP, Stolen Dog and NYC. Ah, there's that Untrue feels. Wait a minute...

*checks track list again*

Oh, hah! Tune 2011-2019 is in mostly chronological order after all, just reverse. Funny how that worked out. Or a big ol' coincidence.

Purl & protoU - Sub Life

Dronarivm: 2019

Oh my, this is a cross-over event I never even conceived of. Superman meets Spider-Man, sure. The Simpsons meet The Critic, absolutely. Dr. Octagon meets Deltron 3030? Well, I marked out. Purl and protoU though? Like, how did these two even cross paths, much less find time to collaborate on an album? True, Ludvig has had many pairings with musicians this past decade, though mostly remained within his domain of dubby downtempo techno. Sasha, meanwhile, has been dark ambient 4 lyfe, y0'. These are two scenes that almost never cross-pollinate. Yet here we are, a mega team-up extraordinaire of cosmic proportions, and other Stan Lee levels of hyperbole you can imagine.

Even more interesting is this happened on Dronarivm, the first time either have appeared on the ambient and modern classical print. Heck, it's the first time protoU has appeared anywhere other than Cryo Chamber. And while Purl has drifted among many labels (Databloem, Dewtone, Archives, etc.), he'll always be one of Silent Season's key acts in my mind. It's possible Ludvig would migrating to Dronarivm at some point, but seeing Sasha anywhere other than good ol' Cryo blows my mind.

Still, given the contents of Sub Life, I can't imagine this album appearing anywhere else. It certainly fits within the Moscow label's wheel-house, what with the atmospheric treatments and minimalist modern classical touches. It also sounds little of what I'd consider 'traditional' Purl or protoU music – no dense layers of dubby synths or cinematic dronescapes. For sure I can hear elements of both as Sub Life plays, but if I were to do a blind listen, I doubt I'd easily identify them, needing multiple hints getting there. (“Okay, one of these musicians has exclusively released music on Cryo Chamber...” “God Body Disconnect! Because guitars!”)

Five tracks averaging around a dozen minutes each makes up Sub Life, all following a relatively similar path. A moody bit of atmospheric ambient sets the tone, with field recordings and dronescapes creating a sonic setting rich in texture, but not so thick you feel suffocated by your surroundings. A mysterious, desolate valley in Trees And Stones, an open dale in Sub Life, the wind-swept dunes at the shores of a beach in Sacred Fluids, a crisp breeze through a billowing leaves in Recreating The Purpose. All quite lovely pieces of calming tones, sure to ease you into a deep slumber should you doze off to it.

But nay, the main thrust of each piece is a singular featured instrument, improvising away in that modern classical way this sort of music enjoys. You get the piano in Trees And Stones and Morning Light, acoustic guitar in Sacred Fluids, ethereal voices in Sub Life, and even a subtle mix of all three in Recreating The Purpose.

If anything, this album has the feel of a ballet, the two performers gliding among each other in fluid movements. Which is par for the course where Dronarivm is concerned, made more remarkable with the dancers involved.

Toki Fuko - Spring Ray

Silent Season: 2019

Not to get all 'I remember when...' on y'all here, but we truly live in a remarkable era of music consumption. Used to be an album was the same no matter which format you sprung for. It wasn't long before musicians and their labels realized certain formats could hold more music than others, so you'd get 'bonus tracks' on a CD over a record. Then the domain of digital exclusives burst the dams like never before, albums of obscene lengths that no one in their right mind would ever want to listen to in single sittings. Okay, such monstrosities are uncommon, but for those weaned on physical medium, it can come off excessive.

Toki Fuko's debut on Silent Season doesn't go to those extremes, but Spring Ray does have a rather quirky roll-out. The vinyl version contains four takes: the original, Deduction, Outtake, and Reshape. Each eat up one side of a record, making it a double-LP. Meanwhile, the CD features just two tracks of its own, Induction and Spatial Awareness. Whereas the vinyl tracks were about a dozen minutes each, these last a half-hour each. So clearly, exclusive to the CD, though there was room to add at least one of the vinyl cuts too. Why not at least the original? Guess Silent Season wanted each medium to be unique, or maximize sales across all formats, but don't worry! Folks who abstain from one physical item over another (*cough*) can get them all with the digital version!

And how does Spring Ray sound to warrant so many interpretations? The original certainly is in Silent Season's wheel-house, a spacious, dubby outing of laid-back grooves and subtly shifting sounds, a general sense of tranquility while lost wandering among mysterious, moss-covered rainforests. It doesn't seem like much to hang an additional ninety minutes of music off of, but this Toki Fuko (real name Sergey Korotaev), he's a crafty one in his studio.

Deduction keeps things firmly in the Silent Season stylee of chill dub techno, with a bit more urban flair added with subtle samples of city sounds. Outtake has a jazzier vibe going for it, what with distant trumpets and chants, all the while rhythms looser in their swaying groove, and Reshape... Gosh, is this ever a meditative slice of tribal, dubby music. For some reason, I keep thinking Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, even though PWoG only seldom went this chill. I can easily see myself grooving to this outdoors in some primal gathering though, crusties jamming on jembes while chai is brewing nearby.

By contrast, the two thirty minute versions don't have as much to talk about. Induction takes elements of the original and Outtake, and stretches things out for an extended jam, while Spatial Awareness does the same but in dub techno's domain. They're both solid sessions, at no point feeling like Fuko's aimlessly wandering as the tracks play out, even if they can't help but fade into the background. Which given Toki's musical manifesto, may be the point.

Motionfield - Signals

Neotantra: 2019

When I said, “Then suddenly, Motionfield”, I wasn't just talking about his music within my CD collection. The year 2019 saw him release three albums in the span of six months, a remarkable feat considering he'd only released one since his debut on Carpe Sonum Records four years prior (a self-released one at that). Not that Petter Friberg hadn't been productive before. Even in his obscure '00s days, he'd put out at least one album per year. With greater exposure comes greater inspiration (so long as one doesn't suffer from crippling anxiety), a chance to spread your muse abroad. So what better way to do so than offering up albums on the primary movers and shakers of your selected scene?

Actually, it isn't quite right to call Neotantra one of ambient techno's Big Labels in 2019, having just launched and all. For sure it carried a strong pedigree being a sub-label of Fantasy Enhancing, itself an off-shoot of Lee Norris' long running (if somewhat static) Neo Ouija. And as has been abundantly clear on this bloggy-bloog of mine, that's a pretty good pedigree indeed. Sure had to be tempting for many artists to get in at ground zero, especially those looking to establish more presence among dedicated music collectors.

So Motionfield sends his Signals through Neotantra, and according to Yage_2097 of the Discogs Community, it's among the 150 Best Of 2019 of The World's Greatest Ever Electronic Music Albums. Eeh, maybe need to pare that down a little. Misters Jazzual and dove_m have it in their Top 25. Ahh, better.

As for myself, I cannot deny being a little apprehensive going into this. I quite liked Luftrum, and the other albums I've picked up from Motionfield seem to have clear themes behind them. 'Signals' could be anything though, music making for its own sake. When it comes to ambient, that often translates to a lot of ephemeral fluff, pleasant as it plays but never really sticking to the memory membranes after. Well, I certainly don't have to worry about that with Signals 1. Despite a generally tranquil, dubbed-out, almost 'hauntology' backing pad work, that low bass tone always has me adjusting my speakers, lest I royally piss off my neighbours. Signals 7 too, though by the time that one comes on, I'm usually too zonked out on mental bliss to care.

Yeah, Signals is one of those albums that feels almost too calm, ambient music where there's interesting things going on with the drone tone, static glitch, and subtle looping melodies, but man, do I ever zone out on it. Individually, all these Signals are quite lovely, some even inching towards 36 levels of opulent feels (Signals 6, 8, and 10), if not in sheer musical weight.

Unfortunately, as I worried, the lack of a specific theme among these tracks does tend to blend them together, and that's when it can even hold my attention for the duration. Such an odd thing, enjoying an album that doesn't stay with you.

Darren McClure - On Opposites

Neotantra: 2019

I've mentioned before that Darren McClure is something of a label journeyman, almost never releasing more than one item on any given print. The only exception Lord Discogs lists is an EP and a collaborative album with José Soberanes on Éter Editions. So it continues with Neotantra, as obvious a label he'd find his way on as any these days. 'Cause when you're down with the Lee Norris fam', you get all the sweet label bumps. Seriously, someone really ought to create an interconnecting chart with Mr. Norris at the centre of it all, just to discover how far reaching his influence stretches. Like, it wouldn't be Brian Eno levels of convolution, but at least on par with a top tier hip-hop producer.

Anyhow, On Opposites is Mr. McClure's contribution to Neotantra, and I cannot deny, there's little I've heard like how this one plays out. Yeah, yeah, I say that often, but seriously, there's something remarkably unique about this album. Even when I think there's some other producer's influence sneaking in (Strange Slip In Time had my John Beltram triggers flaring), I struggle placing this album in any tidy compartment.

Part of it is there's such diversity going on here, I sometimes forget this is all the work of one man as things play out. Many artists show off musical variety within their LPs, but they typically have a specific aesthetic tying everything together. Darren practically pulls a one-eighty with each track here, a pleasant melodic number followed upon by an experimental dark drone piece. Opposites indeed.

If there's any unifying theme with On Opposites, it's sonic exploration in unknown territory. Not that the sounds Darren uses are terribly unique, but it does feel like I'm excavating some future-shock archaeological discovery. Otaru Box and Strange Slip In Time are bright and spritely, like benign reflections of what once was. Meanwhile, Reflecting and Charmonia feature a low, thrumming pulses, like ancient machinery breathing, as distant airy synth pads paint pictures of a lost civilization farther advanced than we could comprehend. To say nothing of the straight-up field recordings of Snow Lapse, where something is literally being excavated (Geir Jenssen would approve). Elsewhere, Darren shows off his more experimental side, but never indulges things for long, serving more as sonic respites. Yes, even the six-minute long Slow Juno, essentially nothing more than perpetually layering synth drone, and unlike anything else on this album.

Are all of Mr. McClure's albums like this? The couple I've taken in were collaborations (with Porya Hatami and Lee Norris as Memex), so I don't have the strongest frame of reference there. I did dabble some samples of his other releases, but clearly it didn't leave the same impression as On Opposites has. I'm almost afraid to check them out, unsure if they could top the weird, captivating journey this one took me on. While not every track is a winner, it certainly kept my interest in whatever different turn it might take me on.

36 - The Lower Lights

3six Recordings: 2019

Wot d'is, then? Even more 36 music, a double-LP at that? Is there any limit to how much material Dennis Huddleston can kick out anymore? Well, sure there is – he isn't Merzbow or something of the like. If inspiration remains hot, however, may as well continue capitalizing on it.

Unlike most of the other items I've covered from him, this particular album didn't have a particular theme in mind. Rather, it's a series of sonic sketches and ideas explored over a period of a year (an 'audio diary', Dennis called it while releasing them on Patreon), freeform music making at its purest. And you might be thinking, gosh, aren't there a bunch of those already in the 36 discography? Of a sort, sure, like those Version rubs he did for the Sine Dust sessions, but that was still working from an original concept. Nothing of the sort exists with The Lower Lights, each piece created as it came to him, with no thoughts of how it may fit within a broader, thematic album context. Ah, so it's like that Nine Inch Nails Ghosts album, then? Yes, yes it is, Mister somehow talking to me as I write this. I mean, obviously it's not exactly like Ghosts - ain't no harsh guitar tone going on here – but the core approach remains the same.

So seems like a fun concept for an album, and it certainly resulted in plenty of music. When The Lower Lights was initially released, the tracklist was culled down to just ten tracks, making it easier to fit on the spiffy vinyl option. Why let all those sessions go to waste though, so Beneath The Lower Lights gathered up the remaining pieces for a cassette release. And now, with all the music available, here's a nineteen tracker for the digital version. Um, oh dear, that might actually be a bit too much for one sitting.

The thing about 36's music is it can be rather draining. He seldom holds back on laying the emotions on, which can be a turn-off for those who prefer more subtlety in their ambient dronescapes. His albums understand this balancing act quite well, a run of major emotional pieces followed by some downtime to recharge. As these Lower Lights tracks weren't crafted with that in mind, hearing them all play out one after the other, relentlessly bombarding you with sweeping synths, unfortunately grows tiresome. It isn't until the Beneath... pieces that things taper off some, and only three tracks of which I'd consider 'soothing', one of which being the closer Signing Off at number nineteen.

There are variations among all the tracks – some even have rhythms in them! It's just the lack of any structure or narrative in their presentation that leaves me longing for the concise nature of a Void Dance or Black Soma (or even Dreamloops). Which, again, was the point of The Lower Lights' exercise. Maybe should have stuck with separate releases.

Frame - The Journey

Glacial Movements Records: 2019

No way I could resist an album like this. The cover art alone invokes so many sonic possibilities, all of them frigid, remote, isolated, and barren – perfect summer music! And gosh, it looks like the whole label is like this, with familiar names like Rapoon, bvdub, Chihei Hatakeyama, Scanner, and Skare. Hello, my new obsession!

With no frame of reference, I went into this one cold (puns for days!). Doing a little background reading wouldn't have helped much anyway, this being Frame's lone entry within Lord Discogs' tomes. The players involved have been around many, many years though, with releases dating back to the early '90s. Andrea Benedetti was among the earliest adopters of Detroit techno out of Italy, heading up a few labels in support of such sounds at the time. He's also released sporadic material as Sprawl, but it seems DJing has been his primary passion. His Frame partner, Eugenio Vatta, has even less info on his Discogs page, but apparently has worked with Andrea since ye' olden days as well, skint though those releases are.

Apparently Frame is something of a long-running live P.A. project of improvised gigs performed at artsy shows. They never committed anything to CD, figuring the spontaneity of a live performance couldn't be replicated within a studio. That didn't stop them from recording many sessions though, building up a library of material for possible consideration. Thus it turned out with The Journey, an attempt at creating some sort of narrative from these disparate performances.

Ah, a journey as in the journey Andrea and Eugino have taken as Frame over the years? Sort of, but that'd make for a boring concept album. Ah, so a journey to the frozen clime's of our planet, as indicated on the cover art? No, not that either. Going by the tracklist, this is nothing less than a journey to the cosmic reaches of... just our solar system. Well hey, plenty to explore here.

Truthfully though, Frame opts for the ultra-minimalist scenic tour. Often played real quietly too. Things start out rather typically for a dark drone outing, Mercury imparting a foreboding tone, while Venus brings in creepy, echoing rattlers while static hisses in the background. Almost feels like you're in a steamy, sticky hot jungle, which kinda' makes sense for the Hell planet.

Things go extremely minimal after that though. Heck, most of Mars' eight-minute runtime is just a sustained tone (oddly relaxing mood for the War planet). From there, a lot of abstraction, a lot of experimentation, all played impossibly quiet, such that the sounds often fade into whatever background ambience surrounds you. Yes, even when played on headphones – the sound of your own heart beating may be louder than some of this stuff. It's not until Neptune that something harmonic emerges, with synth pads gradually building, while Pluto And Charon goes more industrial. And hey, The Arrival finally gives us some actual melody! Hoo boy, what a journey to get to it though.

Segue - The Island

Silent Season: 2019

I can't help but feel that Silent Season's shine has diminished some. Oh, not the quality of their releases, they remain top-notch. It feels ages ago, though, since the little dub techno label out of the Canadian west coast broke out of the underground thanks to a spiffy Resident Advisor spotlight, Segue's own Pacifica leading the charge. For a time after, Silent Season couldn't drop an album without everyone wanting in on that action, making nabbing a physical copy something of a mad scramble. Not so much anymore, but don't worry, all ye' investors of the label's older catalogue: those CDs still command upwards of three-digits on the Discogs Marketplace.

It was with this framing some couldn't help but think Segue's third album with the label was something of an attempt at re-capturing that initial hype. Never mind that journey over the Coastal Mountains, Jordan is taking his muse back to the Pacific waters, to another of those charming little island one finds sprinkled about the Strait Of Georgia, tide waters nipping at its steep shores. There's trees, and blue skies, and gosh, doesn't The Island art remind you of Pacifica? None of that sepia-toned alpine cloud cover, nosiree.

I kid, as musically, Mr. Sauer's come quite a ways from those days. Melody's been creeping ever more noticeably and gracefully into his dub techno output, to such a point that it practically dominates over the deep under-belly of his tracks. Opener Sunrise Over Malaspina leads with more of those vintage Segue synths, dubbed out with plenty of tasteful reverb, soon joined by a soft rhythm and sprinkly arps. Shore Breeze keeps the mellow vibes going, sparse synths backed by melancholic pads and minimalist crunchy static. Mirage quickens the pace, but the beats remain soft and... is silty a way to describe a rhythm? Like stepping in the beach where the water's just receded, as the cosmic vista above you is revealed in quickly approaching twilight. Yeah, some music is just best described in simile.

As should be abundantly clear by now, The Island is more of that Segue stylee I'm sure everyone reading this already loves. It's maybe not quite as 'floaty' as Over The Mountains or 'functionalist' as Pacifica, but if you liked those albums, you'll like The Island. The only two cuts on here I found my own interest drifting on was Beacon Point and Midnight Dip, tracks that were more about dub techno sound design than anything my mammal brain could latch onto (the former too plodding for any repeat plays). The ship is nicely righted for the final two tunes in Galaxies (so spacious!) and Deep Current (so chill!).

Which leaves me in a conundrum regarding Segue's larger discography. I like what I hear from him, but getting hard-copies of it all isn't exactly easy anymore. Do I keep holding out for a chance deal, or just bite the bullet on his Bandcamp? Ooh, four of his albums, including Pacifica, that I don't have yet? Tempting...

Mick Chillage - Epinaz

Neotantra: 2019

Of course Mick Chillage would end up on Neotantra. Heck, if we include his work with Lee Norris as Autumn Of Communion, Mick's up to four LPs on this label. Keep in mind there's only been twenty-five proper albums released thus far, making him by far the most prolific artist there. What's scary is that's but a drop in the bucket compared to how many albums he's self-released this past year, many of them containing single, long-form tracks. I sense all these lockdowns gave Mr. Chillage ample time to explore as much experimental ambient music as he could handle, and then some.

Yes, we're in experimental territory with Epinaz, which mostly means fiddling about archaic equipment crafting abstract sounds and tones. There are some welcome melodic moments too, and even a few sequenced bleeps and blorps that could constitute rhythms, but if you don't have much of an ear for '70s weirdo synth music, you can probably pass this one. Heck, there are portions of this album where there's barely sound at all, the only noise seemingly the feedback hum generated by cables.

I honestly thought opener Zond was missing portions of its twenty-four minutes. It starts innocently enough with eerie cosmic synth tones harking to the experimental side of krautrock. It eventually mellows out, and you figure the composition will transition into a meditative piece. Then, almost dead silence, save some impossibly distant mechanical clanking and that feedback hum. I didn't even know this was going on when I played it on my regular speakers, Zond's ultra-minimalism blending in with the background ambience of my environment. It wasn't until I played this on headphones that I discovered what was going on.

Eventually a charming, sparkly arp lifts things out of abeyance, a simple rhythm joining the fray. Now, you think, this track is going places, but it all recedes again, returning us back to nothing but analogue fuzz. It's all a bit of a frustrating listen, especially with a four minute fade-out of near nothingness. Kind of hard to keep one invested in the rest of the album when nearly a third of it amounts to a big tease.

Carry on we do though, and Mick gets into more sonic oddities in the following set of tracks. At least there's more activity in them, and even some lush pad work in Prophets Dream and I've Seen Things. Whether you mind the atonal bloopy things going on around them will likely boil down to personal preference (I don't mind them ...much).

Short track Norge keeps things simple with synth pads, then Everything Ends takes us out with a blissy ten-minute outing that's more reminiscent of Mick's ambient techno works than anything inspired by the '70s. Almost worth the price of admission alone. Still, while there are some interesting things about the rest of Epinaz, I don't see many getting past that opener Zond to hear it. But in this age of streaming, who listens to full albums anyway? *cough*

Si Matthews - Decoding Signals

Fantasy Enhancing: 2019

It's sometimes a struggle starting these Si Matthews reviews. Albums and artists with rich histories or crazy stories are fun to write, and Mr. Matthews had a humdinger right out the gate. It was a tale of perseverance and triumph, overcoming odds and seeing one's hopes and dreams coming to fruition. Okay, I'm overselling, but the background behind his debut album Tale Of Ten Worlds was a nice feel-good story, one that's honestly hard to top. Since then, Si's kept a steady pace, and while one can glean some sort of narrative out his discography, it hasn't been as captivating as that opening chapter. Is it even necessary writing such a thing? Probably not, but oh, it makes starting a review so much easier.

After a strong showing with the double-LP outing Across The Ether on Carpe Sonum Records, Si returned to the single CD format with his debut on Fantasy Enhancing. He's mostly stuck with this label since, working with Sven Kössler on multiple releases. That gives Decoding Signals at least one talking point, being the last time Mr. Matthews put out a solo work. Highly unlikely it'll be the final time though, Si the sort of chap undoubtedly burbling with ideas worth exploring down the road.

Decoding Signals feels like an introduction to Si's stylee for those just joining him on Fantasy Enhancing. Which is weird, since I'm pretty sure folks following this label are mostly migrants from Lee Norris' other prints, including ...txt, where Si released Aurora. He isn't that far below the associative surface of what would be considered the Lee Norris Iceberg Theory (or whatever that current meme is), is what I'm saying. If Decoding Signals is somehow the first Si Matthews album a few have come across though, it's as solid an entry point as any.

Mostly, we're still in Si's sweet spot of retro-leaning ambient techno, though with more emphasis on the 'techno' part than previous albums. Not that he's lacked in the rhythm department in the past, but the basslines just feel more prominent here, decent body movers for music that's more about head-space trips. Okay, not all the tracks are like this. Opener Signal 1 goes in on the softer pitter-patter of IDM while spaced-out synths transmit from the deep cosmos. Meanwhile, follow-up 3rd Planet does one of those lo-o-o-ong Berlin-School builds, such that you wonder if that's the whole track (ahh, Vivona flahsbacks!). Halfway through the fourteen-minute long track though, a steady beat comes in, changing the vibe of the tune to something more of a laid-back cruise than an urgent lift-off.

The remaining tracks don't take nearly so long in getting to the business end, some going heavier with the space-hop (Syntagma), others deeper into the Detroit futurism (Automation). And ooh, is final track Signal 2 every airy, angelic, as though being lifted to heaven. Not an uncommon way to end a space-themed album, but something seems more poignant here. *reads liner notes* Ah, yes indeed.

Czarface & Ghostface - Czarface Meets Ghostface

Silver Age: 2019

If any of the Wu needed an official full-length, super-sized cross-over event with Czarface, it'd be Ghostface. Similarity in names aside, Dennis Coles' alias has seen many iterations over the years, including multiple outlandish tales of origin. I don't know if the Ghostface we get is a whole new version or a returning one, though I could see the ghetto vigilante of 36 Seasons working here, as that one had a rather comic book origin story itself (lab experiments gone wrong, never gets old). Does make me wonder who else from the Wu might show up for a Czarface cross-over such as this, with a comic-ready backstory. Bobby Digital? Golden Arms? The Genius as one of those big-headed ultra-beings? Method Man as... Bluntman?

That isn't to say Czar Meets Ghost is some epic narrative of the two combining forces to take on injustices inflicted upon the streets and beyond. I mean, that would be dope as all Hell, but the group helmed by Inspectah Deck, Esoteric, and 7L still have yet to fully capitalize on the concept, so why would they here? Or maybe they have, and I just haven't heard it yet. There's been two more Czarface records since the MF Doom cross-over that I've yet to check out, some even coming with an included comic book. Ooh, The Odd Czar Against Us has a Days Of Future Past homage on the cover. 'Tis tempting...

For a supposed cross-over event though, Face n' Face doesn't feature as much Ghost' as you'd expect. Heck, the Killah is totally absent in a number of tracks, which I guess makes this more of a Czarface album, with Ghostface appearing on about two-thirds of it. Like, he's an apparition, or something (especially at the end of Masked Superstars, almost invoking 12 Reasons To Die). It's great hearing him when he does, his presence dragging this project deep into the slums of Shaolin.

Credit also given to 7L for coming up beats that suit the street-soul Ghost is well known for. Like, holy cow, that Mongolian Beef cut at the end, already a remarkably grimey bit of business, but the ganky soul-funk that bridges everyone's verses is permanently seared into my grey matter. Elsewhere, Morning Ritual features a rhythm and gnarly bassline that sounds like its constantly tripping over itself, suitable for a tune about sunrise regrets. The King Heard Voices brings even more great bass-stomp, while Listen To The Color has plenty of room to switch things up from gritty funk to slummy soul (no Ghost on that one tho'). This strong run of final tracks more than makes up for the album's somewhat sluggish start. Not that it takes long to get there, Czarface Meets Ghostface a rather short LP.

Still, 'tis better to get in with the dope cuts and out leaving them wanting more, than linger far beyond the concept needs. Even if that concept is nothing more than Deck and Eso' hanging out with GFK down in the slums for a late-night indulgence of hot noodle soup.

Ikjoyce - Cosmonaut

Neotantra: 2019

I didn't think it'd take me this long in returning to Neotantra, given how many of their releases I've bought since reviewing Wurrm's album. The offshoot of Fantasy Enhacing (itself an offshoot Neo Ouija) recently celebrated its twenty-fifth album, and a pattern of intent has definitely formed. A colourful pattern, wherein one must get them all, lest the gradient's purity be diminished. Erm, not that I'm implying some psychological manipulation in Neotantra's marketing, but I cannot deny it is a tad triggering for OCD types. *cough* *scratch of head* *tug of collar*

But no, the pattern I've seen form with Neotantra is in their choice of talent exposure. For sure you have the usual suspects within Lee Norris' orbit (Mick Chillage, Ambidextrous, Futuregrapher), but many new and unknown names too. Well, maybe not unknown to the savviest of heads out there, but certainly those with scant Discoggian presence, some of which are getting a nice little visibility bump by being on Neotantra.

That isn't to say this here Ikjoyce lacks for material within Lord Discogs' tomes. Dude's been highly prolific this past half-decade, over twenty albums to his name, plus another dozen assorted EPs and whatnot. Aside from the album Selene and this here Cosmonaut, it's almost entirely been self-released by Mr. Joyce, which is cool if you don't mind the hustle, but does limit how much exposure you can get. He was a frequent contributor to Electronic Music Philosphy's series of 'challenge compilations', where producers were tasked with creating a track with specific features (ie: Short Drones, Plunderphonics, You Can't Have Too Much Reverb, 808 Cowbell). I did fire up Ikjoyce's Spotify for a quick dive, and despite dozing off for seven hours after starting it, the streaming service still hadn't cycled through all that he has there.

I guess that's my roundabout way of saying that, despite 'trying' to take in his body of work, I'm still coming into Cosmonaut a little cold, unsure how this stacks up to the greater Ikjoyce discography. What I can say is this album has a bit of an old school, drone ambient vibe going for it, which is at times lovely, but also rather dithering, depending on the track.

The opener A Warm Embrace, and longest piece at over thirteen minutes goes mostly atonal and metallic, gradually letting the harmonious 'warmth' in. The subsequent tracks are more minimalist, though All Is Calm is quite tranquil in its sparse tones. It's not until track four, the first of two titular parts on Cosmonaut, that we get into some 'planetarium' ambient vibes, a lovely ten-minute piece that makes all the lead-up worth the wait.

The remaining tracks maintain that spacey vibe, Orbital Manoeuvres and Interception even getting a rhythmic pulse in their synth work. Cosmonaut ends on another blissy titular rendition, clearly making this album one of two halves. I quite liked the second, but some may prefer the more experimental first. Or like the little Mexican girl says, why not both?

36 - C45 Dreamloops 5-6

3six Recordings: 2019

Am I a hypocrite, liking 36's brand of overtly emotional music so much? I've gone on and on about how obvious sentimentality can turn other forms of music into hokey tripe (Dutch eurotrance the most egregious example), so you'd think I'd have similar thoughts on Mr. Huddleston's brand of ambient. This is a genre built around nuance and subtlety, freeform music making and abstract concepts. For sure Dennis does this too, but when he goes big on the emotional front, it's all in. Yet slide an overwrought breakdown and generic trance beat under some of these melodies, and I'd likely be rolling my eyes to the back of my head.

I honestly don't have an answer for this. Whatever it is that Dennis does with his compositions, it just hits that perfect sweet spot for yours truly, sometimes pushing close to the brink but never crossing that threshold. It's like the difference between perfectly crafted cheese, and a lump of dairy product that'll give you the lactose-runs. I suppose if a 36 track does get to be too much, I can always wash the palette with another D#m session from Michael Mantra.

But nay, I'm far from reaching that point with these Dreamloops. Even after four sessions and ninety minutes, the concept hasn't grown stale or run out of musical ideas. Yet here's Dreamloop 5, with a lovely three-chord sequence of layered pads that feels like the cosmos itself is doing meditative breathing, all the while a gentle piano plays along in support. That may sound New Agey, but something about the 36 stylee transcends such hokum, never sounding cliched or forced. And got'dang, when those airy choir pads emerge, escalating the emotional resonance within this piece, how can one not feel as though your soul's getting a good cleansing scrub? This keeps going for a full twenty-two and a half minutes, never growing tired or repetitive, only leaving this person feeling strangely refreshed in mind and soul. Hey, it takes a lot for me to get these sort of feels from music, and by gum, I ain't gonna hold back on the hyperbolic praise when it does.

I'm honestly rather thankful Dennis decides to tone things down a little for Dreamloop 6. There's definitely still an emotional undercurrent here, but doesn't quite build the same way the previous Dreamloops do. We're mostly in drone ambient territory here, synth pads harmonized in a warbly-warped sort of way (the authentic tape sound!). Different tones and timbre come and go throughout, the sparsest of piano occasionally heard beneath stretched melodies. And geez'it, that final, melancholy fade-out, sounding like a dirge coming from the catacombs of Cryo Chamber. How did this piece turn so dark and lonesome at the end? Considering how sparse the actual musical ideas are between these two Dreamloops, this EP sure takes one on quite the ride of emotions.

Perhaps a sad conclusion is fitting though, as this concludes 36's Dreamloops sessions. For now...