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.

Cryostasis - Between Static And Distance

...txt: 2017

It shouldn't come as a shock, but I don't necessarily listen to every CD I get the moment I get it. This endless project of mine has created something of a psychological tick, wherein I'd rather let my anticipation build and build and build until said album's properly, orderly, alphabetically-determined listening time arrives. And this one, I've been waiting on for nearly three years now! Like, I knew I was getting it the moment I saw the cover-art. There's just something about seeing radio receivers in silhouette that tugs at the emotions in me. Maybe it's from that one episode of Cosmos that had similar beauty shots, with Vangelis playing in the background. Yeah, that's the stuff. Erm, but that album title, tho'. When I decided I would review my remaining items after all, that shuffled all 'B' acquisitions into future reference, so the Cryostasis debut had to sit pat for so many months, just so many months.

I won't lie though, I also had some hesitation going into this one. For Cryostasis is a side-project of Si Matthews, whom had yet to capitalized on the potential folks assumed was ahead of him following his debut of Tales Of Ten Worlds. Not that his follow-up on ...txt, Aurora, was weak, it just didn't light the discourse up quite the same way Tales did. I sense the ship's righted as of late thanks to his double-LP effort Across The Ether, but there was a shaky in-between there, from which this album sprung forth during. And the fact his partner in this project, Aoide, is a near-blank within Lord Discogs' archives doesn't help matters. No frame of reference to compare and contrast, how their styles mesh and mingle. All I can do is take the album the ol' fashioned way: on its own merits.

And for an ambient techno album on that vintage Fax+ tip, it's fine. There's a spacey vibe going on here, with a loose theme of exploration beyond our solar system. Tracks mostly run in the a nine-to-eleven minute range, plenty of time to weave a nice sonic tapestry without over-indulging it. Along with feeling retro without feeling dated, one of Si's strongest attributes is his use of subtly building rhythms, and tracks like Another Perfect Earth, Pulsating With Life, and The Destiny Of Man (fifteen minutes to work it helps) offer this superbly. Elsewhere, things go more subdued and reflective, with softer beats and charming acid melodies, or entirely beatless at all (-455°F).

Sounds like all the audio catnip for these ears I could hope for, right? Then why doesn't Between Static And Distance stick with me after it plays? It honestly feels like the same issue I had with Aurora, missing that little extra something that separates 'good' from 'great'. Or maybe my expectations were just too damn high again, which happens with greater frequency now that we're utterly spoiled for musical options. Ambient techno consumers are no longer the forlorn beggars of electronic music.

Si Matthews - Across The Ether

Carpe Sonum Records: 2018

Been an age since I last talked up Si Matthews. Chap seemed like one of those promising new talents the current era of Fax+ influenced artists who were gonna' lead us into a post-Namlook era. He's taken a 'slow and steady' approach to his release rate though, settling on about an album a year rather than the twenty-dozen items some of his peers churn out. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess, but what are we racing for? Can making music be considered a race, against the limited time we have to create all that our muses allow us to express? Can the sonic soul even be sated, when there's infinite possibilities before us, countless that which have yet to be discovered? Just some thoughts as I stare into the Pillars Of Creation for the umpteenth time.

I felt Si's sophomore album, Aurora, was a good enough follow-up to his applauded debut Tales Of Ten Worlds, if a bit slight in content compared to the richness offered in the former. No chance of similar feelings with his next album, Across The Ether, a whopping double-LP outing from Mr. Matthews! Interestingly, this is one of the few times Carpe Sonum Records has ever released a 2CD album, and remained a lone example of the format until just this year's release of Sven Kössler's Bck t· Lvng. Coincidentally, Si and Sven have been working together this past year, though their release on Fantasy Enhancing wasn't a double-LP, so I can only imagine should they also cook up something for Carpe Sonum, it'll be nothing less than a 4CD box-set! Maybe wait until they can nab the impossible catalogue number SEIZE-XXL though. (yes, I find it hilarious that the first Carpe Sonum double-LP release is SEIZE-XL)

CD1 is subtitled Ambient, and that's what you're gonna' get, by g'ar. Nine tracks of spaced-out, cosmic synth pads with occasional splashes of soft rhythms. Real planetarium stuff, in other words, which shouldn't be of any surprise with the head of the Eagle Nebula plastered across the cover art. Admittedly it can get rather samey throughout, though folks diving into this style of ambient music aren't looking for much variation either, so it works out. Except for In Stone, a minimalist bleepy ambient techno track that sounds like it drifted in from the FireScope label.

I initially thought it had drifted in from CD2 though, what with its subtitle being Beats and all. And yeah, th'ar be beats here, though not of the IDM-leaning variety B12's print is known for. I mean, this is still a Fax+ influenced artist releasing music on a Fax+ inspired label, so the rhythms are mostly in service of gentle, spacey pad melodies with light dubby effects. And that's fine, another serving of familiar sounds that release the exact amount of endorphins I hope to get from cover art like this. Across The Ether is ambient techno that goes down like a nice cup of hot chocolate. In SPACE!

Si Matthews - Aurora

...txt: 2017

After years floating in the periphery, Si Matthews' mythical Tales Of Ten Worlds finally came to light in 2015. Alright, 'mythical' is laying it on a little thick, but it was a good album for fans of '90s ambient techno, the sort of release folks from back when would constantly name-drop as 'must have'. As it'd been gestating in cryostasis before seeing daylight, however, Mr. Matthews had plenty of time to tweak it to perfection upon release. What would he do for a follow-up though? One doesn't drop a debut album that makes it onto 'Best Ambient Of 2015' lists without some expectations in the sophomore effort. Maybe not so much in this particular scene, where commercial aspirations are comical, but a little preconceived hype never hurt no one.

Okay, it does, in that it ofttimes leaves one wanting in first impressions. Two years after Tales Of Ten Worlds, we finally got Aurora on ...txt. Given the work rate of some of Si's peers, that's quite the gap between albums, with nary a contributed compilation track elsewhere in between. Yeah, not everyone can be like Lee Norris or Mick Chillage with their fifty albums per year (roughly), but I suppose not everyone can dedicate their whole life to constantly releasing music either. It don't pay the bills so good as years past.

Still, with all that time between albums, Mr. Matthews no doubt had plenty in his reserves, tweaking and pruning material for a magnum opus on par with- wait, Aurora is only five tracks long? They're long tracks, the shortest around ten and a half minutes, the longest over eighteen minutes, but that still feels rather slight given the time between LPs. I was expecting more, and I can't imagine me being the only one.

What we do get is five distinct pieces of spacey, dreamy ambient techno that gradually evolve as they play out, never losing the plot along the way. Opener A New Star In The Night Sky is the soft, chill sort that has me thinking of stargazing on a Balearic beachfront. A Portal works a simmering, bleepy vibe as it cruises along comet tails. Aurora itself does the ambient/New Age thing that has me thinking classic Iasos. Celestial Orientation has Apollo-era ambient techno in mind, with dubby, bleepy rhythms from the book of vintage Biosphere, though never going so cold. Twin Pines brings things back to modern sensibilities in its use of soft pads and velvety timbre, wrapping you in a comfy, snuggly blanket of sonic bliss.

As for the airs of petty self-entitlement in this review, I'm just laying my personal bias right in front. It took me a bit to get into Aurora, for a whole litany of stupid reasons not the fault of Si Matthews. Now that I've actually given it the time it deserves, I do enjoy it, but man, was it ever hard letting go of those initial biases. Don't let them control you too!

Si Matthews - Tales Of Ten Worlds

Carpe Sonum Records: 2015

I feel like I’ve seen Si Matthews’ name all over the place these past couple years, but the interwebs suggests otherwise. He has scant presence with Lord Discogs, barely any mention with Last.fm, and a rather minimal amount of Soundcloud uploads. If we’re gauging based on musical output alone (which I typically do), he’s among the most obscure ambient techno artists currently out there. Yet I don’t get that sense from Mr. Matthews at all, not one bit. What gives?

Apparently Tales Of Ten Worlds has been floating around in some capacity for about a decade now, initially being sent to Fax +49-69/450464 as a demo. Given the label’s insane rate of output, I’ve no doubt many aspiring producers inspired by Pete Namlook’s seminal print sent him material for consideration. It’s somewhat surprising then, that Mr. Kaulmann passed on Si Matthews’ demo, though his reasoning was sound enough. FAX+, y’see, just wasn’t doing the sort of spacey, minimalist ambient techno as offered here anymore. Then again, no one was supporting this sound in the mid-‘00s, at least with any significant promotion behind them. It’d be at least another half-decade before the calling allure of old-school ambient techno started its retro return within scene discourse. That didn’t stop whispers circulating among FAX+ die-hards though, of a mint, vintage sounding album existing, one that could have been deemed a new classic if Papa Pete hadn’t passed on it. And while Tales Of Ten Worlds would still likely never have had a second chance with Namlook’s label (just not jazzy enough?), someone would probably have picked it up eventually if Mr. Matthews found the right print to give it a shot. Fortunately for Si, Carpe Sonum Records filled that need in branding itself as the spiritual successor to FAX+, including releasing music that adhered to the label’s ‘90s style. Enter ancient quote about patience being a virtue.

Obviously then, if you’ve a hankering for ambient techno of old, you’ll dig Tales Of Ten Worlds. This is some truly classic sounding stuff, the likes of which had mostly fallen out of style as the ‘90s wound down. In some ways, I’m not sure it’s significantly rebounded yet, but clearly there’s enough of a market now that this album ranked high among many Best Of Ambient lists for 2015. And deservedly so, synth pad melodies exploring the cosmic bizarre while grounding the listener with soft rhythms and ethereal sequencers. Some are mysterious and subtle in composition (World 1, World 3, World 5), others are more peppy and benign (World 2, World 8). There’s moody ten-plus minute long pieces (World 4, World 7), plus brief sonic doodles (World 6, World 10). And what ambient techno album would be complete without a melding of all this in World 9?

Maybe not the most detailed description above, but Tales Of Ten Worlds doesn’t require much. It’s a modest collection of uncomplicated tracks, with enough personality to stand distinct and unique in a contemporary scene. Top tales all told, then.