Gel-Sol - K8ema

Psychonavigation Records: 2010

I've already used up all my Gel-Sol background preamble and tasty tidbits of trivia in the review of IZ. What else is there to talk about regarding Mr. Reichel? This is the reason I'm going through my music collection in 'Album' alphabetical order, to keep each review relatively fresh and unique without falling into repetitive grinds. Typically I have enough time and space between artist albums that I'll have dug up some new details about their career, or find a fresh angle to approach a review from. And had I had both IZ and K8ema when they were new, I wouldn’t have this problem now, an entire letter buffering me between the two albums. Right, that letter is ‘J’, the puniest letters in my collection not named ‘Q’, but at least it’d be something. Man, why couldn’t I have stumbled upon Gel-Sol way back when. I had every opportunity to do so. But nay, tech-plodstep was more pressing to review in ye’ olde age of 2008.

Fortunately, the liner notes of K8ema have provided some details I wasn't privy to going into IZ. Yeah, yeah, maybe I should have read those before writing that review, but I'm trying to maintain the illusion of writing these shortly after I play 'em.

Anyhow, both of these albums were apparently written for Mr. Reichel’s nieces, IZ for an Izabella, and this here K8ema for one Katelyn Mae. D’aww. The first, I can hear, as IZ definitely had a lot of sentimentality flowing through its various ambient pieces. K8ema, on the other hand, is stated as a natural evolution of IZ, which means more interesting compositions, though not as much pleasantness little girls might like. In fact, this album is something of a mish-mash of various jam sessions Gel-Sol engaged with other Seattle producers, often using MIDI generators in crafting long, non-looping sequences of bleeps, zoops, diddlidoos, and other unpronounceable electronic sounds. Some tracks get very near musique concrete levels of non-musicality, but they always find a core of a theme to centre around. It’s a style of songcraft that isn’t too dissimilar to the abstract pieces Tangerine Dream were performing when they first started fiddling with synthesizers (and took me a stupid amount of time to realize that).

This helps make K8ema a more engaging playthrough than the uniformly similar IZ. You still have the pleasant synth pad pieces like Abyssinia, The Mechanical Garden, and Lost, but also sci-fi weirdness in tracks like Glade and Gel S’hole. Other pieces feel that krautrock psychedelic muse a’callin’ (Halo Of Stars, Energy Pools), while others aim for blissful peace vibes (Spirit Guide, Panta Rhei). And, just to remind you that this is a dedication to a wee waif, there’s an untitled final lullaby that sounds like it’s played on a electronic toy harpsichord. Double d’aww.

Really, the whole album plays out like one long song of various electronic improvisations, constantly fooling you where a‘proper’ track ends and begins. Fans of tripped-out FSOL definitely apply within.

Gel-Sol - IZ

Psychonavigation Records: 2008

Gel-Sol is the sort of act I feel I should have crossed paths with at some point in the past. For one, he’s based out of Seattle, so I’d have seen his name on posters that associates of mine plaster on their Facebook pages. He’s contributed to the Monster Planet events, where musicians create original soundtracks to z-grade horror films of days past, and I know I’ve seen those flyers before (can’t miss that gorilla-suited space-skeleton carrying a sci-fi pulp babe in his arms). He’s released albums on Vancouver-based label Upstairs Recordings, technically including this one too. Mr. Reichel even debuted his first LP on obscure ambient print em:t, which I’ve definitely dug a little into in the past. And surely, surely, having spent the past eighteen months familiarizing myself with Psychonavigation Records, I’d have noticed the name Gel-Sol at some point. But nay, only with the label’s mass CD sale did I even take a glance, from which I now know more about Andrew Reichel than I ever thought I would. Unless he performed at one of those Sequential Circus events here and I totally missed that too. Smack me upside the head if so.

IZ is Gel-Sol’s third album (so sayeth Lord Discogs), and it’s a pure ambient affair. Yes, another one. I’m sure going through a lot of these right now. Where’s the funk in my music gone, a bouncy groove, even a plodding step? Well, no, I don’t think I’ll ever forlorn for that, but it sure feels like I’ve gone forever without a solid beat seducing my synapses, despite two recent reviews telling me otherwise. Still, I may need to start raiding other genres for a while. How’s jungle been lately?

Not to sell IZ short, as this too is a finely crafted album of ambient, and does have unique characteristics compared to all the other albums I’ve recently covered. Gel-Sol has something of an old-school fetish with the music he makes, taking inspirations from ancient synth wizard noodling and krautrock weirdness. IZ is mostly in the former category, lengthy passages of bright pads floating along with field recordings of outdoor parks, rainfall, and other sounds you might hear on the commute in Seattle. Yeah, I’m definitely getting that West Coast vibe off IZ, and tracks with titles like Mourning Wok, Disko Bay, Secret Island, and Orca sure aren’t helping in distancing that association. This is the sort of album that could have appeared on Silent Season, had anyone known much of them in 2008. Makes me wonder why Mr. Reichel didn’t get in touch with them, though perhaps Psychonavigation Records provided him with a more appropriate outlet for the music he prefers making.

I’d detail more, but man, I’m so burnt out on all this ambient lately, I’m at a loss for fresh adjectives. See why I prefer keeping my palette varied? This obviously isn’t helpful to someone reading this in the future though, so here: good ambient, check out, move on.

Chronos - Helios

Altar Records: 2013

Not to let AstroPilot hog all the ‘ambient via inspiration of suns and stars’ glory on Altar Records, here’s Chronos tossing his offering into the concept as well. Maybe everyone on the label will have their opportunity at some point. Heck, after he’s finished with his ‘Seasons’ series, DJ Zen should start up one based on celestial bodies within our solar system, thus letting all the regulars have their crack at Sol ambient. Then they could move onto the planets, which Chronos would have no problem pitching in since his other Altar albums centered on Mars and Venus. Plus, he’d have to compile the ‘Saturn’ CD – it’d only be appropriate. Not sure who’d want to do ‘Uranus’ though (hey’o ...sorry).

Anyhow, after namedropping Nikita Klimenko’s project for a while now, I’m tackling an actual full-length album from the guy. Just a shame it had to be Helios, hardly the most representative LP under the Chronos banner. That’d be like starting discussion of AstroPilot with Solar Walk III. However, for all the material he’s contributed to Altar compilations, Mr. Klimenko hasn’t made the label his permanent home either, jumping around other prints like Ajana Records, Aventuél, and most recently Mystic Sound Records. He’s dabbled in many forms of the psy chill and trance market, and while he’s made an ambient track or four in his time, this is his first pure beatless outing for an LP.

Well, not quite ‘beatless’. The middle portion of Helios does feature rhythms of a sort, just not in the traditional psy chill manner. Rotating Light Circles has very brisk, subdued breakbeats, more akin to Berlin-School era sequencers than anything intended for the raver generation. Follow-up tracks Oracul and Osiris (a collaboration with Proton Kinoun) make use of this technique as well, providing Helios with a decent amount of vitality as it plays through. It’s like the sun is reaching its zenith across its path along our sky, showering us with all the vitalizing energy pouring out of its nuclear furnace thousands of kilometers away. Hrm, that sounds like a bit of waffle when I describe it like that.

It still makes sense though. Apparently Helios was crafted in one of those short spurts of inspiration musicians have on occasion, the PR blurb proclaiming a ten day span of writing. But honestly, a concept album around the sun isn’t that difficult to conceive. You start with your morning dawn tracks that are light, airy, and meditative (Out Of Chaos, Moon Through A Lense, Deimos), the aforementioned ‘energetic’ tracks marking the midday, and darker, minimalist, reflective pieces to close out into twilight (Dolphinium, Ancient Bells). Nikita does add various samples he’d gathered during his tours abroad (India, Egypt, Moscow), giving the tracks enough personality such that Helios doesn’t lose itself in the glut of ambient’s vast ocean.

So perhaps not the most original album in Chronos’ repertoire, but a lush one nonetheless. Mr. Klimenko, he’s got some skill with them spacey synths that are worth checking out.

Martin Nonstatic - Granite

Ultimae Records: 2015

Ultimae's dipped a lot of toes and waded plenty of shores with dub techno in recent years, but surprisingly this is their first full-length album of the stuff. What, couldn’t Lars Leonhard have provided more than a couple of singles? Is his LP output contractually bound to BineMusic? That hasn’t stopped Martin Nonstatic from popping up on various labels. Okay, he hasn’t had as lengthy of a career as ol’ Lars, but he too made his full-length break with BineMusic some fifteen months prior. Before that, he was releasing scattered digital singles on labels like Silent Season, Dewtone Recordings, Subspiele Records, Deeptakt, and Kunst Musik. Stop me if you aren’t getting a serious Deutschland vibe yet.

Granite is Martin Nonstatic’s debut for Ultimae though, and the label’s only showing for new artist albums in the year 2015. Like that Digiseeds compilation, it came way late too, marking these past twelve months among their leanest ever for new music. Man, where are the veterans lately? Only Aes Dana’s teamed up with MikTek for a pair of EPs, but then I suppose ol’ Vir’s been busy giving all his early stuff another studio spit shine for the FLAC audiences. What I find most remarkable about Nonstatic’s entry here is this is the first new artist LP on Ultimae since MikTek’s debut with the label nearly three years ago. Not that Ultimae has an air of exclusivity in who they invite into their roster, but it’s certainly a rare occurrence when it does happen.

As for Nonstatic (real last name: van Rossum), yeah he’s a downtempo dub techno guy. Lord Discogs suggests if you like DeepChord, you’ll like Martin. Can’t argue on that front, but as there are so many downtempo dub techno guys out there, why should you spring for another? Because Ultimae reps him, obviously.

I know the label’s skewing away from psy chill into these grey tones hasn’t been the most popular of choices from older followers – I’ve spoken of it myself, missing brighter melodies or pulsing trance rhythms of yore’. And while Granite does have the odd sprinkling of melody complementing a steady beat, this is still dub techno we’re dealing with, where everything remains subdued in service of exploring all that staticky space between the timbre of bass throbs, electric guitar strums, and distant pads. But if all my years of sipping the Ultimae herbal tincture have taught me anything, it’s that such music is best served when the Ultimae Mixdown™ is at work.

Still, I can’t deny a difficult time getting Granite to stick in my head. Heck, I’ve sometimes forgotten about the darn CD, especially with the avalanche of discs currently occupying my backlog. Nor is this an album that’ll convince you on dub techno either, though fans of the stuff will definitely appreciate all that lush space Ultimae creates in their headphones.

And that’s why I’m currently entranced by the sounds of this album as they swirl over my earholes.

Galati - Gletscher

Tranquillo Records: 2015

For some stupid reason, every time I try and say Gletscher, it's always done in an awful Schwarzenegger accent. How does that even make sense? Roberto Galati, the man behind this double-LP, is Italian, as unique a language as any European dialect. What does 'gletscher' even mean? *does the Googoling* Oh, it's the German word for 'glacier', commonly referring to ice flows near the Tyrol region of The Alps, where northern Italy and western Austrian meet. And Ah'nold is Austrian. So, despite Gletscher being produced by an Italian, saying this album's title in an awful Schwarzenegger accent does make sense after all. Well, no, it doesn't, but that's my English for you, always mocking other languages with our too-many wordses.

So Mr. Galati is something of a post-rock ambient guy. This means plenty of droning guitar tones and distortion with his layered synths. He also has quite the fascination with frozen landscapes, previous albums Floe Edge and Godhavn inspired by treks across Greenland wastes and the like. Even his last CD with Psychonavigation Records, Mother, has a cover collage of various frozen features (alpine peaks, tarn, ice-covered cave entrances... maybe). I guess naming this LP straight-up ‘glacier’ would have been too obvious then, but at least I’m getting some serious Geir Jenssen vibes from all this background research.

Gletscher is also one of those drone albums that’s almost impossible to detail. Galati goes for the wall-of-sound approach to the craft, stacking harmonic layers to such a degree they’re almost crushing your senses. Everything moves ve-e-r-ry slow too, though at least we have a sense of progression through these tracks, that we’re taking in a vista rather than sitting static for a length of time. I’m tempted to call this ‘epic drone’, because it sure feels like my very being is being confronted, forcing me into humbling reverence to the soundscapes Galati’s challenging me with. It’s at once exhilarating and exhausting, and definitely not the sort of ambient music suited for naps or a session at the massage parlour.

Aside from the two bookend pieces on both CDs, these tracks are surprisingly short for drone, none breaking the nine-minute mark. It makes the need for two discs seem a bit suspect since most of them probably could have fit on just one, but then I guess you’d have to jettison the nineteen-minute closer Shelkar Chorten. On the other hand, these relatively shorter pieces helps keep Gletscher engaging as it plays through, each track shifting in tone just enough so we’re not stuck in one mood for long. Hopar has a calming through-line, then Gharesa goes discordant. Something resembling a wide-screen melody pierces the drone in Siachen 1, while Kiattuut comes off more atonal. Hispar (everlasting night) is rather quiet and subdued, and Godwin-Austen features chattering harmonic strings with a lovely bit of sombre melody.

Gletscher isn’t an easy album to get into – really, only fans of drone should apply. Boy, did it ever make for some intense bus commutes though.

AstroPilot - Fruits Of The Imagination 2

Altar Records: 2012

A ‘revisiting’ of an album half a decade after the fact isn’t so daft. Artists grow as they continue making music, evolving their craft as they adopt new styles and techniques into their repertoire. And if any record out of AstroPilot’s discography deserved another look, it’s Fruits Of The Imagination. For one thing, it was released on Avatar Records, and Mr. Redko had long since made a home for himself on Altar Records. With each passing year, that first album grows more difficult to find on the regular markets, and he very well can’t grab the rights back from Avatar for a reissue on Altar. Okay, maybe he can eventually, but in the meantime, how about that ‘revisit’ concept to tide things over? Most of the original’s elements can be used again, and this time given the once-over with learned skills and adopted genres.

For instance, there really wasn’t much prog-psy on Fruits Of The Imagination Prime. That album was sort of a blend of world beat and psy dub, with a few visits into breaks and psy along the way. Five years pass, and AstroPilot has shown himself very adept at breaks and psy (ambient too), and he’s beefed up everything to reflect that. Structurally, they’re still mostly the same tracks, but there’s more detail to his music now, beats more dynamic and timbre more expansive. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it dates his first album, but it does sound more basic and unrefined compared to Fruits Of The Imagination 2. For folks getting into AstroPilot’s music in the here and now, this is probably the better option for a purchase. And if you already have Fruits Of The Imagination The First, Mr. Redko entices a secondary purchase with a new, unreleased track called Asian Express, a floaty bit of ethnic flavored prog-house as heard from the way-before days of the ‘90s. Okay, so maybe that isn’t so tempting for a wholesale re-splurge. ‘Tis a nice bonus for us late adopters though.

Oh hey, I haven’t even detailed any of the actual tracks here, have I? Silly me, providing comparisons between two albums all the while assuming y’all have heard one or the other. Hell, this is all assuming it’s AstroPilot fans reading this to boot. Come to think of it, I’m taking a leap of faith on figuring folks even know or care much about the psy-chill scene to begin with, what with dropping genre tags and label names. Why, someone reading this could very well not even be into electronic music, only here hoping for another dalliance into hip-hop or rock music. Help, I’ve fallen into some sort of perspective pit!

Sorry for that. Truth is Fruits Of The Imagination, in either form, isn’t the most exciting AstroPilot album to talk about. He skillfully hits the standard tropes of psy-chill word-beat prog (etc.), with 2 being the obviously more polished version of the two. Some may prefer the older’s rougher edge though.

Andrew Heath - Flux

Disco Gecko: 2015

Never thought I'd become an Andrew Heath fan. I was curious enough to check out his first album on Disco Gecko, if only to find out why Toby Marks would have tapped the ambient composer as the first outside artist on his label. Yet while The Silent Cartographer was a pleasant little trip through minimalist piano diddling, it wasn't the sort of music I saw myself exploring any further. There's only so much ambient I can take in, and my flag leans more towards the padded synths and dubby atmospherics than indulging the nuances of tonal harmony. Besides, I’m already hearting a Heath, and that dark, brooding Simon chap might be the jealous sort.

Then a super-mega 20th Anniversary Last Train To Lhasa bundle came out. I’ll get to details about that release at the appropriate time, but one of the surprising highlights from the package was Andrew Heath’s remix of China. It took an already mellow slice of ambient dub and led it down his minimalist tonal harmony path. For a song set in a region where such music has been practiced in perfected for ages, it makes so much blissful sense that I get the super Zen feels from it. This, mind you, from a guy who’s only remix credit is this one track! What makes it such a standout, however, is again just how different Andrew Heath’s style is compared to the remixers surrounding him, music that brings to mind art displays or quiet times in a Japanese rock garden, not groovy nights outdoors surrounded by ravers and hippies.

That was enough to keep an eye out for anything else Heath might release, and wouldn’t you know it, he’s got a fresh LP barely a year after his last, Flux. The liner notes states this music was inspired by time spent gazing at lights in the northern latitudes of his homeland Cotswolds, England. That description alone already marks this album as something quite ‘British in the meadowlands’, though you’d have to ask a resident of the realm whether that’s apt.

Flux is music almost as an abstraction, ample uses of field recordings, harmonic bell tones, and soft ethereal pads making up the bulk. Mr. Heath does let his lingering piano notes guide things along, and occasional synthy woodwinds pop in and out, but they’re far from a driving force in these tracks. Really, there’s not much drive at all, each piece content to remain relatively static for their duration (around an average of eight to ten minutes in length). It barely even sounds like compositions end or begin, as though you’re lazily floating down a creek through pastoral villages and windmill hovels. A couple pure piano pieces do break up the mood (The Darkening, Fragment on the digital version), and Ghost Box has a discordant thing going for it, but for the most part, Flux is an ambient album best served for the stillest of activities. Find a patio and watch clouds for an hour, or something.

ASC - Fervent Dream

Silent Season: 2015

No one could have predicted ASC would have five ambient albums under his belt by now. One, two perhaps, as even his earliest drum ‘n’ bass productions often found Mr. Clements exploring the open spaces between his rhythms (including his second LP, Open Spaces). Comes our current decade and his jungle rhythms were stripped down to their basic, minimalist components. When he released The Light That Burns Twice As Bright on Silent Season, drum kits were jettisoned altogether. So, a most natural evolution for ASC as a producer, and having gotten that proper ambient album out of his system, surely he’d get back to future takes on drum ‘n’ bass. Oh, you have more than one, Mr. Clements? Just how many of these were you planning on? As many as Silent Season keeps releasing, huh. Fair enough, but aren’t you worried you’re gonna’ start getting pigeonholed as just another ambient drone guy? There’s so many of those, so very many.

Whatever. If he keeps putting out quality albums like this, Mr. Clements can make a dozen ASC ambient LPs. Might not make them as special in the long run, but ‘tis better for the connoisseur to have plenty of good releases than a scant few collectables. Because believe you me, Fervent Dream is the sort of CD that only dedicated fans of the genre will invest their time in. I personally feel Time Heals All is thus far the best ASC ambient album (much space!) and this one isn’t toppling that position. But I still likes me some droning ambient passages, and can listen to this stuff in its many variations, permutations, and transmigrations. I’m always intrigued by the paths composers take their synths and pads, hearing which ways they layer their timbre and utilize their harmonic progressions. It’s like being a Jazz Guy, except instead of hearing musicians playing all the notes, I enjoy looong stretches of a couple notes.

While ASC’s previous Silent Season albums were more about Mr. Clements exploring his ambient muse, Fervent Dream seems custom made for the label. The little PR blurb talks of dreaming in the thick of the woods. Coupled with a CD featuring droning calm with the sound of wind through leaves and rain pelting moss-covered roots, it’s about as West Coast an image as you’re likely to imagine.

Unsurprisingly, this is another spacious collection of ambient, though with enough encroaching drone to feel as though you’re being crowded by tall trees. There isn’t much in the way of melody, though tracks like Epsilon Dream, Sullen Lament, and Ritual Of Light do contain brighter pieces of evolving pads piercing the thick layers of synths, dub, and field recordings. The main feature though, is the twenty-minute long Promises To Keep at the end. It’s mostly another drone piece, with a few electronic note pulses ebbing in and out. Other elements like rainfall, static dub, and heavenly pads emerge before a requisite lengthy fade out. Kinda’ encapsulates the whole of Fervent Dream, really.

Various - Fall

Altar Records: 2015

We now return to Altar Records' current running compilation series, The Seasons! But wait, three of you cry, how can we be doing Fall already, when there's still a Summer CD out there? Did I not get that one too for continuity's sake? I did indeed, but even continuity must give way to arbitrary blogging rules. Both were acquired during that long-ass trip through the latter half of 'S' albums, which technically put Summer into the backlog queue. And now alphabetical stipulation states that Fall must come before Summer, despite making none of the thematic sense. Yeah, I could have just lumped Summer in with all those other 'S' CDs, but if I can't honor my own rules, what honor can I give in life? What price is my honor? (twenty bucks American, cold hard cash)

I can't say I was waiting with bated, chilly breath for this one though. Spring was cool, and Summer was fun (spoiler!). In the end though, it's still Altar Records we're dealing with, and if my sojourn through their Elements series proved anything, it's that headmaster DJ Zen maintains a consistent style with the artists he taps. Even glancing at the track list once again finds plenty of familiar names from the Altar roster: AstroPilot, Alwoods, E-Mantra, Astral Waves, Asura, Terra Nine, Tentura, Cabeiri, and so on. I approve of all this, of course, but picking up Altar compilations has quickly become a case of comforting familiarity, a high standard of prog psy and psy chill with very few surprises along the way. As it goes with most genre niche labels anyway.

And I'm repeating my Altar Records caveat again, aren’t I. And the only reason I could possibly be providing such redundant information at this point is pretext, a set-up for a... 'fall' of expectations! Eh? Eh? Come on, give it up, don't leave me hangin'. Alright...

So the surprise with Fall comes with how much raw acid there is on this CD. The first few tracks don’t hint at such a turn; Cabeiri, Alwoods, and E-Mantra (plus bonus Tentura on the digital version) doing as Altar typically does. Mindphoria (aka: Mindsphere; aka: Ali Akgun) then does the unexpected in starting his track (also called Fall) with some pleasant classical piano diddling. Huh. Then a funky acid bassline comes in with a New Beat groove and are we still listening to an Altar compilation? There’s some spacey zaps and synths, but the focus soon turns to chunky old-school goa acid, as does next track Stay In Meditation from Azriel. I’d expect such sounds from bonus track Farewell, Beloved Sunshine, since that’s Khetzal’s schtick, but even AstroPilot and Astral Waves gets in on that acid with their collaboration Inflation Eternelle. Meanwhile, third bonus The Heart Of The Matter from Terra Nine has me feeling the ancient System 7 mojo, and closer Rise Of The Earth Keepers from Innerself goes full New Age sap. Ack, a trip within Fall. Nonetheless, a surprising, solid compilation.

ACE TRACKS: November 2012

We’re nearly at the end of these back-tracking ACE TRACKS Playlists. It’s weird realizing that the music I was playing and reviews I was writing was done over three years ago now, enough time that I’m actually having faded recollection of the month. Like, as though it was a distant part of my past, not unlike my TranceCritic writing days. The music I was covering seems so innocent too, still going through my old collection of trusty favorites and stand-bys, having no clue of the splurging I’d undertake that’d bloat out my library to the four digit realm. About a dozen CDs have since been added within this block alone, and that’s just narrowly missing out that Pete Namlook tribute box set. Back then I had no idea labels like Silent Season, Altar, or Psychonavigation even existed! That November also marked the point I realized I could keep writing at a near-daily clip, though with a signficant chunk being some of my all-time favorite albums, it’s not surprising I was feeling the mojo then. It’s also a big ol’ ACE TRACKS Playlist, so let’s get to ‘er.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Pete Namlook - The Definitive Ambient Collection: Volume 2
Deep Forest - Deep Forest
Dillinja - Cybotron
Djen Ajakan Shean - Crows Heading For Point Break
Roc Raida - Crossfaderz: A Turntablist’s Throwdown!!
Quadrophonia - Cozmic Jam

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 12%
Percentage Of Rock: 19%
Most “WTF?” Track: Fear Factory - Pisschrist (that title, tho’!)

Full albums from Future Sound Of London, Pink Floyd, and Spicelab are a must. A bunch of Fear Factory, a pile of progressive trance, a little techno, psy, and world beat thrown in for good measure. Oh, and that last little bit of Bone Thugs working its way in too. Man, did I ever look like the Bone Thugs fanboy in those early months. Little did anyone know my hip-hop allegiance lay with the Wu-Tang Clan (plus whatever Del was up to). All in all, this is a fun, varied month’s worth of music, another reason why I likely sped through those CDs so fast. Couldn’t wait to hear the next one again!