Etnoscope - Way Over Deadline

Ektoplazm: 2010

Back when I figured my post-TranceCritic hiatus wouldn't be so lengthy, I snatched this album from the ever-awesome coffers of Ektoplazm, anticipating it a good album to review upon returning. I'm... a little behind in getting to that, aren't I? You could say I've been... tardy in my timeliness. Why, this review should have been written... much longer before. What I'm getting at is the words you're reading are... really, really late.

I recall Way Over Deadline having some hype in the lead-up, a return of prog-psy's earliest heroes in Etnoscope. Their 2003 album Drums From The Dawn Of Time was hailed as among the early classics of that scene, fusing tribal drum workouts into a groovy time for all the forest ravers getting their flail on. Yet despite the initial positive buzz, Etnoscope receded from the spotlight, doing the occasional live gig and not much else. And it's not like the group's members were busy with other projects, Misters Englebert, Collin, and Alanne having little else to their Discogian credits. But with prog-psy having settled into a 'deep, minimal, plodding triplets' phase by 2010 (thanks, Iboga!), that these guys were coming forth with new material was welcome news indeed.

Still, as I scoured the web for reactions to Way Over Deadline, it seems as though the album came and went with barely a blip. Even review threads at the old guards of psy-trance discourse – psynews.org and Isratrance – had little activity beyond an obligatorily 4,000 word review, followed by a half-dozen 'this is great!' reactions. Kinda' makes me feel all the more negligent in my own failure contributing to the initial hype, as this is the sort of prog-psy that was so very desperately needed at the turn of the decade. Rhythms that are propulsive, live drumming that's funky, basslines that are gnarly-as-fuck, and melodic flourishes that capture the best of morning trance giddiness.

Specifics? Oh, how about the opening cut Odin's Kraft, featuring all the drum work you can handle, coupled with one Hell of an ear-wormy chant. Or Kaijko, which goes more subdued with its drumming and samples, but, mang', that rubbery acid! Sunset gets all operatic on our asses, while Might & Magic rips out one of the most infectious basslines you'll ever hear from the prog-psy camps (really, it's creeping up to full-on territory). Elsewhere, Jävla Sladdar adds a little guitar shredding to the fray, and Freedom opts for a bouncy, world-beat jig, plus a standard dubby closing cut in Floating Feeling. Really, the only two duds are Guitar Session and Medieval, for having a hand at the tropes that made prog-psy more a chore to get through back then (plodding minimalism, triplets, etc.).

Etnoscope music is rare enough as it is, so considering Way Over Deadline is still available at Ektoplazm, there's no excuse for prog-psy fans to ignore this. And who knows, now that's it's been another seven years since their last album, maybe we'll get another LP from them soon. One can hope.

ACE TRACKS: July 2017

Hey look, another month where I broke the 'twenty reviews' mark. That sure don't happen as often anymore, does it. I'm surprised I hit that mark at all, though perhaps I was eager to get at a few of the items in the queue, CDs with plenty o' talking points swirling at the floodgates of my... whatever it is that sends words from my brain to the fingers typing it all out. Is it an ether that does it? Like, some mystical fifth element that makes my words manifest in such a way that they penetrate your eyeholes, imprinting themselves in your memory membranes. No, really, think about that for a moment – it's practically magic that we can do that, man! At least, until we evolve antennae, where bio-chemical communications will render this clumsy electronic method moot.

Actually, another reason for getting more writing done is I've had less distractions this past month, the most significant of which is brushing off the ol' Hot Shots Golf 3 game again. Man, is that ever a time-warp of pop culture interests, what with playable characters such as the Aussie animal ranger, the Chinese martial artist, the mobsters, the John Daly clone, and all those Matrix clones. 2002 was weird. No music from that year in this playlist of ACE TRACKS, though.



MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Waveform Transmissions (Volume One)
Various - Wave Forum
Various - The Wandering II Compilation
Refracted - Through The Spirit Realm
Various - Techno Explosion
Jiri.Ceiver - Head.Phon

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 13%
Percentage Of Rock: 5%
Most “WTF?” Track: You cannot deny hearing Mo-Do will turn your head unlike any other tune here.

Moar! reviews means bigger playlists, and Moar! diversity! Well, not a whole lot – ain't no '70s stuff on here. Still, added a couple more '80s albums to the archives, which is always nice because I seriously lack material released that decade. It's those 'greatest hits' packages, see;always gumming up the accuracy of Year Tags.

Various - Waveform Transmissions (Volume One)

Waveform Records: 2007

Considering how successful their initial run of compilations was, it's surprising Waveform Records hasn't returned to that well more often. Even when it appeared they'd struck upon another winner in the Voodoo Roux series, it was kitbashed after but two volumes. A couple one-shots later, and it looked the label was ready to launch a whole new series dubbed (heh) Waveform Transmissions. Hey, that word is in their long-standing tagline of “Another Important Transmission From Waveform”, existing as long as their charming Web 1.0 homepage. Maybe it would tie into their Starstreams radio show too, a yearly retrospective of their never-ending search for “exotic electronica”. We never got much of a chance to find out though, this series lasting only three volumes before it too went by the wayside after 2010. Although, if trends hold true, we could see a fourth volume sometime soon, like we did a Four A.D. seven years after Three A.D. dropped! Yeah, well, maybe not.

As I be telling truths, y'all, I must level that I was initially rather disappointed in this CD, for two totally stupid reasons. One, I was not impressed with the packaging, coming off cartoony and goofy compared to Waveform's usual fare. But judge not what lays within, young scribe, by which adorns yonder face. OK, fine, but problem two arose upon glancing at the tracklist: I already have these tracks, a whole... um, two out of ten. Trouble was Pitch Black[nz] and Phutureprimitive were so thoroughly imprinted on my music membranes that hearing Lost In Translation and Darkness again felt redundant. And it didn't help that the remaining tunes, though decent examples of dubby psychedelic chill, didn't reach the same levels of dopeness as those two cuts.

But hey, as I've said, a good compilation lures you in with a couple recognizable names, all the while exposing new, unfamiliar acts in the process. Waveform Transmissions Volume One definitely does that, although I can't say I'm in hurry to check out further material from Dymons, Flooting Grooves, or Potlatch. Heck, I couldn't even scope out extra music from Warp Factor, on account Lord Discogs lists this as their lone contribution to music ever. As mentioned, it's all perfectly acceptable takes on worldly psy-beat dub-hop, but little that stands out from the pack either.

A few notable names do though. Capsula, who'd get an album deal with Waveform, does the rubbery psy-dub thing that makes him a comfy comparable to Phutureprimitive's Darkness on here, Xerxes' Inhale gets more on that meditation mojo with breathy downbeat in support. The highly prolific Master Margherita gives us a throwback ambient dub outing in O Sole Mio/Sunset, a nice nod to Waveform's roots (heh). And International Observer goes full-on reggae dub on The International, which in of itself isn't remarkable, except that it's a side-project of Tom Bailey. You might know him as a member of new wavers Thompson Twins. Wow, going from that to reggae dub in the span of twenty-five years. Wonders never cease.

Various - Wave Forum

Wave Recordings: 1996

Pretty clear why I got this. Still, obviously I knew this couldn't be a CD from Waveform Records – if anything the big 'Virgin Import' sticker was enough of a clue. Yet while word association's a powerful thing, even that pales compared to packaging, the CD coming in one of the the strangest jewel cases I've ever seen. A shade of... navy blue? Duke blue? Ultramarine? Zaffre? One of those, according to Wiki's 'shades of blue' chart. Add to that an inner casing coloured a hot neon yellow, and there's no way you're missing that packaging popping out at you on the shelves.

Apparently Wave Recordings went to bat for their vinyl releases too, each record painted in marble-blue. Top that off with half-page magazine ads in Very Important UK dance magazines, and you've one aggressive marketing campaign, one that must have miserably failed, as very few Discogian folk have any Wave Recordings' releases in their collections; Wave Forum has less than a half-dozen owners, yours truly included. Top that all off with a mere four items listed in their catalogue, and I wonder if all that fancy marketing somehow bankrupted the label, folding almost as soon as they launched.

The truly tragic thing about all this is the music Wave Recordings peddled, skint though it was, wasn't half bad. Make no mistake, throwing one's fortunes into a bloated trip-hop scene was practically doomed from the start, especially when leading with such no name acts like Cherry Orchard and Wintermute (they're from Bristol too!). Damn though, if Cherry Orchard's No More Nightmares doesn't get to me, what with Deborah Kimberley's 'broken-waif' vocals of feeling lost in her “slumberland” over a steady languid rhythm with slowly escalating acid. Wait, 303 tweakage in a trip-hop song? Sure, I'll go with that, and Wintermute's Black Box gets in on that action too, though it's clear they're aping Tricky in their heroin-paranoia poetry.

It's not all complete unknowns on Wave Forum, though we're definitely in ultra-obscure territory here. Kapta had a micro-hit italo-house single in Shine On, given a trip-hop rub on here. Rama 1, an alias of Caroline Abbey, also had a house non-hit on Cleveland City Records (based in Wolverhampton, West Midlands) called C'est La Vie, given a world-beat reworking here. Cannot deny those sweeping strings and emphatic gospel chorus at the end do rouse the cheese-ball joy out of my cockles, as only Rollo often does. There's a little loose trance on here too, Gravity Wheel another of the very few acts to get the marble-vinyl treatment with Wave Recordings. Tears In The Rain and Mistral are chipper, acidy little numbers, the latter even appearing on one of Rumour Records' Goa Trance collections after the duo signed to Distance. Not long for Wave Recordings, they were.

Wave Forum won't convince you this label was some unjustly ignored print, but it is worth a listen should you stumble upon it. Considering the open-market price for this CD, it can't be that rare.

Various - Water

Altar Records: 2009

Hey, remember Altar Records' Elements series? I reviewed nearly every single one of them (including the 'hidden' sixth element) only, what, two or three years ago now? Eh, I could simply check my archives to verify? Oh, man, that was over five-hundred reviews ago – who has time to sift through that much backlog! Though I'm almost certain, should I skim them over, I'd find a hi-lar-ious claim that y'all wouldn't have to wait too long for Water's review, maybe even a ridiculously optimistic prediction of later that year.

Another thing I should probably do is go back to the other Elements CDs (Air, Earth, Fire & Ether) for a quick refresher in this series' development, but why bother? I have to admit, when I first got the collection, Water didn't stick with me on my initial run of each volume. Not because it lacked dope tunes or anything, but because I knew the other four (plus one!) would require my immediate focus for review, thus letting this one slip by the wayside. Now, with it finally up to the mic' with its chance to shine, Water gets all the solo glory it deserves, none of its elemental siblings crowding it out of the spotlight. At least, I'm assuming that's how I've approached this, because I honestly don't recall Water being this good when I got it way back when. Did I even listen to it before?

Like, the first track is Marianna Falls from Asura, with Charles Farewell executing at his Asuraian best. The languid pace, the spacious sounds, the sense of uplifting cinematic grace... holy cow, how did this song not make the cut on his 360 album the year after? And speaking of Ultimae alum', Aes Dana is here too with Cyan, doing that steady-paced prog-psy thing he often does so well. Androcell also shows up for a rather Balearic bit of psy-dub in Seahorse Dreams, which makes sense given the marine theme of this compilation. Man With No Name's oldie Sugar Rush is also given a lush reworking from a Kanc Cover, more known as Opsy around the time this came out.

But hey, enough about the outside talent, what of the Altar roster, how do they stack up? Pretty good for the most part. Chronos does a widescreen psy-chill thing in Planetarium, AstroPilot ups the pace to prog-psy's chugging domain in Voda, DJ Zen offers up a lengthy goa-breaks-psy-world-chill-trance remix on Zymosis' God Is Mine (it's so long, he kinda' throws everything into the pot), and RA brings Water to a close with a pleasant enough psy-chill cut in Creation Of Tefnet.

If there's any complaint to be had with Water, it's that the elemental theme is only loosely followed upon throughout. Perhaps this collection of tunes have a more 'flowing' feel about them compared to the other Elements, but that's about it. Really, Water is just another solid CD of music from Altar's formative years, which ain't no bad thing at all.

Mo-Do - Was Ist Das?

ZYX Music: 1995

It's remarkable that I should know of Mo-Do at all. Not in any post-eurodance, “haha, irony” sense, but when the act was fresh and new, their single Eins, Zwei, Polizei invading European clubs and compilations to such a degree, it breached Canadian shores too. Certainly many eurodance acts made it here, but they always had one thing going for them making it possible: their music was in English. Much like italo disco before it, the native language of the British Isles was somehow decided upon as the de facto tongue of dance club commercial success in Europe, helping it find a foothold across the Atlantic too. Songs sung in Spanish or Swedish or Swissish likely found success in their homelands, but no way they were gonna' make any bank in Canada, nosiree.

Then along comes an Italian pairing of Fabio Frittelli and Claudio Zennaro, the latter of which eking out a tidy career making house and trance as Einstein Doctor DJ. That Fabio fella' though, he had a good look to him, his Austrian heritage lending itself as a natural front-man for modelling or movies or music. He'd even dipped his toes in a couple rock bands, but found dance music more his calling. Hooking up with one Sergio Portaluri led to a couple singles as F&F, though these didn't attract much attention, pretty much standard English-singing eurodance of the day. Sergio co-produced some music with Claudio though, and when Mr. Zennaro was introduced to Mr. Frittelli, they felt enough musical chemistry to try again, only with a different angle: go full Germanic on clubland. Claudio was already making trance with a German bent, and Fabio felt Teutonic speech suited his voice better than English (or, heaven forbid, ragga!).

The result was Eins, Zwei, Polizei, a tune that celebrated the succinct punch of the German language, wrapped up in an earwormy minor-key melody straight out of the German trance book. Despite the absolute glut of eurodance in 1994, it was enough of a unique angle that it propelled Mo-Do to the top of the charts across Europe. Other German producers had hits, but none so wonderfully captured the Teutonic charms of their dance music. And all it took was a couple Italians to get there. Hey, an Italy and Germany allaiance found a way to conquer Europe after all!

The following album, Was Ist Das?, is about as you'd expect from eurodance of the time. A couple follow-up singles recycle the same formula that made the first such a success (Gema Tanzen, Super Gut), Hallo, Mo-Do does that Stadium House thing Scooter would make bank off, and Liebes Tango offers up a tune with a little English in it. There's also the requisite ballad (Fur Dich, My Love), plus a couple attempts at 'artsy' music (Hamlet, Das Konzert). They're fine in spicing the album up, but yeah, you're here for those tasty minor-key melodies and catchy German phrases, even if you're mangling them into 'engrish' as you sing along. Mmm, 'salty cakes'...

Ice Cube - War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc)

Priority Records: 1998

I feel the second volume of Ice Cube's War & Peace duo-album concept was better received than the first, as everyone finally accepted where Mr. Jackson was in his life. Sure, it'd be dope as all Hell if he came out with some fiery social commentary about The State Of The 'Hood, but after so much financial success, was he really the man for the task anymore? By the turn of the century, a lot of elder statesmen of rap were getting well paid, and couldn't realistically keep talking about 'ghetto shit' as a lived experience. Offer insight and commentary, sure, and perhaps provide helpful guidance to the young bucks coming up (but don't y'all think you can dethrone the G.O.A.T.s without a fight, no sir). If you wanted the serious conscious stuff though, there were other acts providing it, and Cube was more interested in maintaining a brand for himself than dropping heavy with the lyrical political.

Thus when he let it be known that The Peace Disc was going to be of a much lighter fare than anything he'd done in the past, folks were at least ready for it. Willing, that's another matter, many old Cube fans all but disowning the product sight-unheard, especially after the dismal reactions to The War Disc. On the other hand, It Was Good Day remained one of Cube's longest, endearing tunes, and he'd shown a somewhat friendlier side in his Friday movies. If anything, the aggro-gangsta posturing of The War Disc came off more disingenuous compared to club-ready singles like We Be Clubbin' and You Can Do It. Considering I heard the latter in even back-water 'clubs' of B.C. hinterland haunts, I'd say he succeeded in providing something fun.

And the bump-n-grind don't stop there, tracks like Can You Bounce? featuring a gnarly bassline, Gotta Be Insanity featuring the vintage P-funk, Waitin' Ta Hate featuring the vintage trunk-thump, and You Ain't Gotta Lie featuring Chris Rock dropping a bunch of hilarious brags. Elsewhere, Cube reunites with Dr. Dre and MC Ren for a little N.W.A. gangsta reflection, while hinting at a possible reunion (which they did do, but with Snoop Dogg filling in for the deceased Eazy-E). He also drops some knowledge on shady label businesses (Record Company Pimpin'), and offers an uplifting outlook for the youth with Krayzie Bone in Until We Rich. Plus a bunch of the usual gangsta crowing and hater grips scattered throughout, but who cares about those.

Frankly, beyond just being completely honest in its intents, what makes The Peace Disc better than The War Disc is the production. Vol. 1 somehow felt cheap and plastic as a lot of late '90s hip-hop does, but in Vol. 2, the beats bounce harder, the hooks land sharper, and the funk flows freer. Even the guest spots are of higher calibre (because who really gave a shit about Mr. Short Khop?). As a trifle hour of escapism then, War & Peace Vol. 2 succeeds, but that's all.

Ice Cube - War & Peace Vol. 1 (The War Disc)

Priority Records: 1998

The first Ice Cube record many white metal fans bought, because they sure as Hell didn't know any better. Check it though, that scowling rapper guy, he's on the Family Values Tour, performing with nu-metal bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Orgy, and weird, angry Germans. They might have even recalled him from other stuff, like movies (Friday, Anaconda, that one about black youths in South Central), and something called Westside Connection where he sampled a Nine Inch Nails song. After pairing up with Korn though, folks well outside Ice-C's traditional scene were finally taking notice of his music output. And a good thing too, because by this point, many in hip-hop circles were writing Cube off as having lost the socially-conscious spitfire of his early work in lieu of lucrative movies and rock tours. War & Peace Vol. 1 all but cemented such notions.

Westside Connection did keep some embers glowing, proving Cube could still throw down lyrical beatdowns with the best of them. However, Common released a crushing dis' in The Bitch In Yoo, plus The Nation Of Islam forced various hip-hop groups to a peace summit so no more senseless deaths would arise from their beefs. It clearly sawed Cube's teeth off, changing focus to take on 'made-man' rap as the Don Mega. He's the king of his West Coast Mountain, yo', running these clubs and gangsta concerns, and like Hell he's gonna' relinquish that throne without a fight. Fine and all, such topics inspiring many rappers to be the best at their game. Trouble is, fewer hip-hop heads were buying it, seeing less of the 'hood narrator Ice Cube, and more O'Shea Jackson, business man and Hollywood actor. 'Don Mega' was just another mogul character, one that was quite played out by '98 in the hip-hop world (see: Puff Daddy, Master P, etc.), and definitely not one fans of older Cube cared to turn to for some social commentary. But hey, it's fun headbanging to crunchy guitars in Fuck Dying, amirite?

Another problem stems from production. There's the aforementioned rock-fusion, including Limos, Demos & Bimbos riffing on The Police's Behind My Camel I think (because sampling 'Sting' was cool). Much of The War Disc consists of Southern rap producers though, including N.O. Joe, E-A-Ski (notable for his work on early No Limit Records – Master P even cameos), and Bud'da, plus Cube on a few cuts himself. It's all got high-grade studio polish, but aside from a couple riffs and basslines, sounds like generic gangsta funk to my ears.

That all said, Cube does remain charismatic throughout, even when rapping about cliche topics. And when he does unleash some captivating narratives, such as the reflective Ghetto Vet, or nuttiness of Once Upon A Time In The Projects 2, it shows he could still tangle with hip-hop's best. Just a shame he so often settled for mediocrity here – good enough for all those metal kids checking him out for the first time, though.

U2 - War

Island Records: 1983

War, hah! What's it good for? Giving a budding Irish band the proper break-out they needed, is what. They'd already made oscillations in new wave circles with their debut Boy and follow-up October, but it was their third album that we hear the germination of what most consider the definitive U2 stylee. Arena rock anthems, political issues... um, wait, something's missing here. Oh yeah, that Eno touch. Right, the true definitive, universally adored sound of U2 didn't manifest itself until subsequent albums, but there's a contingent of O.G. U2 fan-Zs that claim Brian and Daniel Lanois ruined what had been a promising raw alternative rock band. That, if you want to experience Bono, The Edge, Adam, and Mullen (the cute one!) at their honest, roughest best... you should probably go with Boy.

But hey, War was still a Steve Lillywhite produced album, so not quite as arty as Eno would go; besides, they'd already tried that with October. War instead finds the band returning to a purer rock approach – it was only appropriate for such a heavy, politically-driven topic, getting their music into the knit and grit of conflict and the aftermath's ugliness. Plus, just in case you figured they might be going for something more abstract or glorified in selling the notion of war, they used a similarly posed photo of Peter Rowen on the cover, except now replacing the innocent boy of Boy with a stern, aged glower, suggesting the human cost of senseless struggle.

The band doesn't pull its punches either, opening the album with the strident, military march of Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song about the Bogside Massacre, where over a dozen civilian Irish protesters were killed by British soldiers, many more injured. Add in a wailing violin and Bono's harrowing cries of “I can't close my eyes; And make it go away”, and you've a song that definitely sticks in your memory.

It's the lead single though, New Year's Day, that really gave U2 their distinct panache for arena rock. That instantly memorable piano line, the propulsive bass, the jangly guitar work, and Bono's wailing – you can't think of U2 without thinking of this song, even if you don't realize it's from the War album. I sure didn't, the echo, reverb, and polished production having me think it latter-'80s U2 for the longest time.

A criticism often levied upon War is that the remaining eight songs don't reach the same highs as Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day, especially dragging in the back-half. Can't deny that, though they're by no means weak songs either. Two Hearts Beat As One and Like A Song... are strong rockers, Drowning Man features more soul-tugging violin work, The Refugee sounds like something The Police might have wrote, and Surrender climbs close to the same lofty peaks of New Year's Day. It all makes for a strong rock album, but if you come to U2 for their artistic dalliances, perhaps a little one-note overall.

Various - The Wandering II Compilation (Part 2)

Silent Season: 2015

A sorting glitch after downloading from Bandcamp? Silent Season intentionally making digital and physical versions different from one another? A higher power sating my strange alphabetical obsessions? Whatever the case, the track sequencing between the MP3 and CD copies of The Wandering II is vastly different. Whereas the latter stylistically spreads the music out across three discs, the former arranges everything per artist, going from A.P through ASC to Ethernet, Kanthor, Michal Wolski, Segue, all the way to Yuka. And while I'm all for such organization in spicing up a playlist as staged randomness, it doesn't work so well in this case.

The chaps at Silent Season spent a full year in collecting, curating, and crafting this triple-compilation, such that each track had its proper placement on CDs. Playing it out by Artist totally messes that up, and while Silent Season promotes a generally narrow aesthetic range of dub ambient and techno, my digital version still made for some strange transitions. That ten-minute long dark drone of Sonitus Eco's Frost works as a second track on an ambient-heavy CD, but playing out at the forth-to-last position with a few rhythmic tracks following was jarring to say the least.

Whatever, it's just a quirk, one I'm certain Silent Season didn't intend. Nay, the 'proper' way of hearing The Wandering II is per the CDs themselves. I mean, the opening half of CD1 prominently features ambient, and doesn't really return to that style anywhere else. You get a couple different flavors of it too, from the aforementioned drone, to some blissy pad work (Legiac's Jefre Tropod) or ominious field recordings (Birds Of Prey's The Surface, Kanthor's Hegemony). By track six, we finally start hearing intermittent rhythms, some more of a microfunk thing (A.P's Interdimensional 2.0, Aesthes' Amphibians), others doing the soft, minimalist dub techno throb (Inanitas' Tuesday Evening, Ethernet's Reminiscence). Overall a typical warm-up disc for Silent Seasons' preferences.

CD2 is where I get the most bang for my buck though – there be trance here! Right right, it's not trance as you or him or her or they or Them or It might call it. Archist's Photosensitive has a tribal rhythm with soft pads ebbing and flowing throughout. Hidden Element's Edge Off and Michal Wolski's Lunyata provide a nicely thumping dub techno pulse to distant synth melodies. Hydrangea's Ananké works a slow-n-steady techno beat as widescreen pads fill a wide range of timbre. Alfredo Mazzilli's Continuando a Sognare and Tdel's Deep Field sound like they could have been chill cuts on an old Eye Q collection. See, trance!

If all that sounds too uplifting and melodic for you, CD3 goes about as de-e-e-eep into dub techno's domain as you'll ever likely hear. There's occasional touches of pad work (As If's Nærvær, Warmth's Altitude), but yeah, this is a rather clinical disc compared to the other two. Still, Mr. Zu's Retaw takes us out with some vintage ambient techno-dub, which is only appropriate for a massive collection such as The Wandering II.