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!

The Oak Ridge Boys - At Their Best

United Artist Records/EMI-Manhattan Records: 1968

Greetings, Past-Peoples, it is I again, 2073 Sykonee, brought back to your time by Sykonee Prime to review music by The Oak Ridge Boys. I know, I know, this doesn't make a lick of sense. I must be nearly a hundred years old - aged and decrepit, like a rusty tin of sardines. Not really, no. Hearty genetic stock notwithstanding, a benefit of the radiation fallout was unexpectedly extending lifespans in several lucky souls. I may be in my Nineties, but I don't look or feel a day over Sixty-Seven.

'Tis true, the Atomic Brotherhood provides mighty fine benefits for those within their influence, not least of which exposing us to music I'd overlooked in my youth. Yes, it's nice that Nuclear Ramjet and Atomic Babies finally got their due, but I never knew about obscure acts like Oppenheimer Analysis, or tech-house labels like Heisenberg. Our musical consumption may be limited to that which honours the Atomic Age, but it's a wide range nonetheless.

Few dominate our tastes like The Oak Ridge Boys though, because few have as massive a discography. The original incarnation of the group, as The Oak Ridge Quartet, started out in the Nauty-Foreties, their first singles pressed by Capitol Records in 1946. Over time, the line-up changed, as did the name of the group from 'Quartet' to 'Boys' early in the Nauty-Sixties (t'was hip to be 'Boys'). Though they sangs the gospel, it was to the tastes of Red Belt America, eventually going country-full once their latter-era line-up was concreted. When they recorded this particular album though, the group was in transition, Willie Wynn and Herman Harper the vets, Duane Allen and William Gordon the fresh chickens of the coup. And boy was Mr. Gordon ever fresh as this point, prim and proper with nary a whisker of beard found on his chin. Hard to imagine him in any other form.

In the grand ol' Opry scheme of things, At Their Best isn't the most remarkable of releases under the Oak Ridge Boys banner – they have tons and tons of gospel recordings highlighting their harmony talents. What makes this one unique from the others is that it came out on United Artists Records, more known for releasing soundtracks of the time (Jim Bond movies, It's A Mad, Mad, Maddy, Mad-Mad World, The Greatest Story Done Told). It was a one-off deal for The Boys, more comfortable releasing records with strict gospel outlet Heart Warming. I guess someone must have liked their full-range vocals to give them a little larger exposure.

Not much to remark upon the music on my end. It's gospel, mangles! Lots of songs about loving Jesus, loving the Lord, loving your home with Jesus and the Lord within. All charming and quaint where I come from, but The Boys of Oak Ridge sound quite pleasant singing these hymns with organs, pianos, soft drums, and electric guitar in support. I'll believe it that it's them at their best, for the time.

Aythar - Astronautica

Carpe Sonum Records: 2016

Aythar is Tamás Károly Tamás, who- wait, his name without the middle is “Tamás Tamás”! Holy cow, that stupid joke in the Super Mario Brothers movie actually has validity! You know, where the Mario Brothers are in the cop office giving a testimony, and so not Italian Bob Hoskins says his name is “Mario Mario”, while John Leguizamo is Luigi Mario. Because they're the MARIO Brothers, get it, so Mario's full name must be Mario Mario! Cripes, was that movie balls. At least the theatre line-up was almost non-existent, a novel experience after Jurrasic Park was busting all the blocks at the time. Good God is this ever a horribly long, dumb tangent. I promise I'll never do this again ...until I do do this again. (hee, hee, 'doo-doo')

Where was I? Ah, right, Aythar. The alias itself first properly emerged around 2010, but Mr. Tamás has made music for much longer than that. Go to his Bandcamp, you'll find “rudimentary and amateur” productions from as far back as the early '90s. When he finally went more public with his works, it was still by independent means, self-releasing five albums in the span of a half-decade. Still, his ear for Berlin-School ambient and space techno was too good to keep under wraps forever, thus now finding himself on two of the most prominent labels promoting the stuff in Carpe Sonum Records and ...txt. This here Astronautica is his debut album with the former print, and his first physical release period. Well, if you discount old tape stuff never meant for commercial release, but if Aythar somehow becomes as adored as Boards Of Canada, you bet those items will fetch stupid amounts of money!

As the tasty retro cover art implies, Astronautica has its sights squarely on space music, the opening titular cut featuring Apollo 11 radio chatter. Yeah, we've heard these recordings many, many, many times in electronic music, but I never tire of 'em, always drawing me out into the cosmos with those intrepid cosmonauts. What I've also heard before are those opening synth pads, almost a direct lift from the old Pete Namlook track of Pulsar as Pulsation. Because if you're gonna' impress the Fax+ community, it's always best to crib from an obscure track, amirite?

Actually, it's a very tasteful crib, Mr. Tamás making it clear it's intended as an homage. I'll buy that. Aythar even provides a dancefloor version as the original Pulsation EP did, though clearly his Deep-Tech Remix is much sturdier than the hard trance of Transpulsation.

And the rest? Mystical Clouds does the beatless ambient-techno thing. Alien Worlds Part 1 goes widescreen ambient that could make AstroPilot gush, while Part 2 goes more blippy-bloopy as a Detroit techno guy would. Reactor and Space In My Heart stretch further back to the Berlin-School era, while Moon Landing returns to dubbier, Fax+ era ambient with more astro-chatter. All in all, definitely scope out Astronautica if your old-school itch needs a strong, satisfying scratch.

Architects Of Existence - Architects Of Existence

Carpe Sonum Records: 2017

Mick Chillage manages a heck of a work rate lately, with an impressive clip of albums released. True, a lot of it is the sort of noodly ambient that's rightly criticized as minimalist musical wanking, but me, I'm perfectly fine with a little ol' mental masturbation, so long as the tone and timbre used sparks something in my cerebellum. And Mr. Chillage's style done does that indeed, but even he must fall back on collaborative help, pairing up with Lee Norris on many occasions as Autumn Of Communion. One is okay, but if Mick has aspirations of becoming a dominate force in the world of ambient (probably not, but let's play the thought experiment), he needs to up his collaboration game. Like, how many pair-ups has Mr. Norris undertaken the past decade?

So Chillage again done did got himself another musician to work with, though from a rather obscure source. His partner in crime for this Architects of Existence project (geez, is that ever a Fax+y name) is Eric “The” Taylor, who hails from Rochester, New York, and has barely any presence within Lord Discogs' archives. He did contribute to the incomparable Die Welt Ist Klang box-set (track 82, on CD8, if you're curious), and is part of a group called The Fragile Fate, who made their debut on the Carpe Sonum sub-label, Carpe Sonum Novum, favouring music that doesn't fit the typical Carpe Sonum ambient mould (downtempo dub, experimental techno). The Fragile Fate lean more krautrock, with Mr. “The” Taylor supplying the guitar work. Ooh, might Architects Of Existence be of a similar vibe then, with spaced out string fuzz complementing weird Moog manipulations? No, no it is not.

Architects of Existence consists of four tracks, the shortest a 'mere' eleven minutes of length, the longest nearly reaching the thirty minute mark. To be honest, the first time I put the CD on, I thought the whole thing was one long track, each Part merely an index demarcation. But no, there are differences with each track, though you likely won't notice them if you aren't paying much attention.

Part 1 features the type of ambient I expect of Mick Chillage, long calm soothing pad work that puts your mind floating in space or suspended in ice caverns, passages of subtle burbling synths coming and going. Part 2 is a minimalist drone piece, very little happening aside from atonal pads and subtle field recordings sounding like you're inside some computer lab. Part 3 gets more old-school, pulsing synths dripping in reverb prominently featured in the first half, with a lengthy lead-out of spaced-out effects and soft space pads. Part 4 is more drone, wind chimes joining midway through, followed by distant field recordings, and a very long atonal lead-out. It's all su-u-u-u-per subtle craftsmanship, and very much not for everyone. Hell, it even tests my patience for minimalist ambient music. It does leave me curious where Mick and Eric might take this project though, if they do any more.

Grey Area - And Then The Clouds

Waveform Records: 2005

I've claimed Waveform Records had a brilliant run in the early portions of the '00s, the first half-decade seeing several releases from fresh faces releasing great debut albums. Right, there were a couple 'meh' offerings too, and a few who never amounted to much else of note afterwards, but the fact the label was giving so many unknown names their chances was remarkable indeed. It makes everything from that period worth at least a check-out, and I've been woefully neglectful of doing so. On the other hand, can you blame me for skipping out on this one for so long now? Compared to the usual unique cover art on many of Waveform's releases, this one is so very plain and drab indeed. Looks more like something you'd expect from the sterile dub techno camps, though given the name of the artist is Grey Area, and a title of And Then The Clouds, what else could you do with it?

I should also mention Grey Area wasn't exactly a new act, nor is this album a debut. Rather, it's a collection of previous works, with a couple new/unreleased tunes added to fill things out. Grey Area itself first emerged in 1997 with an eponymous LP on Psy-Harmonics, the Australian psy trance label you might remember me name-dropping on one of those United State Of Ambience CDs from Moonshine Music. The man behind the pseudonym is Alex Salter, who's done TV music for an even longer period of time.

As Grey Area, he put out three albums, the last one in 2002. I guess after Waveform scoped out some 'down under' acts like Pitch Black, they also came across this Grey Area fella', and found his style of dubby downtempo jived with their own. He wasn't making any new music under the alias though, so here's a 'best of' CD instead. Included are five tracks from his third LP Penumbra, two from his second album Absolute, one from his first album, and two fresh cuts titled Sadness Dub and Avon Dub.

Funny enough, Sadness Dub as an opener basically is a dub techno tune, almost confirming my assumption of what sort of music was on here. But nay, Grey Area sticks to a steady, dubby downtempo vibe. It's rather similar to the style Sounds From The Ground employ, though a little more psychedelic and crusty than their jams. He even gets his nu-jazz beat on with Modular Drift, while Pure & Simple wouldn't sound out of place in a smokey cafe. Elsewhere, Mr. Salter does the ambient dub thing (Avon Dub, Penumbra), or dabbles with sound experiments (Iona, Amphibia, that slooshing water in Ersatz Filament... ergh, makes me have bathroom thoughts).

I can't say And Then The Clouds is one of Waveform's classics, but as a companion album from a time when we saw Sub Conscious, Ape To Angel, Luminal, Prima Materia, Blood Is Shining and Omnimotion, it definitely holds its own in such company.

The Oak Ridge Boys - American Dreams

MCA Records: 1989

Greetings, Past-Peoples, I am 2073 Sykonee. Yes, the same writer/reviewer/critic/knob that usually takes up space on this antiquated blooger, but from “The F-U-U-UTUR-R-RE”, as some so quaintly put it. Sykonee Prime made use of his time-dimension machine to take a jaunt forward for once, and despite some really wacky paradoxes even Doc Rick Brown, The Schwifty-Bitch would have trouble explaining, approached I to learn of what developments had gone down in electronic music. I was willing to tell himself this, but he was quickly fascinated by the ponderous amount of social-net music from The Oak Ridge Boys instead. Why them, I asked myself, to which I told me, “They're one of the few officially sanctioned acts by the Atomic Brotherhood.” Young-Blood Me was of course confused – what did I expect from skipping over so much history?

Without getting too over-written, The Oak Ridge Boys are allowed due to their association with the nuclear research base near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, starting out in the Nauty-Forties as a country and gospel group that performed there. For seeing is believing that only music with relevance to our atomic overlords and saviours is deemed worthy of our advanced cochleas.

Sykonee Prime found that fascinating and asked me to return from my time to review some music from The Oak Ridge Boys. “Whatever I can find,” I did say, “for a specifically cheaply amount of course.” Oh, such a naive idea – I had no clue just how extensive a discography The Oak Ridge Boys – in all their iterations – does have. But sure, I can play with myself.

And so it is with my logical but impractical alphabetical approach to reviewing music, up first is American Dreams. This was the last LP The Oak Ridge Boys released in the Nauty-Eighties, a decade that was as commercially successful as they'd ever be (back when such things mattered). Not all was right with the group though, as their iconic 'mountain man' tenor singer William Golden was off on a solo career, replaced by bass player Steve Sanders instead. He has a definite tenor singing voice, but just look at him in that group photo. Doesn't he stand out at odds with that mullet? What was wrong with people of the Nauty-Eighties?

By this point, the boys from near Oak Ridge were settled into a comfortable country sound, the odd gospel harmony thrown in. There's peppy tunes like Cajun Girl and Don't Give Up, humorous sap like If I Was To Start Crying (spoiler: they do at the end), covers of Rod Stewart songs (In My Own Crazy Way), ditties penned by Joey Scarbury (famous for the theme song of the documentary The Greatest American Hero), creeper fantasies in Bed Of Roses, and the mandated Americana odes like An American Family, Turning For Home, and The American Dream. I forget, did every American home have a painting of Jesus In The Garden hanging on the wall? Me memory ain't what it used to be, you know.

Dynatron - Aeternus

Aphashia Records/Blood Music: 2015/2016

When I started branching out from synthwave's shores and away from my Perturbator comfort zone, one of the acts that caught my attention early was Dynatron. It didn't hurt that the Jeppe Hasseriis project sprung from the same digital print as James Kent – Aphasia Records – but that whole 'no CDs in discography' factor put him on the back-burner for yours truly. Still, thought I, should he ever get himself in on that physical format deal, I'd absolutely scope his stuff out proper-like.

And so he done did, scoring himself a re-issue deal of his first two albums on Blood Music. Huh, is the Finnish label gonna' be scouring up all these wayward Aphasia alum then? Might we soon see Protector 101, Starforce, or Judge Bitch on Blood Music too?

As for where Dynatron falls on the synthwave spectrum, ol' Jeppe has his sights set squarely on the stars, EPs and albums celebrating all manner of pulpy sci-fi stylings. Many producers fancy themselves 'outrun' racers tearing up the tarmac, but Mr. Hasseriis is all about that Throttle Up, splitting the spaces between planetary places! Because who needs sissy earthly nitros when you can have literal rocket fuel as your means of propulsion! The cosmos is a dope domain, is what I'm saying. I'll never run out of alliterative abuses, yo'! Never!

Aeturnus is the second album from Dynatron, and has a little more of a narrative going for it than his first of Escape Velocity. For those of you that are Latin impaired, the title roughly means 'eternal' or 'endless', which is a handy, fancy way of describing outer space. And Jeppe doesn't mince words in selling the setting in his track titles (The Outer Rims Of Traversed Space, Towards The Island Universe, Out There). Other times he goes more terrestrial (Travelling The Wastelands), or roaming realms other than our own (Not Of This World, Escape). Basically, we're on a ride where no one's gone before, and it's kinda' scary out there. Can we even make it back home?

All that said, this is just assumed on my part, as the music itself doesn't specifically imply anything from the song titles, beyond the tone and vibe they impart. Some do serve their titles quite well: Hyperion Sunrise is as big and synthy as an opening track should be, Aeturnus Theme is as grand as you'd expect of a synthwave theme song, closing cut A Beacon From Home offers the sort of hopeful denouement credits score as any hectic space adventure should warrant. Tracks are thrilling when needed (holy cow, does Escape kick my ass!), others rightfully mysterious (a lot of tracks with big titles that will eat self-imposed word count).

I really have no gripes with Aeternus as a spacey synthwave album. Yet it feels like it's missing just that extra bit of narrative focus that's made so many of Perturbator's albums winners. Just have to wait and see if Dynatron reaches it with his next album.

Lorenzo Masotto - Aeolian Processes

Dronarivm: 2017

I've bought a few releases from Dronarivm now, but it wasn't with intent to scope the Moscow label out. It just happened that way, me spotting a few eye-catching items, and taking a blind leap of faith that they'd turn out interesting. That they have, so I figured a little stop-over at Dronarivm's Bandcamp couldn't hurt either, see what their full discography looks like. And lo', wouldn't you know it, they had one of those nifty 'bulk CD' deals available too. I sure as shit can't resist one of those, and I may as well spring for the big ol' 10x bundle while I'm at it. Only... there isn't even that many available in one fell swoop, Dronarivm's limited-runs having thus created a stock issue. Ah well, the five-piece it is then, starting with Aeolian Processes from Lornezo Masotto.

Mr. Masotto hails from Italy (shock!), and is more of a classical musician than the drone ambient sort I've often found on Dronarivm. Not that this is some anomaly with the label, as they do offer outlets for modern classical composers. As this blog's a testament towards though, it's not a style of music I typically indulge in, but as the more minimalist strains of the genre can tread into ambient's territory, I'll cross paths with it on occasion. That all being said, I cannot deny it was the cover art that drew me into Aeolian Processes, a windswept tree shorn naked by atmospheric forces a striking image among Dronarivm's usual fare. You'd almost expect it a dark ambient release. All that's missing is an abandoned boat laying at the base of the tree's trunk.

Lorenzo primarily specializes in piano compositions, of which makes up the bulk of the music here as well. Again, I'm no expert on this aspect of modern classical, though I do know this is a wide open field of expertise, several pianists across the globe plying their trade to captivated audiences. Martha Argerich! Vladimir Horowitz! Evgeny Kissin! Sergei Rachmanioff! Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli! Maurizio Pollini! Yuja Wang! Krystian Zimerman! Mikhail Pletnev! Vladimir Ashkenzy! These are all great piano players, because Ranker.com tells me they are. I'm not sure how Lorenzo Masotto stacks against them, but I bet they don't add subtle electronic drones and burbling synths to their compositions.

His electronic treatments provide each track with their own flavor beyond being another lovely piece of melancholy piano music. Space Flowers, When The City Sleeps, and the titular cut have little bloopy arps playing in the background. My Great-Grandmother Lived In The Mountains makes use of pulsing synths playing in reverse. Geyser features blobby burbles bubbling out. Desert and Repeater indulge a little pad drone in support. Drone even features something approaching percussion.

I can't say Aeolian Processes is the most exceptional album of piano music I've ever heard, because I'm hardly well-versed in the genre to give such a definitive statement. For those rather grey days, however, I do find it most pleasant indeed.

JāFU - Add To Cart

Waveform Records: 2012

For so very long two acts have dominated Waveform Records: Sounds From The Ground and ZerO One. Their material maintains a consistent level of quality, sure, but likely isn't for everyone, even those who vibe on ambient techno and dubby downtempo. And while some labels get by with a couple core acts, they tend to remain ultra-niche. I don't want Waveform to be ultra-niche – I want more folks to hear their early wonderful releases, their amazing five-year run after the turn of the century. They need new blood to bring in new ears though, so if scoping out a dubstep album will get the ball rolling again, so be it. Besides, my Waveform Records CD collection can't be completed if I skip out on non-redundant items.

And hey, maybe this will turn out as one of those mythical 'good' dubstep albums that I've heard much rumour about. The PR blurb already proclaims this falling on the chill side of the genre, and I've liked a little bit of what I've heard in that spectrum, mostly care of Liquid Stranger's offerings on Interchill Records. James Fuller, the Canadian lad behind the Jafu moniker (or JāFU, if you want to get fancy with it), even appeared on the Saltspring Island label, as well as Dubstep For Deep Heads, and his own conglomerate print Chord Marauders. Waveform was where he got his start though, with this debut album Add To Cart. Man, just how many careers has Waveform launched anyway? Or at least provided that initial push out the door.

Add To Cart opens with a few tunes doing the sort of chill dubstep I don't mind one bit: music that's actually deep and dubby, with a simple, solid downtempo bounce that never loses the plot. Yeah, Jafu still does that over-compressed half-step snare, while tracks like Escalation and Encountering Intruders feature those mid-range wobbles one can't help but associate with the worst aspects of dubstep these days. Mr. Fuller at least rides his rhythms with some finesse and flow though, making them sound none too shabby. All too often producers throw in a bunch of randomized wub-wubs that serve no musical purpose other than wanking off the effects plugins.

Like when he does it in tracks like Subways, Fish Headz, Terminal, and Surgery. Or just go overboard in showboating some 'dope' sound they came up with, as in Yeasaw. Geez, does this ever sound corny. But I get it, I really do! For a generation of kids, this is their distorted guitar solo, or their acid knob tweakage, or their gated supersaw pad, or their flanged hardstyle kick – it's their jam, man! Fair enough, but why can't it stay on rhythm, like in One Lined Face? That shit gets my shoulders boppin', it does.

For as many tracks I like on Add To Cart, at least another third I'd sooner 'add to bin'. At eighteen cuts though, that's still a decent ratio to come away from. On a dubstep album, anyway.

ACE TRACKS: September 2017

Five years now, and I still haven't finished going through my entire music collection. Well, technically six, since I started the listening process a year before I decided writing about the experience could turn into a blog. But the end is on the horizon for sure, the last of the large letters in 'W' now finished. Just a casual little jaunt to the finish line for the remaining three letters. Except there's that alphabetical backlog accumulated over the summer, a much heftier amount of material there. Like, nearly two months worth. I think I can get it all finished before the end of the year, but man, is it ever gonna' be tight.

Then what after that, I wonder? Do I go back to those missing albums from the start of my alphabetical arrangement? I'm starting to feel obligated to, just so it doesn't look like I'm deliberately avoiding items. Like all those ambient dub compilations, various entries in the Balance series, plus a few bona-fide classics that this blog would feel incomplete without me reviewing them (Big Men Cry, 6 Feet Deep, 604, Alter Ego, Blue Moon Station, Blade, CB4). *sigh* I'll never end this, will I? On that cheering note, here's the ACE TRACKS for September 2017.


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Sounds From The Ground - Widerworld

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 20%
Percentage Of Rock: 13%
Most “WTF?” Track: The live Hybrid bits, if you 'd forgotten just how dope these guys used to be.

It may feel like there's a lot of Wu-Tang Clan on here, but really it's only two album's worth – an album and half even. What can you expect from the back-end of the letter 'W' anyway? The Wu dominate that realm, no matter what type of music you listen to. A decent variety of classic rock, modern psy-chill, mid-era downtempo, and Golden Era 'electronica' rounds out the rest, with the entirety of Hybrid's Live Angle set lumped at the end. Seriously, if you haven't heard it yet, you've no excuse now! Well, unless you just don't have Spotify, which kneels the question why you're even bothering with these Ace Tracks updates in the first place.