Tholen - Sternklang

Cyclic Law: 2007

I've been collecting CDs for a quarter-century now, a good two-thirds of my lifespan. In most of that time, they come in standard jewel cases or digipaks, with an occasional spiffed-up box-set thrown in for good measure (cardboard, vinyl, wood). About the oddest things I've gotten were the metal tins from Fabric and the recycled jackets from Silent Season. These past couple months though, my God have the packaging variations ever exploded. The weird plastic cases from Spiritech, the stitched cover photos from Slaapwel, not to mention a truly bizarre offering in Wednesday Campanella's Superman (soon...).

Of all my recent hauls, however, Cyclic Law has proven consistently inconsistent, running the gamut from thick hardcover photo book (Vortex's Morloch), ultra-shiny digipak (Psychomanteum's Oneironaut), and now this for Tholen's Sternklang. What is this, exactly? I've never seen anything like it before, a simple six-panel cardboard sleeve, with an extra inch of height. Dear me, that'll never fit in a CD tower! Good thing I've long since converted to open shelving for music storage. Impracticality aside, I cannot deny it does provide better cover art.

Enough about packaging – what do we have here in Tholen's Sternklang? For that matter, what does sternklang even mean? *seven... minutes... later...* Geez'it, that Wiki page sure is filled with highfalutin music theory. Apparently “Star Sound” is a three-hour piece composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen, to be performed in an outdoor setting and involves five choirs, intoned harmonic sounds, ninth partials of the overtone series, and in proportions of the constellations Boötes and Coma Berenices. I... think Tholen's piece just uses the title as his own point of inspiration. It's definitely not as long as the Stockhausen composition.

According to Lord Discogs, Tholen – previously Rostiges Riesenrad to the folks at Grottenvolk Rundfunk – hasn't released much, this being his debut album under the alias. It's an ambitious outing, a single seventy-one minute long track taking up the CD, though the Bandcamp option breaks it up into three Parts. It probably could have been indexed further, clear segments and passages different from one another as it progresses through, but then you wouldn't be forced to hear Sternklang as a whole, as intended by the artist.

Throughout it all, Tholen takes you on the sort of dark, cosmic sojourn I've come to expect from Cyclic Law (and, er, Cyro Chamber): droning, cinematic, claustrophobic, empty, enthralling. Most of the early portions are taken up by spaced-out dark ambience, with ghostly whispers and distant sounds echoing from the infinite black. Things grow more tense by Part II, with heavier emphasis on abrasive guitar tones and piercing sonics. Part III returns to the drone for a while, indulges some minimalist mechanical menace (no, I don't want to go into cryosleep!), eventually capping off with prominent forlorn synths and melancholic melodies, as though whatever sights we saw on this cosmic journey forever fade from memory, lost to the ravages of an indifferent universe. So it goes with dark space ambient, doesn't it.

Lars Leonhard - Stella Nova

Ultimae Records: 2013

I liked 1549. I liked Passengers At Night. Why haven't I gotten any Lars Leonhard musiks since? Dude's gone mostly independent, is why, which mean self-releasing his work now. Fine and dandy, but that also means he no longer has that label backing for manufacturing hard copies, and for too long I was a stubborn bastard about buying digital. I'm now a new man though, with new perspectives and new facial hair, including lightening my spending reigns on Bandcamp options ...if there's a discount code involved at least. Thus it's only appropriate that when Ultimae offered one, I picked me up a non-physical copy of the EP that first introduced me to Lars Leonhard, Stella Nova. Finally get to hear what's behind those shiny reflective spheres!

And if anything, holy cow do these three tracks mark as close to a 'ground zero' in the label's shift into dub techno's domain as any. Right, the spacious, dubby downtempo sound was already part of Lars' style, but glancing over the surrounding releases in Ultimae's catalogue is illuminating in hindsight. Prior to this, you had stuff like Solar Fields' Origin #2 (to date still his final release), Aes Dana's uptempo Pollen, and final entries from Carbon Based Lifeforms (plus Sync24), Cell, and Hybrid Leisureland (as Connect.Ohm). After Stella Nova, you find that Passages compilation, Aes Dana's collaborations with Miktek, and eventually Martin Nonstatic. Circular's Moon Pool feels like an outlier where Ultimae went after this EP.

The titular opener is about as you'd expect of downtempo dub techno, reverb and echo tones drifting in endless space with sub-bass frequencies a guiding rudder. There's a tiny, spritely melody some two-thirds deep, reminding me of an old Alter Ego tune called Chinese Eyes. Wow, Stella Nova's a modern minimalist-dub version of that, now that I think about it.

Whispering Colors has more breathing room at nine-minutes in length, and follows in a similar path as Stella Nova, though with a flowing, swaying swing to its rhythm. There's also more melody present in this tune, but the dubby stabs still dominate most of the frequencies. Hidden Places gets on that bleepy techno vibe with cascading echo effects pinging about. It's about as far from what you'd expect from the Ultimae sound of yore, but definitely what you'd expect from Ultimae of yeh'e. I don't know what the present-tense of “yore” is.

That's all there is to this EP. If you're at all familiar with Lars Leonhard's brand of dubby downtempo techno, you're in safe hands here. Stella Nova comes more off as an introduction of the man to the Ultimae faithful, testing the waters whether his sound would jive with a label known more for its psy-chill output. He did release another EP with them the following year (Burning Clouds), but by the time he came out with another full-length, he'd gone back to BineMusic for the deal. Kinda' feels like ol' Lars was one that got away from Ultimae in the end.

Ishqamatics - Spacebound

...txt: 2013

Finally focusing on two projects for the first time, for the price of one! ...kind of. Lee Norris, I've obviously talked up plenty now, but haven't gotten into the alias that started it all for him: Metamatics. Maybe I will at some point – it's not like he's put it into mothballs – but dude's got so much music out there, I gotta' prioritize a little. As I've only 'discovered' Mr. Norris a couple years ago, of course his recent projects get my attention first. As for Ishq, I've heard a track or two over the years, have seen the name dropped in many familiar labels and compilations. The main guy behind the project, Matt Hillier, was something of a journeyman in the early '90s before breaking out with Ishq, and has had a rather productive career ever since.

So, Ishqamatics, yet another Norris pairing from that fruitful year of 2013, when he was hooking up with nearly everyone for some collaborative work if they released music on his ...txt print. That included Ishq, so naturally Lee looked over in Matt's direction and said, “That's a mighty fine sound you have there – wanna' connect?” So they did, even contributing a track to the indispensable Pete Namlook tribute set Die Welt Ist Klang (it always comes back to that, doesn't it). By the end of 2013, two albums resulted from the Ishqamatics sessions, one for the label Anodize (Earthbound), and another for ...txt, Spacebound. The latter sold out quickly, because of course it did, but demand was so high that another run of copies was manufactured. Hurrah, I could get me a copy as well! I mean, I ought to check it out, what with it being the default music on the ...txt homepage and all. Must be Very Important Music for such an honour.

Well, it's space ambient, that much is sure, which is something of a surprise where Ishq is concerned, having built a rep' for Earthly zen music and all. Hillier's tones do come through often, contrasting quite nicely with Norris' more frigid electronics. Sometimes the Ishq stylee dominates, as in the lengthy Bound To Earth featuring sitar drones for much of its duration (whoa, getting Shaikh flashbacks). Lots of noodly, droney, spacey ambient follows that track, field recordings coming and going before being sent back out into the cosmos. Sometimes there's glitched-up radio chatter, and a little jazz ditty plays from an overhead speaker in Round The Ringstone, but if I'm honest, there's little to detail, droning synth tones and minute melodies the name of the game here.

Spacebound is alluring, engaging, and flowing as an album, always leaving me like I'm drifting out in space while remaining tethered to terra firma. At the same time though, not much really leaped out at me either. It's an odd one, where everything I hear is exactly what I like to hear, but imprinting little upon my brain afterwards. Maybe there's something to be said for the unexpected.

Various - Sounds Of The Seventies: The Late '70s

Time Life Music: 1993

This was volume thirty-four out of a series of thirty-seven, and don't this come off like the crusty teat of a withered cow. Sounds Of The Seventies had already given the late '70s ample representation with two rounds of yearly spotlights. Following that, titles such as Seventies Top Forty, Guitar Power, Dance Fever, Punk & New Wave, plus several featured looks into FM Rock and AM Pop rounded up the stragglers, plus three more CDs of AM Nuggets after this. No other compilation in this series highlighted such nebulous ideas like “early '70s” or “mid-'70s”. What gives?

Time Life Music gives their reasoning as thus: “The late '70s was a schizophrenic time for pop music.” Basically, this CD is intended to showcase the myriad genres hitting the airwaves, much of which had little to do with each other. When your opening three songs include Donna Summer's true-disco hit Last Dance, The Village People's camp-disco hit In The Navy, and Boston's silly rock anthem More Than A Feeling, it does impart a sense that things were going a little kooky towards the end of that decade. America, if you thought that was weird, you should have heard the synthy sounds emanating from Europe and Asia too!

Seriously though, there are some interesting contrasts on this CD. The theme to Happy Days is on here, and that's followed by the MTV defining Video Killed The Radio Star from The Buggles, which I always assumed was a 1980 tune because of MTV. Nope, 1979 was when it was released, a technicality but still fits with a Late '70s theme. Punk gets a look-in by way of Blondie's Dreaming, which is followed upon by the... country soft rock (?) of Dave Mason's We Just Disagree. The sultry side of funk-n-soul gets repped by Marvin Gaye's I Want You and The Manhattans' Kiss And Say Goodbye, and rockier outings from John Stewart's Gold, Andrew Gold's Lonely Boy, and Bob Welch's Ebony Eyes show up. Um, yeah, most of the kick-ass rock tunes were already used up in prior Sounds Of The Seventies CDs.

That's one thing I'll give some props to this series though, always featuring fresh tunes with each volume. I sifted through each one, and didn't spot a single repeat, a remarkable feat considering not one instance of Neil Young showing up (da'fuq!??), not to mention nearly no synth music included – Hot Butter's Popcorn did show up though, because how could it not? I suppose there's a couple examples of synth on this CD too, like The Buggles, and the Moog solo on Alan O'Day's Undercover Angel. And let's not forget Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You! While that tune's about as un-electronic as it gets, it found a new generation of interest after The Orb sampled it in their breakout A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That you know the rest of it. So in true 'begging-chosing' fashion, rave music finally gets its nod in Sounds Of The Seventies.

Various - Sounds Of The Seventies: 1977

Time Life Music: 1990

Anyone remember those mail order music collections? They'd advertise on TV with a huge, scrolling playlist, and you'd hear some familiar tunes that they just don't play on the radio anymore, plus your original record or tape of the album has kinda' deteriorated over the years, but you never bothered to buy that new-fangled CD replacement because you just weren't sure of the format yet? Yeah, those ads. At least, I assume that was the pitch with them, letting Boomers regain all their favourite music for a low-low price of $6.99 per CD (or tape), with a new one being shipped every month, like music Christmas every thirty days. I'm not saying Time Life Music's series of The Sounds Of The Sixties/Seventies/Eighties was an example of this – I honestly don't recall any ads of the sort back then – but it sure comes off that way. Lack of barcode on these discs suggests so.

And no, I haven't come into possession an entire collection of these, but a former owner was offloading some, so being the CD hoarding-whore that I am, nabbed a couple because why not. Logically, Sounds Of The Seventies started off with a rundown of music per year. It then went on to a Take Two round of yearly options, giving twenty volumes of '70s music. The initial run lasted up to thirty-seven releases, and the excuses to keep feeding you music from this decade ran lame towards the end, believe you me. According to Lord Discogs, they stretched things even further past the original thirty-seven, because why end a steady revenue stream, eh? Since most of these tunes were coming from the Warner Music Group, they could keep milking it into the new millennium. They didn't, thankfully, but they could have!

So let's dig into the year 1977. Of the twenty songs in this track list, there's no Kraftwerk, no Vangelis, no Tangerine Dream, and no Can. Well, so much for keeping my interest. Fail.

Haha, just kidding. Of course weird, experimental synth music from Europe has no place in a compilation such as this. We're only after the tunes Americans were digging in the year 1977, which includes rock, funk, country, and soul. Maybe a dash of disco too.

There aren't many surprises then, most of the songs the light-weight, easy-going stuff that's impossible to offend on the radio. Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, Steve Miller Band's Fly Like An Eagle, Foreigner's Cold As Ice and Feels Like The First Time, Linda Ronstadt's It's So Easy and Blue Bayou, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band's Blinded By The Light (“revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night”). The filler stuff features artists like Glen Campbell, 10cc, James Taylor, Al Stewart... a lot of songs I've probably heard before, but don't get my blood pumpin', y'know?

Frankly, 1977 is rather milquetoast, save the glorious opening beat of Bee Gee's Stayin' Alive towards the end. Astounding how that rhythm can carry such a punch forty years on.

Andrew Heath - Soundings

Disco Gecko: 2017

I've been neglectful of Andrew Heath. It's not like he's been absent, releasing music at a yearly clip, but it's been a few albums since I last talked him up. Thing is, though I generally like his minimalist ambient works, it's also something that's reliably just there, not terribly fussed about getting attention. I can go back to it whenever I feel, comfortable that it'll sound exactly how I expect it will, and that'll be that. Seeing as how it's been two years (!) since I last reviewed one of Mr. Heath's records, it stands to reason my attention's been diverted elsewhere in the meanwhile. Absolutely so, labels like ...txt, Dronarivm, Cryo Chamber, and, er, Psychonavigation having lured my ambient explorations away from Disco Gecko in that time. Well, better get caught up on ol' Andrew then, starting with his most recent offering, Soundings.

One thing Mr. Heath has started putting more focus on is his use of field recordings, making them the guiding backbone of his compositions rather than sonic texturing. That is no more prominently displayed than with the opening track Wanderlust, where the good ol' clackity-clack of a typewriter greets us. More often than not, when I hear an album open with a typewriter, I expect the person at the machine to proclaim he's taking his work back underground (to keep it from falling into the wrong hands), but I suspect Andrew's manifesto isn't so renegade. Instead, this piece features distant footsteps, crackling static, soft synthy timbres, and those distinct, sparse piano tones that will always bring the Harold Budd comparisons, though Heath's use of them goes into abstraction. Halfway through the fourteen-minute piece, acoustic guitar plucks and muted dialog take the lead, though the typewriter/piano combo does return for the final leg. If Wanderlust was about capturing the feeling of one's mind drifting while trying to get proper-work done, it certainly does that. You've no idea how many times I got distracted even writing this paragraph!

For as much Andrew made in the liner notes about his field recordings being his primary source of inspiration, from which he crafted his music around, I don't get that sense from the rest of Soundings. For sure there's more throughout, the usual assortment of open areas, intimate settings, and the like, but nothing quite so significant as the typewriter of Wanderlust. Rather, he's given more time and space for the guest musicians to do their things. This includes clarinet from Bill Howgego in A Break In The Clouds, cello from Stéphane Marlot in Days In-Between, and the usual instrumental accompaniments from Anne Chris Bakker, whom Heath's been working with for some time now. They're all fine pieces, though does edge the music closer into modern classical's domain than ambient.

And in the end, I still found myself more enthralled by Andrew's 'traditional' songs, such as the Bandcamp bonus of The Painted Surface, something of a sober reflection of Wanderlust. Navigating art halls never felt so isolating.

Various - Soma Records: 20 Years (Slam & Silicone Soul Mixes)

Soma Quality Recordings: 2011

A 20-Years party ain't complete without a couple DJ mixes thrown into the, um, mix, and Soma Records has plenty of tools in their arsenal to do the deed with. As is typical in such an event, one set handles current material, while the other digs deep into the archives, and the results are about as you'd expect. No matter how 'cutting edge' or 'forward thinking' or 'better produced' current material may present itself, it simply cannot hold a candle to the bonafide classics standing the test of time. It is what it is, so you can only hope that the upfront tunes at least don't embarrass themselves too much in relying on gimmicky trends of the era they came out in.

And Slam's set (the 'current' one) mostly avoids such pratfalls. The Soma owners grant themselves some leeway in plucking tunes that have been a part of the label's history by presenting them with contemporary remixes. This includes Diabla (Christian Smith & Wehbba Remix), Stepback (Adam Beyer & Jesper Dahlback Remix), Passage Of Time (D'Julz Remix), Lifetimes (Pan-Pot Bass Times Mix), Right On, Right On (Nick Curly Remix), and Positive Education (Zero T Remix)... kind of. That last one's actually a d'n'b rub, which just wouldn't fit in a deep, tech-house, techno set such as this, so Slam uses a snippet of bass while bridging two versions of Stepback together. Which comes after that Lifetimes track no less, so that's technically four Slam tracks in a row. Not to mention opening with the Deepchord Atmospheric Rebuild of Groovelock, plus the Oxia Remix of Human a little later after. Slam sure love themselves some Slam tunes.

For the most part, their set starts from deep house groove before riding tech-house funk to a thumping techno peak, indulging a couple detours into minimalist-plod (oh God, why'd you use that mix of the lone Vector Lovers track?), with enough clever blends and layering for the ardent trainspotter to enjoy. I mean, you gotta' love how cheeky Slam is in using just a portion of Groovelock for intro purposes, when Deepchord's rub runs over thirteen minutes.

Silicone Soul takes on CD3, and oh boy, just look at all these mint Soma tunes! Daft Punk's Alive! Desert Storm's Scoraig 93! Rejuvination's Requiem! Alex Smoke's Chica Wappa! Chaser's Destination Unknown! Funk d'Void's Diabla (Heavenly Mix! (wait) Silicone Soul's Right On, Right On! (haven't we already...?) Slam's Positive Education! (now just hold here...!) Okay, so there's a lot of repeats from the Soma Classics CD. Mr. Soul does a few clever acapellas and overlays along the way, but I'm kinda' worn out on Positive Education now, thank you.

Also, if you aren't fussed about the DJ mixes, the digital options for 20 Years does include all the original, unmixed tracks for your enjoyment. I usually stump for the physical, but damn, even if you stick to streaming sources, that's a good deal. More than enough music there to get the whole Soma story, and then some.

Various - Soma Records: 20 Years (Soma Classics)

Soma Quality Recordings: 2011

Has there been any UK label more influential than Soma Quality Recordings? Yes, yes there has. Many more, in fact, and I could name-drop a dozen of them off the top of my head. I won't, though, because this is supposed to be a summation of Soma, a label that often likens itself as Very Important, but is honestly more like Kinda' Important. Still, they've released a lot of classic tech-house and techno over the years, and was a go-to source for many top progressive house jocks from the lands of Britannica. They've been steady homes for Slam, The Black Dog (Phase II), Samuel L Session, Silicone Soul, Funk D'Void, and DeepChord. Soma also introduced me to one of my all-time favourite artists of the past decade in Vector Lovers, and that's gotta' count for something. Oh, and a French house duo got their break on this label too, though they were quickly lured away by big Virgin dollars, so we needn't talk about them.

Oh, fine, I guess I must. I mean, it's practically the selling point of this 20 Years blowout, plastered all over the front cover. Frankly, I was more excited getting an unmixed version of their rub on Scott Grooves' Mothership Reconnection, one of the last before becoming robots. All that prime-era French filter funk in full effect, mmmm... Oh, right, the exclusive, unreleased cut, made before even Da Funk, when they were still doing hard acid house with Conor Dalton. Okay, my review of Daft Punk's Drive: it's a'ight.

I have half the tunes on the Soma Classics disc already, but in DJ mixes, so it's nice having them mostly in their full, original versions. Kinda' gutted that Desert Storm from Desert Storm is missing the intro portion with the war dialog and tasty pads on their own, but since this CD maximizes its runtime, some space needed saving.

Three Slam tracks make the cut (thumping acid techno of Positive Education, loopy hypnotic techno of Azure, Pt. 1, and vintage Balaeric progressive house of Eterna), because it's their label, damn it. And no Soma classics CD would be complete without inclusions from Silicone Soul (Right On, Right On), Funk d'Void (Diabla, though the lighter Heavenly Mix instead), The Black Dog (Cost II, by way of a 2007 reissue loophole since the 1993 original came out on General Production Recordings), Percy X (X-Trak 1 letting Detroit know that Soma recognizes the roots), and Samuel L Session. Interestingly, Mr. Session's Can You Relate is the only nod to then-contemporary bloopy tech-house on this CD, and by way of the Joris Voorn Flooding The Market With Remixes remix. Unsurprisingly, it's the least interesting cut here.

Of course, this is hardly the full Soma story, many names and tracks not included here. Fortunately, two additional DJ mixes handled by Slam and Silicone Soul come with this package, filling in those gaps to various degrees. Check in to Part Two of this review for the details!

God Body Disconnect - Sleeper's Fate

Cryo Chamber: 2017

Definitely a surprise that Bruce Moallem returned to the story arc he started in Dredge Portals. How much is left to tell about a man lost in a coma? We've already explored the past memories, the self-reflections, and the damning judgments. All that remains is the final climb up Jacob's ladder, but the last track off Dredge Portals made it clear the narrator wasn't destined for such a fate any time soon, trapped in a forever loop wandering his own psychosis. And perhaps that still remains, though taking in Sleeper's Fate, I get a sense there's conclusion here, a new path taken behind a previously locked door. Literally, one of the many field recordings being a key unlocking a door.

Y'know, I'm not so sure I can call what God Body Disconnect does with sounds is field recordings. When most producers make use of such sounds, it's as sonic dressing, ambient canvasing, and other 'aural painting' analogies you may think of. You may hear babbling brooks or falling rain or stampeding wildebeest, but it's all in service of setting mood and tone for the composition being presented, seldom a narrative device. Mr. Moallem, however, is so precise and focused in his use of such sounds, it's like I'm watching a movie play out without watching anything on a screen.

The opening titular cut, for instance, places us back at the scene of the narrator's attack. There's falling rain, distant thunder, radio chatter from nearby cop cars, a screaming ambulance arriving, and through it all, a dying man's haggard gasping breath, his throat choking from blood welling up through his mouth. And I'm right there, in this man's viewpoint, as vividly as though watching such images play out on celluloid. Only after this scene plays out do we get some music playing, a sombre piece of strings, pads, and echoing guitar, though even this feels like a 'credit roll' portion of the album before we return to the actual film.

Sleeper's Fate essentially plays out like this, long stretches of 'foley recordings' (can I call this a thing?), with the narrator traversing empty corridors and past hazy memories. It's not too dissimilar to Dredge Portals in that way, but whereas the atmosphere of that album could feel damning and claustrophobic, there's more sense of openness here, lighting once shadowed recesses of the narrator's state of mind.

To put a finer point on it, the whole reason our viewpoint character is stuck in a coma is because, no matter how much he thinks he wants death, he just can't let go of life. Sleeper's Fate is about finally giving in, and the release that provides. The back-half of this album features the most music, almost all of it the sort of soothing ambient that's antithetical to a dark ambient label. Has our narrator awoken from his torturous Hell? Is he walking in the literal Garden Of Eden? Guess we'll have to wait for a third God Body Disconnect for an answer.

Seaworthy - Sleep Paths

Slaapwel Records: 2012

Ah, hm. Feel like I've gone into a rut here. The whole point of doing this alphabetical sequence is to prevent such things, to keep every subsequent item different from the last. And sure, there's times where runs of similar-sounding albums can't be helped – the 'Trance' month of 2016, for instance – but such instances are generally rare and at least expected when the moment comes. I never intended for so many shortish ambient releases to bunch up like this, and were they in my original regular queue, they'd at least be spaced out a little more. Or maybe not, items like Selected Ambient Works, Slumberland, Signals, and Solar Walk also among these 'S' albums. Maybe there's just something ambient composers are drawn to in this region of the alphabet, a physiological state of being that works well with ambient music. 'Smiling', that must be it.

So we return quite quickly to Slaapwel Records for another outing of single-song, lullaby music. No, seriously, that's what Sleep Paths is, a forty minute composition the 'electro-acoustic post-rock' band Seaworthy wrote as a beddy-bye time soundtrack for guitarist Cameron Webb's newborn child. Forty minutes is too long for such needs though, especially when so very little actually happens in this piece.

From the outset, you hear super-soft electric guitar plucking, gentle whispers of mechanical breathing, all the while droning reverb and delay effects blanket everything in a minimalist melodic haze. And that's it for the entire duration, cottony sounds meandering along without a care in the world, floating along a river of fluffy clouds. It's impossible to pay attention to Sleep Paths without your mind wandering even after a dozen minutes of this, and Seaworthy stretch things out as long as most toddlers are willing to nap for. I can't imagine anyone even playing such music live without nodding off themselves, gazing at their shoes to the point they've doubled over and passed out on their feet. At least Simon Scott's offering for Slaapwel had a sense of progression from start to finish.

Not that I'm saying Sleep Paths is terrible or boring or anything – it do what it supposed to do, and it do it well. It unfortunately leaves me with almost no talking points. Lucky for me, however, there was a Bandcamp bonus with this CD, Sleep Paths II, which has more going on than the original piece.

For one, it runs at a 'brisk' twenty-nine minutes, which makes better sense as a 'falling asleep' composition (if you haven't naturally nodded off after that long, music ain't gonna' help). Two, while the basic acoustic-droning elements remain, there's rhythm here, clinky percussion panning across the channels throughout. Sleep Paths II also changes form after a while, more prominent guitar plucking and layers of static fuzz added towards the end. Seems to defeat the purpose of sleeping music to have your piece grow more dynamic as it progresses, but hey, at least it gives me more to wax words over.