Various - positivesource 'Bundle'

positivesource: 2022

Two 'label compilations as Bandcamp downloads' in a row now. Do I have any more? Eh, not in the pipeline, but it is funny how this pair lined up, especially as they couldn't be further apart in genre if they tried. Well, okay, maybe if that Green Bay Wax print was actually nosebleed hardcore, and positivesource was lowercase ambient, then yes, that's about as opposite extremes as it gets.

And I suppose there is some similarity, if not in genre, then definitely in manifesto. Whereas Green Bay Wax is all about that ol' skool jungle, positivesource seems to be all about that ol' skool techno-trance. Yes, I'm talkin' early '90s, Harthouse-era, high-BPM spaced-out trance-trance. When I say no genre dies, I ain't tellin' lies.

The label is an off-shoot of Blue Hour, a print helmed by an artist of the same name, though goes by Luke Standing when dealing with the German auto license depot. It started as an outlet for his own techno material, but gradually grew to incorporate other artists, and now a sub-label with positivesource. Three four-track compilation records were released over the course of a year, which provided just enough material for a charmingly retro 'label compilation' consolidating it all. Now if only there was a CD option, the '90s retro feels with this release would be complete.

And right from the jump, we're dropped into the brisk BPM business, Oprofessionell's SXTOOL pushing the pace pretty high, far higher than cavernous dub techno of this sort ever dares to tread. Still, this is more of a minimal outing, and I promised trance. Wh'ar tha' trance, wh'ar? Follow-up Maniac from Newa gets us closer, with a rolling bassline and punchy synth stabs that tease out brighter chords over its seven minute run-time. And... are those choir pads I hear, towards the end? That's about as ol' skool trance as it gets, ain't it? If that's not 'trance' enough for you, then here's Alan Backdrop's Liaq, with floating pads, burbling acid, and flanged-out percussion that's gotta' get your Oliver Lieb triggers flaring. Not to mention the follow-up to that, Rove Ranger's Future Starts Today, is some straight-up vintage Spicelab action.

Other tracks, like Lady Starlight's G 3.1, Mikkel Rev's Entrance, and Less Distress' Crush The Candy, recall the Platipus side of trance, while Blue Hour reaches back even further to ravier roots on Flashback. And what classic trance compilation would be complete without those weirdo techno cuts that defy easy classification, such as LDS' too-fast t.m. (fm mix), or the oppressive minimalist dub-drone of Ryan James Ford's Purity, or the distorted acid stomp of D.Dan's Raw Jam. A little something for everyone!

Does this 'bundle' promise a proper trance revival then? Eh, no more than Green Bay Wax does for darkside jungle. This is still very niche music in today's clubbing culture, but it warms this old raver's heart knowing it is out there, for those who wish to hear it.

Various - Planet Wax Volume 1

Green Bay Wax: 2021

Once again proving the old adage that 'no genre truly dies', here's Green Bay Wax, putting the music where their mouth is. Or at least, keeping the ol' school jungle vibes alive and well into the modern era. What's funny is, some of their stuff, particularly the ragga jungle cuts, don't sound dated in the slightest. Maybe it's because, unlike most genres that get a revival, ragga never really fell off because it hadn't 'gotten on' in the first place. Like, whenever I hear some contemporary tech-step or darkside or darkstep, I'm taken back to when those sounds first imprinted onto the d'n'b scene. Ragga though, always remained this forever-niche thing, unable to take root to any specific time or place. Thus, its timeless, the tracks offered by Kid Lib & Percussive P on this compilation sounding just as fresh today as they did when they were released a decade ago as they could have two decades prior during the genre's birth.

That isn't to say the rest of this label showcase doesn't have jungle worthy of your attention. I just find it funny how some tracks sound so very, very old school, deliberately so, but the ragga stuff, it just can't age, won't age in the slightest. You say it hasn't evolved since its inception? Mang', that's it's whole appeal! Its recognizable tropes – spastic Amen Break manipulations, knee-cap demolishing basslines, incomprehensible toasting rastas – are its appeal, needing nothing else sullying things up, the core elements working best. Ragga jungle: the horseshoe crab of the d'n'b scene.

Enough waxing on about genres. What's up with this compilation, then, and who is Green Bay Wax? Not based out of Wisconsin, but rather Sheffield, the label is a loosely tied group of ol' school jungle enthusiasts making tunes with propah' vintage vibes and nothing else. Yeah, the ragga stuff doesn't sound quite so retro, but when other artists pop in with their love-in's, you can't help but be transported to the early '90s. With the label's original vinyl releases well out of print, Green Bay Wax felt it about time to compile their catalogue into a series of double-LP digital compilations. Y'know, for those who discovered them late (*cough*). Volume 1 naturally sums up their first five releases, so let's take a quick gander.

I've already covered Kid Lib & Percussive P's ragga takes (kinda'), so let's move onto some Champa B, who gets into some gnarly darkside business while never losing his hardcore. And speaking of, Bazia's Lovin' You is pure, unashamed ol' skool, what with the piano lines and synths stabs and wistful soul singing: proto-jungle! Further along, tracks from Phineus II and Darkman (with Kid Lib on the rub ...a lot), inch towards the more atmospheric and 'intelligent' side of the genre, what with pads and drum programming that's just a little more complex than your standard Amen rat-a-tat-tat-tles. Day'um, feels like I've just taken a crash-course in all of jungle's early permutations with this one.

Fluxion - Perspectives

Vibrant Music: 2020

Fluxion is another artist I feel I should have crossed paths with more often, but once again, Lord Discogs tells me that's not the case. Maybe it's because I've seen the name Flux Pavilion 'round these here parts for so many years, the name kinda' mushed into 'Fluxion' within my brain. Or perhaps it's immediacy bias cropping up, as I just listened to an album from Simon Posford with the word “Flux” in its title.

On the other hand, why haven't I seen Mr. Soublis' project more often? Dude was among the early dub techno names, getting his break on Basic Channel's Chain Reaction print. He'd later go on to release multiple singles and albums, some through his own Vibrant Music, others on that other Very Important dub techno label, Echocord. Yet if Discogs is anything to go by, his compilation and official DJ mix appearances remain slight, a track here and a tune there about all I see. There may be more that the Ogger community is simply unfamiliar with (!!), but for all intents, it seems Fluxion's name hasn't made that much of an impact beyond the dub techno faithful.

Which has little to do with me, to be honest. As is often the case, Perspectives was another blind buy from the Ultimae shop, that recollection of a name that I clearly had no actual recognition of drawing me in. And hey, a soggy side-street within claustrophobic urban architecture, stretching beyond the photo's parallax, that's enough to pique my interest with this release.

Opener Schism is promising, a gentle ambient piece with graceful reverb and dubby hiss invoking those vintage Burial feels, just without all the vinyl crackle and guns clacking. Follow-up Formation gets the groove going, also about as vintage as most dub techno goes in most eras, but with a nice little melodic through-line – yeah, I can hear why modern Ultimae would hawk this album in their shop. Further along, whopping thirteen-minute Glimpses and 'shorter' nine-minute Glimpses II provide nice, hypnotic journeys with looping rhythmic dub and gently evolving melancholic melodies. Trance, you say? Well, maybe that 'neo' branch, if The Field had gotten more influence from classic Swayzak.

Beyond those tracks though, Perspectives mostly dwells on the jazzier side of dub techno ...kinda'. Fluxion's tried-and-tested genre attributes remain the dominate force in his production, but is never so stiff and cold as this style typically goes, allowing a little emotion and soul within. Tracks like Within, Dawn, Down The Line, and Distance feature more shuffly rhythms with jammy instruments, lending almost an urban-jazz vibe to these digital atmospheres. Even a track like Cliff, with its dub techno pulse similar to Glimpses, comes paired with gentle strings befitting an uplifting moment in a noir film. Has Fluxion always been like this, or are these sounds unique to this particular album? Guess I should check out the rest of his discography to find out. I mean, anything repped on Echocord can't be half bad, right?

Sykonee's 'Sportsing' Surveys: SHPONGLE

You'd think, for as much as I've enjoyed psy-dub, psy-chill, world beat, and everything in between, the project that Simon Posford and Raja Ram built would be a shoo-in for my interests. And absolutely I've been interested in the act, having caught Shpongle live three times! ...okay, technically they were all Simon Posford solo shows, with him rinsing out a heavy amount of Shpongle tunes. Kinda' expensive bringing the whole band touring everywhere, especially when he was lugging around that Shpongletron totem.

But yes, if I've seen this project live so many times - more than I've seen any 'major' name within this scene! - why have I never bought any of their CDs? I really can't say. Maybe partly due to already knowing what to expect going in? Or perhaps I was worried my expectations wouldn't be met? Like, yeah, I've seen Shpongle a bunch, enjoyed the music while at the events, but never did it quite click the way some other acts do. It's a conundrum that's flumuxed me for a while now, so perhaps it's time to go head deep into the Shpongleverse, hear if there's anything I've denied myself all these years. Let's dive in, then!

















So that's another artist down. As an aside, thank GODS I made the switch over to Mastodon for this survey, what with its glorious EDIT button and all. You have no idea how many times I had to correct "Shpongle" from "Sphongle". Come to think of it, would anyone have noticed a difference between the two? Regardless, misspellings are something I'm just gonna' have to deal with for my next Discography Dive, DELERIUM! Yes, starting from their earliest dark ambient days, all the way up to... whatever it was they got up to in later years. I kinda' fell off.

(eh, you say I missed a Shpongle album? That remix project from Cosmic Trigger? The one with the shite, plastic, over-compressed dubstep riddim' beats all over the place, sullying Shpongle's vintage dynamic live drumming? Never heard of it.)

Speedy J - Pepper / Beam Me Up!

Warp Records: 1994/2021

Time to get hep to the step, when J' drops that Hot Mix of Pep! ...per. Um, represent? Okay, that was lame, Dr. Evil lame, but you gotta' give me some kudos for admitting as such, right? Not every one of these intro paragraphs will be a winner, and when you're dealing with the same artist in multiple reviews in short order, the brain, she sometimes fails at the wit. Besides, what would this blog be without the occasional bout of lame-itude?

Pepper was one of the trancey tunes off of Speedy J's debut album Ginger, possibly the tranciest track he ever made. With soaring strings, spaced-out voice pads, and a steady, chugging rhythm, it's small wonder it became a staple of the progressive house scene. It does leave a tantalizing bit of 'what if?' on his discography, if Jochem had decided to pursue this line of music making rather than exploring other facets of techno proper. Instead, it's more a reflection of the period from whence it was made, Europeans cross-pollinating techno and trance with nary a care or worry of what the Detroit Elite thought.

Still, he must have realized this tune was getting a lot of extra attention, giving it a little single love so the DJs didn't have to lug around all that Ginger wax just to play it. And just in case the original was a tad too 'deep' with all those spacey lead-ins and breakdowns, The Hot Mix ups the rhythmic energy with prog-house beats and twitchy, bouncy synth leads. Okay, so less trance than the album version, but I'm sure Sasha and Diggers appreciated this one's dancefloor utility.

That Pepper would get the single treatment isn't surprising, but of all the tracks to pair it up with, why did Beam Me Up! get the nod? The original's fine, I guess, a juanty little easy groover with twinkly synths and stuttery voices, but hardly a top choice for the clubs. This here Pegasus Mix on the single ups the house attributes, even edging close to the realm of garage with a rhythm that's almost shuffly. It's over before it even really begins though, running a svelte three-and-a-half minutes. Barely seems worth the effort having it on a record like this.

Jochem must have known this Pepper / Beam Me Up single was quite skint, so for the CD option, he included a near-sixteen minute excerpt of a live performance that includes the tracks Ginger, Pepper and Flashback (the other 'trancey' song off the album). And hot damn, is this ever a dope excerpt! If ever you needed proof positive Speedy J knew his way around a techno groove and a 303 acid twiddle, you got it right here. Only downside to Live '94 is it fades out just as you're really warmed up to it, wanting the set to go the full length of a CD. Hmm, Jochem should do that, down the line, and call it something simple yet silly, like !ive. Genius!

Speedy J - Patterns (Remix) / Pannik

Plus 8 Records: 1997/2021

Fair warning, we're gonna' be dealing with a lot of Speedy J within this upcoming block of 'P' titled releases. Mr. Paap really likes him some 'P', it seems. You'd think it would be 'G', what with his first two albums titled Ginger, and G Spot, but when it comes to singles (and one album), 'P' reigns supreme. Why are you all sniggering? You'll see what I mean by this love of 'P'!

Patters was one of the few – okay, only – singles to emerge from Speedy's third album, Public Energy No. 1 (see!?). There also was a promo record with some tracks, including Pure Energy, but as for official spin-offs, this was about it. Not that it's a surprising thing, Jochem seemingly hesitant to tie singles to albums most of the time. Ginger only got one, as did G Spot. And though Loudboxer had a couple, it made sense there since that album's nothing but techno tools in need of vinyl options.

Speaking of Loudboxer-era Speedy J, does this record ever foretell that turn of style for Jochem. Yes, even more than the other ones I've probably said. Patterns itself is a remix, seemingly a bridge between the more melodic IDM he was doing before, and the abrasive stuff he'd indulge more frequently as the '90s wore on. Calm, tranquil, sometimes distorting drone pads give us a lengthy lead-in before Mr. J' starts unleashing all manner of crunchy, boshing, frantic drill-n-bass rhythms, letting you know this ain't no Fill session. There's a storm a' brewing, folks, and as if to sell that notion just a little harder, here's some climatic orchestral string sections building the tension to a damn near fever-pitch. The final release of sonic noise is worth the wait, but doesn't last as long as you'd hope, over almost as soon as it began. Dammit, I wanted to really get my flail on there.

Ask, and you shall receive. Except I didn't ask, but that Speedy, he knows what we need, don't he. Pannik is a pure Detroit mininalist techno bosh cut, and lasts ten minutes! Okay, maybe not the longest track of such nature, but certainly an epic in Jochem's discography to that point, much of his early techno was straight-forward and of unfussy lengths. Not this one, taking you for a head-pounding, foot stomping ride with all the crashing snares and cymbals you can handle from the dude who did The Oil Zone. He'd already been dashing some expectations after the Ni Go Snix EP, but I doubt anyone would have expected him to go this dumb with techno again. Yeah, it's a 'smart dumb' kind of dance music compared to some of his actual early 'dumb' hits, but still.

Punnik, meanwhile, goes longer, cranking the feral energy up even further. Rhythms are broken, with distorted sounds and reverb making this sound like it was produced in an oppressive Detroit factory. The primal techno beatings will continue until morale improves.

ACE TRACKS: October - November 2022

So this has been a month.

Never mind regular work being a total boondoggle, or the fact I damn near wrecked my left ankle twice in the span of a week, no I'm talking about the goings-on of Internetland, specifically That Bird Site. I can't say I've completely ditched it yet, but I'm finding fewer reasons to stick around at this point. My own usage of it felt more out of a sense of obligation, utilizing social media apps to help generate traffic for this blog, but looking over the stats, I can't say it ever yielded much. Yeah, occasionally one of the artists I reviewed might give a Tweet a bump, but those numbers honestly dwindled quite a bit over the years. It's almost as if folks just don't like using Twitter anymore, and those that do, do so out of sense of obligation, utilizing the social media app to help generate buzz about their content. Frankly, I get more of a traffic bump off of Facebook than I ever do Twitter.

Which is why I'd been contemplating making a switch for a while anyway, regardless of the Musky buyout. Once folks started pumping up Mastodon as an alternative, I decided to give it a try this month, see how it stacks. And frankly, it's been a better overall experience! With its dedicated server system, I don't feel like I'm just shouting into the void for attention, a keyword or hashtag maybe getting the attention of someone more Very Important than I. My direct engagement with folks there has been far higher than it ever was on Twitter. Yeah, it hasn't generated numbers directly to this blog, but that's expected when starting over again on another social media app, especially one with a significantly lower number of marketers and bots.

Thus most of my activities have transfered over to the ravenation.club server (because there were no other 'electronic music' ones). My 'Sportsting Surveys' are been posted there exclusively now, as the 500 character limit nicely fleshes out what thoughts I may have. I've also been re-sharing 10 Year Old reviews, for a time on both, but decided to keep that Mastodon exclusive as well. New reviews and Survey unrolls will still be shared on both, but that's about it. At this point, the only two things keeping me on Twitter is to keep tabs on the content creators that haven't jumped ship yet, and to keep my front-row seat of just how much of a flaming dumpster the Bird Site will actually become. I'm terrified, yet I can't look away...!

That sorted, here's the Ace Tracks for the past two months:


Full list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Mind Over MIDI - Outpost
Natural Life Essence - Organic Adventures
Iempamo - ...Now What?
Speedy J - Ni Go Snix
Rapoon - Navigating By Colour
FSOL - Music From Calendars
Encym - Music For Meditation
Peter Broderick - Music For A Sleeping Sculpture Of Peter Broderick

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0% (KMFDM and DWtD aren't really 'rock' enough here for this category)
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing really, tho' the obscene amount of Lucette Bourdin may have some scratching their heads.

Yeah, I didn't tally a total runtime up, but she's gotta' take up at least half of this playlist, probably more. Mind, I didn't include many of her extra-long pieces, only Dream Traveler (because dang, it's such a sublime slice of floaty ambience), but when you cover six album's worth of music out of twenty, it can't help but overwhelm everything else.

I know I've made some whiplashy playlists in the past, but between all the Lucette, and the... well, nearly everything else (save Dr. Alban), this playlist whiplashes hard indeed. I'm sure you could get some power naps in before another synthwave thrasher knocks you out of slumber.

Mind Over MIDI - Outpost

Neotantra: 2019

Hey-hey, another Neotantra debut from an artist with a robust discography. This one I even know, having already covered Mind Over MIDI's Deep Map some years back. I've actually been meaning to return to Helge Tømmervåg's works for some time now, but he's another one of those highly prolific producers, making a dive into his body of work a bit daunting. For sure his Silent Season contributions are tempting, while his offerings on labels like Shimmering Moods Records, The Level Of Vulnerability, Berserk Fabrik and संस्कार Rites look intriguing. There's just so much of it though, ain't no way I'd be able to check it all out. ...unless, there's a bulk buy option at his Bandcamp page. Hmmm.... *checks* Oh, thank God, there isn't! I don't think I could take on another full-on discography just yet.

Honestly though, I hadn't planned to return to Mind Over MIDI with this particular album, having skipped on it when it first came out. Neotantra was releasing music at such a high clip that I couldn't keep up, so figured I'd focus more on names I was unfamiliar with if I was gonna' scope anything out. It wasn't until getting that Coercion Of Deities compilation that was reminded of Helge even had something out on the label. However, after listening to the gentle, flowing bell tones and soft, ethereal pad work of Subdivision, I knew I had to get the album from whence it came - Outpost - erm, post-haste.

Funny thing is that one three and a half minute track kinda' sums up the whole album, each piece variations on the same sonic ideas. I haven't dove deep enough into Mind Over MIDI's discography to know if this is just how Helge approaches each project, though I do recall Deep Map was similar in that regard. It doesn't make Outpost a deal breaker by any stretch, but if you're looking for an album with a bunch of variety on it, well, you certainly don't know how this branch of abstract, experimental ambient compositions typically plays out. Hey, at least Mr. Tømmervåg divies everything out into twelve, bite-sized chunks (Subdivision is one of the longer tracks on here!), and not some half-hour long meandering piece.

Obviously, there are subtle differences throughout. Opener Dawn To Dark is more of a dronescape. Closer Out Of Reach is a similar dronescape, but with a little more harmonic tone. Outpost 1 is a similar dronescape with brighter harmonic tones. Outpost 2 is a similar dronescape with gentler harmonic tones. Outline 1 is a similar dronescape with splashes of static. Outline 2 is a similar dronescape with sonic stutters and skips. Morning Tide reminds me of J.D. Emmanuel's Visions During Movement.

Okay, so there isn't that much variation, and for some reason, most of Outpost is recorded rather quietly too, as though you're hearing it from a distance. Still, cannot deny it being a nice, gentle bit of abstract harmonic sound while it plays. I'll take it.

Dance With The Dead - Out Of Body

self release: 2013

Going all the way back with this album. Back to the beginning. Back to where it all started. Back to the alpha and the omega. Back to your wildest imagination! No, wait, too far back. What is this, an '80s movie advertisement tie-in? Of course not, but as with most things synthwave, you bet Dance With The Dead would love to score an '80s love-in flick, even a video game. Come to think of it, I'm surprised they haven't appeared on something of the sort yet. Could it just be that, *gasp*, there simply isn't any interest in the synthwave scene anymore?

Honestly, I could see it. Yeah, when movies like Turbo Kid and games like Hotline Miami 2 made a splash, it was just about all the internet could talk about for a hot minute there. Lord knows I fell sway to the hype along with everyone else. A scene with that much exposure needs more than hype to sustain itself though. Many artists were able to push forward with their careers, but without that all-important cross-media penetration, it can only go so far before being relegated to faddery. I can't help but feel the game Cyberpunk 2077 was a make-or-break moment for synthwave as a whole, and while it certainly delivered on the musical front, the game's infamously buggy launch kinda' curtailed whatever momentum that scene still had going for it. Unless something truly fresh emerges, methinks synthwave is now and forever relegated to pure niche interests.

Which has absolutely little to do with the debut album of Dance With The Dead, Out Of Body ...or does it? Okay, it really doesn't. Justin and Tony seem to have found themselves a winning formula of synthwave-meets-metal that should keep them active for as long as they wish to pursue this career. You probably wouldn't have guessed it based on this first effort though, Out Of Body showing clear signs of still finding their voices. Frankly, there's little on here that would distinguish them from most up-and-coming synthwavers of the early '10s (and boy were there ever a lot of 'em, believe you me).

Yeah, Tony's guitar solos are present, but far from the prominent feature they would become. In fact, of the fourteen tracks (plus an intro), only five of them have a proper shred-out moment, and only at the climax of a given track. If there's any guitar leads or rhythm support, it's quite buried in the mix, which wouldn't surprise me given that Out Of Body does have that unfortunate bricked mastering a lot of synthwave used early on.

So this may not be Dance With The Dead as they became, but there's still a lot of fun synthy tunes on hand, some brisk, others slowed, a few epic, others sombre, and even a little disco-dancey. Erm, maybe too much, the album dragging a little by the end. Nice of them to pare their LPs down some later on, but hey, growing pains.

Natural Life Essence - Organic Adventures

Neotantra: 2020

Ah, finally, an ambient artist debuting on Neotantra that isn't hopelessly obscure. Well, okay, Natural Life Essence probably is hopelessly obscure to a lot of folks out there, maybe even among ambient fans, but unlike some of the others I've covered from this label, he has a rather robust discography under his belt. One Juan Pablo Giacovino, the Argentinian local has been releasing music for close to a decade now, initially getting his start on German based CYAN, sharing digital domain with the likes of New Age Hippies, Musik Magier, The Mixing Chef, Fortadelis, Jaja (3), and Smooth (8). Perhaps more noteworthy is a short stint with psy label Ovnimoon Records, a lone EP and remix album to his name there.

That's just what Lord Discogs tells me he's done though. Follow a link to his Bandcamp page, however, and holy cow! Chap's been a busy lad, to say the least. To be fair, his Liquid Frog Records print isn't just all him, sharing projects with names like Kiphi, Yahgan, and Spiritual Fields. Still, there's a lot to check out there, all of it looking mighty tempting for a splurge. Space ambient, polar ambient, naturalistic ambient, meditative ambient, abstract ambient, long form ambient... just, so much ambient. What would I even begin to choose from this selection? What, buy the whole catalogue? Don't be daft, the whole thing is eighty-six items! It'd be ludicrous of me to just blind-buy that large of a Bandcamp page and I've already gone and done it, haven't I? *sigh* Well, I guess I needed something to keep generating content for this blog next year.

Anyhow, back to Juan's debut on Neotantra, Organic Adventures. Far as I can tell, three of the self-titled tracks come from an earlier release of N:L:E's, Organic Adventures (Those Other Lands). Which isn't all that uncommon when it comes to Neotantra releases, often serving as much a re-issue print for releases long forgotten or ultra-obscure. 1, 3 and 4 (Part II) are all quite lovely in that slightly psy-chill sort of way, never getting over-indulgent with effects and gimmickry, keeping things just melodic enough to hook you in while tones and drones drift along. Organic Adventures 8, which far as I can tell is an original for this release, is a slightly different outing, gentle washes of white noise dub effects and spoken dialog lending more of a spaced-out vibe.

And speaking of fresh music for a label debut, the first two tracks also appear new, and honestly kinda' clash with the original Organic Adventures sessions. Opener Polinizaton runs a lengthy twenty-one minutes, and is more of a shoegazey dronescape with field recordings of chirping birds. It's quite nice too, very relaxing, kinda' reminiscent of a Slaapwel Records session, and- oh, God! Why did those gentle pads suddenly cut out like that? Talk about sonic whiplash. Liberation (Flying Free) follows in similar fashion, though more emphasis on building upon an uplifting synth pad melody. No sudden cut-off? Now that's an Ace Track!