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Artist: Papa Legba Title: Dead Air Label: Celestial Dragon Records Released: 22nd May 2009 Style: Ambient, IDM Tracklist 1 Night Surf (Ishq Remix) (8:43) 2 Digital Ice Pipe (6:01) 3 I Want To Believe (6:20) 4 Recovering (6:44) 5 Greek Opium (6:52) 6 Arranged Memories (5:42) 7 Abandoned Window (6:35) 8 Barely Holding On (7:13) 9 Namek Coastline (Extinct Planet Mix) (6:50) Papa Legba aka Peter Pan aka Peter Zuniga is out with his debut album on Celestial Dragon Records. This was an album I was anticipating ever since hearing Papa Legba's track, Night Surf on the compilation Intermittent Memories released in 2007 so it has been quite a long wait but in my opinion that is usually a good sign. It usually indicates that the artist has spent a long time getting it just right to his own standards and design and hasn't rushed it to meet a labels timing demands. Papa Legba did not disappoint me with this release. Dead Air is an album of 2 halves, the first half is full of very relaxed ambient soundscapes and it dangerously starts of with an Ishq remix of Night Surf. I thought this was a risky idea because if he started with music as good as Ishq then he might struggle to follow it with his own music. This fear of mine though proved unfounded as Papa's own music flowed nicely after it, just as good if not better. The second half of the album is more upbeat in a kind of dark IDMish style. For me, the second half of the album is not as good as the first and there are a few moments where Pete's taste clashes with my own. Namely in the latter half of the album with the Banjo melody in the beginning of Arranged Memories and the penultimate track Barely Holding On at times sounds like it is describing a gun battle down at the OK Corral. These blips aside though this is a very good album. Throughout most of the album I get the feeling of being on a misty ocean in a small craft, in the beginning sirens sing to me but I can never see where their song comes from as progressively the fog becomes thicker and thicker. The music is quite mournful with themes of loneliness and temptation abound. When the music gets more upbeat I feel like I have come through the fog and landed on an island where the natives are performing a tribal ritual. Unfortunately I have to cross through some redneck yokel’s yard to get to it. The best tracks as I said are at the beginning. I really like Night Surf (Ishq Remix). It is more melodic than the original with as you can imagine more of an Ishq sound to it. There is more emphasis on the magical atmosphere created than on the waves and birdsong in the original. Digital Ice Pipe and I Want To Believe both have a cold horror feel to them with the former building up the atmosphere and the latter raising the urgency creating a narrative in my head of floating through the mist then being chased by some unknown horrors. The rest of the ambient tracks have a similar feel and some of the IDMish tracks as well, so all in all it is a good album with a few blips which I should have expected as Pete Pan’s taste has always been that way for me mostly great with a few things I hate. Recommendation: If you are expecting this to sound like the front cover looks and the title indicates then you will not be disappointed. The music is cold and mournful, moving from dead ambient soundscapes to harsh unforgiving IDM beats. For me the first half of the album is better but the second half is good in parts. It’s a good album with a few weak moments later on. Favourites: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 originally written for http://www.isratrance.com Some track by track analysis Ishq’s remix of Night Surf is more melodic than the original with as you can imagine more of an Ishq sound to it. There is more emphasis on the magical atmosphere created than on the waves and birdsong in the original. This sounds more like Sirens tempting sailors onto the rocks. Digital Ice Pipe is another long droning piece with a lot of emphasis on melodic sounds creating an atmosphere of floating on misty oceans. The vocal sample in my head sounds like a warning beacon being transmitted from a lost ship in the centre of the fog. In I Want To Believe we start to build a little bit of rhythm. The same cold atmosphere lingers from the previous track but the beats add a more energetic almost urgent feel to the music. The glitchy sounds and the glitchy plucked melody really add to my feeling of being in some horrific fog while floating on the ocean with who knows what lurking in it. The vocals in Recovering again remind me of siren song, the background feels like murky waters with mist floating in ominous clumps over it. In my mind each clump carries a rock or an iceberg that can dash my small craft if I’m not careful. There is nice melody that floats through the air after a male vocal sample not quite shattering my picture before some steady rhythm makes me feel like I’ve come through it. Or is it just illusion? More sirens in Greek Opium at the beginning but the quickly disappear as the sound becomes thicker as if the fog is engulfing everything around me. It’s quite a heavy feeling track for one that has little to no beats, it all sounds very ominous. I like it in its disjointed randomness. The start of Arranged Memories really grates on my nerves. The harsh banjo playing is quite a show to the system and even when I am ready for it, it hits my annoyed spot. It’s a shame because when this melody calms down the track is really nice. In fact the guitar melodies in the second half of the track are really nice. The tribal drumming as well is pretty cool. It feels like through the fog I have landed on an island shore with the natives in the midst of some kind of tribal ritual. But to get there I had to go through a hick yokel’s yard! Abandoned Window is a very random IDMish track with a lot of sporadic beats, ambient drones and splashes of random melody and a plethora of trippy little noises here and there. It creates quite a cool atmosphere but with the beats being all over the place it is hard to lose yourself in the images like in the first part of the album. It’s a nice track though for what it is & I’d like to put it in a set I am planning which is all this kind of sporadic disjointed stuff. The most upbeat track on the album is Barely Holding On with strong steady beats right through it. They are very hypnotic in the right mood but it took me the longest time not to hate this track. At first I found it boring and out of place. I didn’t like the beats & I thought it ruined the album. While even now I think it is the weakest track here it has grown on me a little as it has a nice mournful feel to it but only at times, other times sound like a gun battle down at the OK corral. Namek Coastline (Extinct Planet Mix) rounds off the album with a kind of mix of both sides of the music. It is like a softer more ambient IDM glitch than the previous few tracks, or if you like a glitchier more rhythmical IDMish ambient than the opening tracks. It’s a nice finish to the album but far from spectacular.

TIP vs Flying Rhino Mix CD

Tetsu Inoue - Ambiant Otaku

Well no! I am sayin the total opposite if you would care to re-read. The biggest pile of crap is (not would be) liked by the majority. Ever heard 50 cent, G-Unit etc? Absolute talentless crap that millions of people enjoy. These people (like you I guess) don't really see music as art. Music that they don't like (like you) they say is utter crap without thinking about tastes being different. What you, pop boy, think is crap someone else really really loves so yes it is art. You don't have to like it for it to be art. In fact that is IMO the essence of art. But pop people don't understand this becaue they don't see music as art. With your statement that focusing on music is saying is that you are a casual listener. The problem with your argument is that while you think you are giving the albums the benefit of the doubt by listening to them while "lounging around" and "going to sleep" you are still not focused on them. Be you reading or thinking of other things your full undivided attention is not on the music. Try listening to an album and writing down what you hear and how it makes you feel. It will bring the music to whole new level for you. Not that I expect you to do any of this as you have proved time and time again that you do not see music as art and that you are just a pop boy! You and your old banned moniker of sunwolf(?) have left many hints to this fact. Not that there is anything wrong with being a pop boy but I find it quite sad that you can't experience music on the same level as the rest of the people here. You will say you do but believe me you don't. So next time you open a hater thread just think before writing things like "95% of it is just completely uninspired and pointless" Think is it really? Is this a lazy piece of shit like 50 cent or 1200 mics last album? Or is just something I don't like. There is tons of stuff I don't like but I can still appreciate it's artistic merit. Something that is so commonly lost on pop twats.

Cheers! Will check that out Of course it doesn't pop boy!

To be honest I have far too many books I need to read before I buy anything else and my wishlist grows like my music wish list

Any new albums that are great for summer? I've been listening to some old Prog which fits the bill. I'm playing a set at the beach this summer again so I'd like some coold beach tracks (chill)

Well it got half the views it needed in 6 months. Maybe we can do it by the end of the year.

So was this released yet? Nothing on Saiko

POTS - Candy From The Strange Side A beach party! Hundreds of girls in bikinis dancing under the setting sun maybe somewhere in North Thailand

It's a damn close poll! Slinky were great though, for me it was a tough choice

POTS - Are You Scientific Enough?

I can understand not liking Ishq but this statement... ...just shows what an immature listener you really are! There are so many albums that are definitely mood pieces, you know you have to be in the right mood to enjoy them! A lot of ambient is too subtle with slight key changes and more emphasis on creating an atmosphere than a catchy hook so pop listeners like yourself will never get into it. Some people view their music as art, for me art is usually something that is adored by a very few people and either not understood or just disliked by most. For me art is the opposite of pop which is something a lot of people will just like. Art though often needs time to fully understand so when talking about music that requires a bit of focus. Just try it, try taking a CD you found was boring (not one you hated) relax, let yourself be distraction free in a darkened room, sit in a comfortable chair (or as you probably still live at home with your mum lie down on your wee single bed) and lets your mind drift through the music. This is how I came to love Ishq as before I felt pretty much the same as you but I was sick and I needed something to relax me so I put it on, there were no distractions and I have never been so happy to have been sick, I learned a valuable lesson. But then again you might be a terminal pop listener but most 15 year olds are similar to you so maybe there is hope!

No but it sounds good from your description. The cover however looks awful

Well the movie sub-forum is a lot more popular it seems but I struggle to think of many movies I have seen that are better than the book. I love descriptions that I can interpret in my own head, creat my own faces, places and expressions. Seeing someone else's image of the descriptions usually leaves me cold. Don't get me wrong, I love movies, they are much easier to digest and take much less time but I don't get so involved. When I read I often think deeply about the story & as it takes me much longer to read I think about it for longer (hence more deeply I guess) so I feel more involved. the only movie I can think that I preferred to the book was American Psycho just because I don't want such detailed descriptions of Phil Collins obviously I am not counting the kind of books that were written with a movie in mind. I saw at the bookshop the other day "Terminator Salvation" which I can guess is not a rivetting read. So what do you guys think? Is anyone here?

I keep buying new books then re-reading my old ones before I get to them

H.G. Wells - The Invisible Man woohoo! 100th post in this forum! This place is kicking

VA - Wider Horizons (LSD)

I'd second Principles of Flight - Chaos Opera easily the best of the year so far in my book! Listened to it 30 times in a row and then gave it a break and it was still great! Good sign

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (Minilogue Remix)

Nekton Falls

Are you a smart new bot or a totally fucked up coked up human? Your posts seem to have something to do with the topic title but nothing to do with the topic? Kick Bong - Cup of Tea you must be a bot right?

At the moment I am reading 20世紀の少年　(20th century boys)

Great! It does seem a wee bit quicker

Hell yeah! Even if you hate SWM then you will still probably love this ace, mental, craxy track