abasio

Eat Static Back To Earth Interchill Records 22 Jun 2008 Downtempo Breakbeat Tracklist 1 Tuned Mass Damper (5:56) 2 Pharaoh (5:38) 3 Lo-Ride Sloucher (6:39) 4 Flippity Flippity (5:23) 5 Epoch Calypso (5:58) 6 Holy Stone (8:10) 7 Pearl Of Wisdom (7:09) 8 Up Periscope (8:08) 9 Dune Rider (6:40) 10 Valley Of The Moon (7:02) 11 The Wreckage (6:56) With this album I went through 3 stages. First I was surprised but quite happy. The style was not what I was expecting but it was quite fun. Secondly I was disappointed as the tracks seemed a little shallow and I got bored quickly. Thirdly though, I saw past the shallow waters into a deep ocean and started to appreciate it more. Some of the tracks here are still on the shallow pop side but some of them have a lot going on in them. 1. Tuned Mass Damper We start off very promisingly enough with a very sci-fi sounding track. Lots of alien glitch, light trippy breakbeats and background ambience with quite a cinematic feel creates a decent, trippy track. Nothing mind blowing at first but with a lot going on and a lot of changes in the track it grows on you. 2. Pharaoh A much grander feel to this track. Initially this was one of my least favourite tracks as I found that the melody was too strong in a style I didn't really like, it sounds in my ears like a film set in 1920's Egypt. This too grew on me as I started to picture the scene of a bustling market place and when I started to notice the little sci-fi sounds I could picture alien infiltrators and the high pitched sounds started sounding like discreet alien communications. Much better than I first expected. A surprising grower. 3. Lo-Ride Sloucher This is probably the most instantly gratifying as it's closer to what was expected but also remains one of my favourites. It has a really spacey atmosphere, big beats and tons of psychedelic glitchy goodness. It starts of light and floaty but becomes hard, sharp and a little sinister. Finally it manages to blend the two while bringing in an utterly twisted fucked up alien sounding vocal which I'd really like to hear more of. 4. Flippity Flippity This sounds like it was a track made for the Hi-Fi Companions album. It has a cheesy jazzy lounge feel to it. There is subtle spacey noises in the background making it a worthwhile track to listen to. I picture another scene of alien infiltration, this time in a New York cellar club with a lounge atmosphere and alien women entertaining the guests who are blissfully unaware of the alieness or if they are, don't find it out of the ordinary. Unfortunately this track is too much lounge and not enough spacey goodness and the 1950's dumb blonde girl sample is unwelcome. 5. Epoch Calypso Another completely different sound. This sounds like a carnival in some hot summer beach resort. It kind of reminds me of Shpongle's Dorset Perception with its ultra bright happy feeling but with an underlying layer of subtle ambience. A little spacey but more floaty and it struggles to get heard as the carnival sound is too strong. A lot of melody, a lot of percussion all blended together to make an enjoyable listening experience but the touch of a twisted melody is too brief and I wish they had done more twisting of the beats and melodies to make this more my taste. 6. Holy Stone Another track that sounds more Eat Static than the rest. The dark alien atmosphere created by dark full synth lines, spacey background drones that seem to cleverly change into dark chants, almost. What I like is the very simple melody that is repeated over and over during the middle of the track. It goes on without changing for a while, entrancing so that when it does change it seems deep and meaningful. The vocals are what break the trance, soft subtle unintelligible chants joined by a short repetitive bassline. The melody comes in again in the final section sounding of a weird but very enjoyable track. Like an alien ceremonial gathering on a distant planet, although the very human sample almost ruins it. Almost. 7. Pearl Of Wisdom A track I was unsure of at first. Initially it seemed a bit too thin but on closer inspection it has a very nice ambient intro then delicious beats kick in and subtle but enjoyable space glitch perforates the background. I especially like the way the beats kick in with a smooth shuffle then kick. Not an instant knock out but a grower for sure. 8. Up Periscope This starts with a sample from a conversation in a submarine. The little high pitch sounds kind of sound like falling electronic water and there is a cold desolate feel to the background drones. The beats and the bassline initially take in a randomly opposite direction but the drones fights the mood back to a darker feel. There is a lot of quite random almost dark sounds but it never gets unbearable. What we get is a chaotic track that never really goes anywhere but just kind of mills about in a big industrial vessel at the bottom of the ocean. I like it, it appeals to the glitch ambient lover in me with more energy but I can see a lot of people not liking this. 9. Dune Rider We start with the wind blowing over what sounds like a desert. The beats kick in with quite an Arabian feel, a feeling that is added to by the melodic synth lines but detracted by the melody that sounds like it's played on a guitar. The conflicting styles play together nicely but I'm disappointed by the lack of depth in the track following the great windy sounds at the start. There is muttered conversation like people gathered to see a drag race but that's about it. It is nice enough but it doesn't have enough to keep me interested after repeated listens. I can almost imagine this as background music at an Arabian Disneyland attraction. 10. Valley Of The Moon A nice melody right from the start actually manages to sound like moonlight. The little light glittering sounds make me imagine beams of moonlight coming through the clouds on an otherwise cloudy night. Not particularly spacey or sci-fi but more like terrestrial nighttime. The muttered vocals sound like some secret gathering and the flute like sounds make me imagine fairies and imps and terrestrial fantasy rather than extra-terrestrial beings. I love the twisted samples near the end. It really adds something to the music. 11. The Wreckage A sample talking about UFOs is more in keeping with expectations but the track in General is more loungey like Hi-Fi Companions style. A little Jazzy but not too much. Enough atmosphere and nice relaxed beats but after the initial sample the extra-terrestrialness is minimal. Some nice background but as the album title suggests it's more Earth bound. I have mixed feelings about this album. Although I think the music is good, some of it is a little to shallow like it is trying to appeal to a wider audience to like it rather than a smaller one loving it. Overall I think that this album is pretty good but could have been much better. At times I get the feeling that the concept of the album is Earth scenes with subtle alien infiltration but more often than not the alien infiltration is too subtle to be worthwhile. I would love to hear this concept delivered a little more convincingly making sure the sci-fi sounds are underlying but still more perceptible to the listener. The variety in this album is great but it doesn't feel enough like a journey. However I have found myself listening to this a lot which is the true acid test for music. As I said, mixed feelings.

C.P. McDill - Rain 1 :posford:

I recently found a free ambient netlabel, downloaded some of their stuff & some of it is pretty damn good. Check it out if you are into ambient www.webbedhandrecords.com/ I downloaded & have listened to Which I really enjoyed, very spacey & descriptive. Some lovely piano used. Also just listening to their String Ambient compilation that has some great tracks on it edit: thanks to stupidfatugly for posting this picture in the what are you listening to right now thread & piquing my curiosity

Audio Gourmet - Inner Monologue

Free ambient netlabel? Hell yeah

Process - Under Mount Kailash At the bottom of a river on a sunny day watching the light refract & reflect on the surface.

Unless you'd like to send me a copy It's pretty disappointing. There are some good tracks some forgettable tracks and some bloody awful tracks. My Review

The Circular Ruins - Anamnesis :clapping:

Nostalgia - Rush Of Samadhi in a temple, at dusk, the half light coming through the tinted windows

Looks nice, I can't afford much for a while though

Afternoon Sunset 1. Ishq - En Soph 2. Matt Coldrick - Throat Blue Unity 3. Colourform - Diving Into Sun 4. Gus Till - Overland 5. Ishq - Blue Haze 6. Healer - Apnea 7. Indigo Egg - Smiling Buddha 8. Solar Fields - Winter Sun 9. Opium - Office Paintings 10. Nostalgia - The Art Of Perplexion 11. Evan Bartholomew - Reborn, We Fluctuate And Fade 12. Evan Bartholomew - Soft Spots In The Tyranny Of Matter 13. Emanuele Errante - Humi 14. Evan Marc + Steve Hillage - Theta Phase 15. Juxta Phona & Offthesky - Escape Kit... 16. Cymphonic - Scimerian Silence 17. The Circular Ruins - A Distant Assembly

The Circular Ruins - Land Of The Blind

That's a good one too, it makes me picture the music very well but I love the !Escape Kit! image, it makes me imagine living there when I listen to the music

Kuba - The Place It Starts On an alien beach with an oddly coloured sky, an ocean that behaves just a little differently & sand that feels like silk on my feet. Something similar to a beautiful secluded beach somewhere in the south pacific but shifted sideways out of reality.

I had the debate recently about if Photographs were art. The other guy was saying that art had to be man made & that nature was not art. I was trying to argue that nature can be the best art of all & that a photograph is a cleverly captured image of that art. That is what I see in the Ultimae covers. They are always nice relaxing pictures too & are very representative of what the music is like. All the covers I posted are good representations of the music. I also like The best of the somnia covers IMO

What's the need to delete your account? If it's not fun just don't visit as much, then when off topic does open again you can come back

Always with the asses. Vaginas are a lot more accommodating Do you really not like the Sending Orbs covers??? I thought some of them were sublime, just as I love the photography on the ultimae covers. Also you only liked Khooman, Eat Static & maybe Mystical Experiences? Nothing else? So if you don't like Quasaga's art why did you post two of his covers?