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Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden


seraph

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i was lucky enough to order this through psyshop last summer when it was still in stock. i'm noticing that its almost impossible to find now (used or new) but there is bound to be a few copies out there somewhere still. hopefully one day Ultimae will re-press this so everyone can enjoy

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Carbon Based Lifeforms

Hydroponic Garden

Ultimae

2003

Ambient

 

Tracklist

 

1. CENTRAL PLAINS

2. TENSOR

3. MOS 6581

4. SILENT RUNNING

5. NEUROTRANSMITTER

6. HYDROPONIC GARDEN

7. EXOSPHERE

8. COMSAT

9. EPICENTRE

10.ARTIFICIAL ISLAND

11.REFRACTION

 

 

I'm glad that I've finally come around to reviewing this album. I've had it for a long time & I've listened to it so much. It is one of my favourite CDs but I have struggled to put into words the artistic beauty of the sounds we are given here. It's deep, moody atmospheres are sublime. The spacey floatiness seems to have a very real edge. Many of the tracks build images of night time in my head. Sometimes out in nature, sometimes in the city & occasionally in space.

 

1. Central Plains

Two high pitch drones, one slightly higher than the other intertwine around each other into an almost melody. Very slow base pinches come in with dark sci-fi noises in the background, like electronic birds calling to each other. Little melodic touches come in & out and slowly become more prominent & more structured. Finally, 5 minutes in, the beat kicks in & I feel like I'm being chased very very slowly through a city park in the early hours of the morning.

2. Tensor

Quicker into a pitchy baseline, more energy straight away. Really quick subtle stabs add to the pace, becoming more prominent changing into a melody & leading into the beats. Although the beat of the drum is slow, it's steadiness added to the rest of the sounds here make me feel like the track is running. Where it's going & why though remain & mystery for me to ponder a while.

 

3. Mos 6581

How such an amazing album can have a track that manages to stand out even further is quite a feat. This is in my book already a classic. I've listened to it over & over & over again, it's the sort of track that when it's finished I skip the track back & listen to it again.

The magic racehorse sample to the infectious melodies that manage to stay fresh no matter how much I listen to them to the police sirens sounding throughout. This track has an awesome felling of dark, mysterious, psychedelic ambient with beats & melody. Feels like I'm inside sin city.

Definitely a modern classic! My only problem is that at 7 minutes it's just too short.

 

4. Silent Running

The beats of this track are already in before it even starts, the atmosphere continues from Mos 6581 but has morphed into a much spacier, wide open fields feeling. Like I've left the city & I'm lying on my back in a field of black gold watching spaceships of the imagination. That alien feel continues through the rest of the track & the melody puts me in mind of hyperspace communication. Something like a high pitched flute repeating an S.O.S. distress call

 

5. Neurotransmitter

There seems to be a train, driving through my brain but as soon as it arrives at synaptic central it dissipates into a cloud of lost emotions. The beats bring an attempt to escape the cloud but it's such a vast atmosphere that the more I try to get out the deeper I go in to it. Lost in my own mind.

Near the end the train reforms & drives me back to somewhere nearer sanity & the structure of my brain is feeling better. I finally escape the cloud into the emptiness of space with the solar winds on my face.

 

6. Hydroponic Garden

A trippy wet outdoors feeling permeates through this hydroponic garden. A very relaxed start and what feels like a beautiful angel softly calling to me. Nice soft beats & a slow relaxing synth line all float me away into the sky while keeping me grounded among the wonder of nature. The vocalist, now closer seems more like a nymph standing where the angel used to be.

Definitely a very nice title track.

7. Exosphere

A high pitched spacey drone & strange alienesque bird song ooze psychedelia, such a soft minimal ambient track with a lot of space for your mind to work. i think a lot of boring people will find this track boring but anyone with some imagination will love it.

 

8. Comsat

A little denser again. Melody, beats & voices! Back in the city, albeit in the outskirts of the city cruising around at night. As the track progresses, the atmosphere seems to become more urgent, eases up then gets more urgent again. A night full of troubles. This track really has a movie feel to it.

 

9. Epicentre (First Movement)

A majestic intro & it's long too, after a few minutes it gets closer & spacier but keeps it's majesty. The subtle female vocal, if you catch it, is softly mind blowing. It sounds like it's going to kick up a gear but never does. When I've mixed this into Epicentre (Second Movement) it sounds really nice as it does kick up a gear!!

 

10. Artificial Island

Melody, drop, alien voice, melody, synth, alien voice, distant thumps. It all seems rather random at first but as it progresses all the sounds come together & actually feel properly structured. It's weird for sure & definitely the most abstract on the album.

 

11. Refraction 1.33

More pure ambient. No beats just natural sounds, cold & dark sounds. The trickling of a night stream, the blowing of a night breeze, the echoes of other peoples dreams. A very light melody brought on the breeze brings with it a dream for me. It wants to take me over into that other realm, beyond awareness & into lucidity. All I have to do is let it, to give in. I always do!

 

 

Well, if you ever come across this album (you are very luck as it's out of print) then I urge you to buy it. It's a masterful album full of dark night time atmospheres, spacey sounds & psychedelic wanderings.

Buying the album is worth it for Mos 6581 alone but it would also be worth it even if that track was not on the album. So it's double worth it.

Fantastic album & Mos 6581 is sublime!

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  • 8 months later...

This album and CBL's World of Sleepers reminds me when I used to play EVE Online. It's almost has similar music. I always think of exploring the galaxy when CBL starts playing on my winamp. Good stuff. :)

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Guest gloryforixseal

Wow, thats amazingI am so impressed

Those pictures are beautiful. Thank you so much.

 

 

Can you give me a time table on how long it took to get it to a manageable point. Sorry for the 101 questions.

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Wow, thats amazingI am so impressed

Those pictures are beautiful. Thank you so much.

 

 

Can you give me a time table on how long it took to get it to a manageable point. Sorry for the 101 questions.

Hi Spambot! Thanks for your utterly pointless posts (3 so far with absolutely nothing to do with the topics they are in) You wont be deleted because there is little to no moderation here anymore and no one looks in old review threads anymore so your particular type of extemely random spamming with no links to porn or virus ridden sites will no doubt go unnoticed.

 

Next post you make, why don't you make an attempt to fool us into thinking you are a real person by participating in adjacency! Post something that makes sense in relation to anothers post or go and behold even answer someones post. That might make us believe you are real. Or you could just fuck off Brendan.

 

 

Back on Topic. This must be one of my most used albums ever. I listen to it regularly & I use the tracks in DJ sets so often. Just last week I used Mos6581 and it went down a storm :wub:

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This is such a superb album. Futuristic shreds of melancholy ideally suited for gazing from atop a massive glacier. I am transported on surfboards of imagination above the sea of civilization.

 

It's just an album that lends itself to dreaming.

 

Mdk

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