Saturday, April 26, 2008 4:06 AM

Classic Music of the Day

IDM

Aphex Twin
Richard D. James Album
Sire Records Comapny/Warp Records
1996

The Mozart of IDM's modern wind-up toy symphony for the ages.

The eponymous Richard D James album represents the height of the Twin’s commercial success during the apex of electronic music. It also represented the days of cooperative major label marketing in the US. Sire Records expanded the album to full-length standards since originally it was only a half hour with ten tracks (Richard James was quoted as saying anything longer than half an hour bores him). The opener “4” stands as the Twin’s masterpiece using both classic and cutting edge musical elements to create the perfect composition of strings with hyper drum machine. The other winner “Girl/Boy Song” is an absolute triumph in modern electronic composition, opening with plucked strings that that sweep into seemingly chaotic and non-sensical drums backed by violins and xylophone melodies. Both went on to become Richards’s signature works. Other pieces push the concept further and as result this album was both extremely accessible to your novice listener and introduced brand new directions in electronic sound which changed the scene forever. “Yellow Calx” combined the familiar ambience of his earlier works with mind-blowing drum sequences. Very rarely did an album offer something new on every track and was so easily consumed by the masses. Pleasant yet extremely edgy IDM for kids of all ages.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 11:30 PM

New Music of the Day

Ambient

Pete Namlook and Klaus Schulze
The Dark Side of the Moog XI
Fax +49-69/450464
2008

The Heart of Our Nearest Star.

Maybe it’s because really these two synth masters aren’t tired of working together or maybe because they felt the final installment of The Dark Side of the Moog was, in fact, lacking. But nevertheless, Namlook and Schulze, after ending the series and even selling off the old Moog equipment as a way of hammering a nail on the coffin, present the first Moog in dolby surround sound with the intentions of leaving the old sound of the series behind and taking things to the next level soundwise and anyone expecting this will be sorely but not necessarily disappointed. If anything this is a constant throwback not only to the classic Moog installments but to its original influences as the album closes with a minimal synth background that gives way to nature sounds that will find one reminiscent of some early Pink Floyd. The fact that this is the first Moog volume to feature to utilize Namlook’s new 5.1 ambitions does influence the direction as the opener is a heavily dramatic and ominous theme that builds and builds. Part II is just as dramatic, but in the majestic style of classic Moog that is also pushed as far as it will go. The power of this longer piece of the set is worth it alone and even more so to experience this genre of spacey ambient electronica in full surround for the first time. A potential breakthrough in the next evolution of the way we enjoy music.

Wednesday, April 22, 2008 8:19 AM

New Music of the Day

Ambient

Namlook
Subconscious Worlds
Fax +49-69/450464
2008

Dreamscapes as only FAX can generate.

Subconscious Worlds is the first strong release in the Namlook series to come out in quite a few years. While sticking to the ambient genre, Pete Namlook dishes out a limited variety of different styles that have served the label well over the years, beginning with "Opening the Gate" which is reliably melodic, reminiscent of the 90's era. "Living the Dream" goes for that dramatic and climatic movie score, rich with those foreign language voice samples that echo, boom, and wash over the music. The title track is more recent ambient drone with a subtle theme to it and "Canned Love" stands out as the emotional piece with a repetitive beats that tends to overpower it. A solid release from FAX that delivers the sound to know but now in full 5.1 surround sound.

Tuesday, April 21, 2008 8:26 AM

Music of the Day

Techno • Ambient

The Orb
Bicycles & Tricycles
Cooking Vinyl
2004

The Orb’s ultra adventures into the indie scene.

After the major label blunder that marred the release of their last album Cydonia, it’s no surprise that The Orb has joined the India electronic scene to restore their reputation with Bicycles & Tricycles, which opens with the further vicarious usage of vocal work (“Aftermath”) that was played with on Cydonia and continues to “cycle” through the various styles in The Orb’s catalog continuing with the crowd-pleasing “The Land of Green Ginger” featuring familiar Monty Python-style narration over euphoric yet goofy sounds that bounce around happily. “Hell’s Kitchen” uses The Orb’s sampling skills to create a trippy hip-hop anthem before delving deeper into the trip-hop pool with “Prime Evil” and “Tower Twenty-Three” which is once again not The Orb’s strong-point, which is more revealed in the closing ambient tracks, “Kompania” and “Dilmun”; precursors to The Orb’s upcoming future adventures on the Kompakt label. Bicycles & Tricycles is more limbo, distanced from the days where you would get a straight-forward ambient trip from the good Dr. Alex Paterson but there’s a good amount of select tracks to keep you entertained until The Orb find their place again.

This year look out for The Orb’s promising new album The Dream.