Solar Fields – EarthShine

This is the fifth album from Solar Fields, released on Ultimae, but this in not your usual Solar Fields album, this is TRANCE! I am not going to go into depth about the track, but rather talk about my feelings about this fine piece of work.

Being a fan of Solar Fields, I did not know what to expect, and I rarely listen to samples, cause they dont really tell you whats going on. I did for this album, and I was pretty disappointed to be honest. Not the first time around, but the second and third. Thank god for that, cause it made my more interested in what the final work would sound like. So what about the album?! Well at a first listen, I was at home, and just skimmed through, and it was OK, but then I decided to go out for a walk, give the album some time and listen to it while having my thoughts on the music, rather than sitting here discussing on the forum (haha).

For the psychedelic lover, this is NOTHING, dont even BOTHER if you dont like normal trance or progressive. IF you are into the latter though, you will be into this album. It is VERY atmospheric, very deep and very melodic! Has some acid as well! I came to the third track (Black Arrow) track, while walking and I had to stop and sit down, cause otherwise I would have danced RIGHT THERE on the street. The tracks are rather long, varying from eight and a half minutes to 12 minutes (the longest track). This give time for progression, and this is what this albums is ALL ABOUT. Its about constant changes, progression, melodies and sounscapes that suck you in like the black hole.

Track number five (Spectral Nation) it gets a bit rougher, and you can feel that the course is Changing a bit, and it makes you think about what is to come. Of course, track six (Adjustment) is again very much the upper tempo and driving, just as touched on in track number five (Spectral Nation), but this time a bit more atmosphere. So what started out to be more regular trance transforms into really good scando progg, but still keeps the Atmosphere of the previous tracks! As last track (Cruise) its more trancey again, more atmosphere than the previous 2 tracks, but dont think that it does not have drive!

I love each and every track on this album, its a true masterpiece, and should be rated as 10/10 from me. If it was 1993, this album would have been released on Eye-Q or MFS, that is how much quality this album has!

Now, go and get this one and enjoy the same trip as I just experienced!

Buy Solar Fields – EarthShine @ Amazon

Carbon Based Lifeforms – Hydroponic Garden

A brilliant ambient album, and I’m so happy I randomly as hell downloaded this thing. It was Released on Ultimae in June 2003 and been out for some time before I discovered it. Just glancing at the cover of this, I had a feeling it would be a beautiful experience. This was a true headphones album, but it went one step further…it was a headphones and an eyes closed album. With your eyes open listening to this kind of music, you can get distracted without even knowing it. When you’re listening to rock and the such, you’re too busy, well, rawkin’ out to really focus on the music itself. It’s a form of energy more than anything else. And on an ambient album like this, you need to reduce all other senses except for your auditory sense only. The sound is much more fragile and delicate, and each tiny thing that goes on needs to be absorbed by the human mind as a part of the overall atmosphere.


That’s really where the dividing line of ambient music comes in. You have those who just pass it off as boring background music, which is shame. On the other hand, if you actually set your mind to it and listen carefully, you’ll realize how amazingly intricate these songs are. The album is entirely electronic, and various electronic instruments form wonderfully layered songs that are absolutely stunning. Whether it be a blips in the center of the song, with constant drum beats in the backgrounds surrounded by an overall ambient aura, or just random sounds, almost like they’re taken from nature; it forms the perfect chillout music that takes the very trouble that is hindering your soul, and throws it out deep into the woods somewhere. Electronic psychedelic rhythms are good for the soul.

But the depth of this music is absolutely stunning. The title track was one of the songs that I kept my eyes closed on throughout the entire song. The song starts with the sounds of the ocean, or strong winds or something, and soon a constant synth beat takes over. Then more artificial nature sounds peak in; most of which resemble a bird singing in the morning. With all of these things taken into account, plus a whole ambient atmosphere to top off the whole thing, your mind gets seriously fucked. With your eyes closed, you almost suspect what’s happening less, so you seem more vulnerable. I could feel my heart racing at different points in the song, as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I nearly had an out of body experience, where my other half lept out of my body and aimlessly wandered deep into the unknown. He soon found himself in a jungle, with no clue of where he is, or the way back home. Although he realizes that he is lost, he gets a certain feeling of comfort in his new environment (thank God this is psybient. If this was dark ambient, he’d go into the woods be raped by a gang of gorillas out in the bushes somewhere).

With those types of feelings felt on all of these songs, you get a sense of comfort, and once the music stops playing, you feel afraid of your surroundings. Why do you feel afraid? Because Carbon Based Lifeforms isn’t there to coax you back into your happy place.

Simple as that.

Buy Carbon Based Lifeforms – Hydroponic Garden @ Amazon

Burial – Untrue

I have been listening to various forms of electronic music since I was 8 years old in ’88 and pedalling to the local record store to buy house 12″s, so perhaps unlike a few here because of that I’m not quite so easily won.

I have seen the ‘saviours’ and the ‘geniuses’ come and then fade. All have left thier mark, but few made music beyond a tune or two that has lasted much beyond the time in which it was made for reasons other than nostalgia.

Burial doesn’t fit in to the previous category. What’s on here will almost definitely deserve listening to again in 10 years time, and still sound interesting.

Because of media hype surrounding his identity, Burial has been elevated to a level of status he might not otherwise have attained, but if that brings music of this calibre and innovation to a wider audience, then all the better.
For the more discerning listener though, a lot of what is found here has been heard before: soundscapes, subtle strings for big emotion, heavily processed vocals and plenty of white noise; in some places I’m made to think of early Aphex Twin meets Dubstep…

Apparently Burial comes under the classification of ‘Dubstep’, but a lot of what you hear on here neatly sidesteps easy classification, which as with most music, makes it all the more worth listening, and this definitely is.
Not being a Dubstep fan myself (too much stylisation, too little variation), I dismissed this album before really listening closely and at length, but upon doing so, and continuing to do so, I have been rewarded immensely.
To anyone listening to this for the first time, I’d say Listen again, and again, and again… This isn’t instant access music, like (in my experience) a lot of music that really stays with you, it takes time to grow on you; it’s the kind of music that creeps inside you instead of bludgeoning you with it’s presence.

Standouts for me are ‘Shell of Light’ and ‘Ghost Hardware’, these two alone would justify buying the album.
From 13 tracks, there are perhaps two that have me skipping to the next track, and that’s saying a lot for a single artist dance music album.

Bearing in mind the Burial had no desire to be a part of the media hype that is now attached to him, and his only desire was in his own words ‘to make some tunes’, the one thing this album is, is honest and true, there’s no pretention here; this music comes from the heart.

Buy this, you’ll be humbled by it’s sincerity.

Buy Burial – Untrue @ Amazon

Steve Roach – Structures from Silence

Decades ago there was a program on KCRW (NPR affiliate in Santa Monica, CA) called “Discrete Music” (yes, named after Eno) that was broadcast at 5:00 am Sundays. I believe the DJ was Dean Suzuki. I would set the clock radio next to my bed to activate at 5:00 am on very low volume and the ambient tunes would flow in and out of my conscieousness and inevidibly set a mood of serenity for the rest of the day. Dean’s impeccable selections introduced me to many pieces of music that have become life-long favorites. Among those near the top — this album.

In “Reflections in Suspension,” the discrete tones fall gently into the pool of ambience as do the beginning drops of rain into a mountain stream. The sequence of tones is very teasing. The mix of anticipation and surrender is thrillingly sublime.

This entire album always evokes a quote from Brian Eno which I will paraphrase as “The more something stays the same, the more it changes,” meaning that the listener is drawn into a heightened sensativity where even the smallest variations become momentous.

An example of this acuity was demonstrated to me on a race from San Diego to Manzanillo, Mexico, in the mid 80′s as several of us were languishing through a night of very light wind. I slipped “Structures From Silence” into the cassette player and was intrigued to observe everyone becomming more alert. Sails were adjusted in and out a centimeter at a time, the course adjusted by a degree or two, and the speed increased. People were not nodding as they vainly tried to thwart tedium and fatigue; instead, heads were up, looking around, discerning changes, feeling wind.

The next morning one of the crew that was off-watch while we had been sailing and listening to this album complained that they couldn’t sleep with this music on! This particular person’s favorite music was Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffet and “Structures From Silence” had kept them from sleeping. The specific complaint was something like, “There’s no beginning! There’s no end! And there’s nothing much in the middle either!!” Sorry, the people on watch LOVED it…

Buy Steve Roach – Structures From Silence @ Amazon

Stars Of The Lid And Their Refinement Of The Decline

The ambient scene is dying, and the general attitude towards ambient music has almost spiraled back into what it was before Brian Eno pioneered it forty years ago. People just don’t seem to have the enthusiasm for atmosphere anymore. Less than experience, people now lean on beats and catchy, trashy melodies. They scoff at the thought of this type of music, and it never occurs to them that it is actually supposed to put them to sleep.

After a long break since their 2001 album The Tired Sounds of Stars Of The Lid, the Austin Texas ambient duo returned last year with yet another ambitious double album. Refinement might actually be an introspective cross reference to The Tired Sounds, which very well might have contributed to the decline of ambient music. That album was ambitious, but in the stereotypical sense of the word. It was, in a word, tired. Spanning two disks and god knows how many records, it often spent twenty minutes leaning on the same dull, inconclusive melodies, and segmenting them through three separate movements with negligible variation. It worked on occasion, but the album as a whole failed as ambient music, being downright dull and unrewarding while actively listened to, and uncomfortably dissonant while passively listened to.

That said, six years later, Stars of the Lid have clearly learned from their mistakes and made their true masterpiece, And Their Refinement Of The Decline. It is not the groundbreaking ambient album that we were waiting for, that would make as much impact on the genre as any Brian Eno or Harold Budd records, but it is a refinement, and we see the band in as perfect a condition as they have ever been in.

The style is the same at its core. Stars of The Lid make ambient drone music, and it comprises mostly of long lasting chords that are held for a long time, and gently drift into one another. This music is, in the same style as Brian Eno and other ambient music, meant to be atmosphere more than anything. This music is meant to accompany a daydream, color a visual passage in a movie or fantasy, or aid in relaxation or sleep. I also find this music appropriate to study to, and I have a very hard time finding music I can study to. Well, not for math. I can do math with music on. It actually even probably helps. It’s the social studies and English that is hard for me to do with music. It is hard to read a passage or write something while listening to music. It’s the words. But I can study with Stars of The Lid on. At least most of their songs. That says something for what it accomplishes as ambient music.

The instrumentation is pretty simple. Most of the main drone is comprised of cellos. The cello might be my favorite instrument. I was trained on the violin for half my life until I quit. If I could go back in time, I would choose the cello over the violin in a heartbeat. It is the perfect instrument for ambient music, a gentle middle tone below the sharp, often cutting violin tone and above the deep simplicity of the bass. Three people are credited to the violoncelle in the liner notes, “violoncelle” being the more official name of cello. Little history lesson here, cello literally means “little” in Italian, while the “violone” is a classical instrument seldom used today that was essentially a slightly smaller upright bass played while sitting down. The cello is literally a “little violone.” The choice to make the cello the basic, fundamental instrument of the music was a good one. Scarcely anything is warmer and more soothing than a cello drone.

The majority of the melodies are played either through synthesizers or on a certain member of a humble, comfortably small horn section that is utilized in a scattered manner. And then each chord is touched with a deep echo. The result is usually very relaxing, and even the largest sounding chords are simple, pure, and warm. Melodies often take a long time to present themselves, and they usually only consist of two or three chords, but once they do, they are memorable. The problem is, most of these songs sound the same and have few unique signposts for recognition unless they are given a very significant amount of time. And even then, you probably won’t be able to recognize them by name.

But don’t let that fool you. Stars of the Lid have developed a knack for songwriting that eluded them on The Tired Sounds Of Stars of the Lid. Most of the melodies on that album sounded like broken doorbells, and Refinement only steps back into that territory once or twice with much greater success, namely Don’t Bother They’re Here (maybe this one was supposed to sound like a doorbell?). The band have also stepped away from the eternally dissonant style of The Tired Sounds by making the chord progressions more conclusive and easy on the ears, which is exactly what they should have always been in the first place. This is an ambient album that does not waste time with avant-garde intricacies, and instead immediately pins down a goal and sticks with it. No extra stuff. Just relaxing ambient music.

Highlights are not few. The opening Dungtitled gently starts things off with minimalist chords that slowly sweep around a single constant, an ever present pedal point drone in A. Then we have the only segmented piece on the album, the two movement piece Articulate Silences. Both parts are fundamentally different explorations of the same minimal melody, the first a gentle, comforting piece, the second a slightly more experimental piece, dipping with drones from registers beyond the reach of the first piece.

From here on out, the album scarcely hits any missteps, and the pattern of excellence continues through both disks. Particularly impressive is Aperludes, which sounds like less of a song for sleeping than a Brian Eno soundtrack piece. It evokes contentment, rather than closed door finality or longing. Another killer track is Dopamine Clouds Over Craven Cottage, a shimming evocation of natural beauty. By the second disk, things occasionally get a little darker or more bittersweet. Two songs in particular are much more bittersweet and emotional than their predecessors. That Finger On Your Temple Is The Barrel Of My Raygun evokes a distant feeling of danger, and Tippy’s Demise cleverly represents itself. The tipping point has been reached, and the song is clearly the manifestation of this. We hear whatever Tippy is die. The dynamics are important. The closing epic, December Hunting For Vegetarian ****face, caps off the album. It doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be, occasionally touching on moments of dissonance through the tranquility. It’s nice, but almost twenty minutes is a bit long for one chord with minimal variation.

Minor flaws aside Stars Of The Lid’s And Their Refinement Of The Decline is one of the best, most memorable ambient albums in years because there really are not any strings attached (well, figuratively.) What marked the downfall of the ambient movement was experimentalism. When people started realizing that they could make ambient music themselves from the confines of their own home and post their work on myspace, they realized that they had to try something new to differentiate themselves. Stars Of The Lid have come to realize that they can make ambient music that is simple, professionally. This is a double album to be remembered for its melodies as well as its atmospheres, and it foreshadows a recovery of the ambient genre back into something that is special, not messy, for its contrasting goals. It is as much a box of tools as a box of treasures.

Buy Stars of The Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline @ Amazon

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