abasio

This is all over the forum! Is it a spambot? Probably not but does every subforum need the same two threads?

Damn! I forgot that in my last order Mauxuam is damn good sassy too np James Murray - Awayward :clapping:

Cool! but did you have to create 2 threads in every forum even slightly applicable?

Just ordered this. 16 euros is pretty good for a CD I think especially one of this quality! Can't wait :posford:

Symbiote - Tiara (21:59) Orichalcum - Elevation (21:04) Planet B.E.N. - Trippy Future Garden (21:47) Moksha - Contacted (18:20) Moksha - Huxleys' Medicine (15:45) Pleiadians - Modulation (16:49) Nuclear Ramjet - Delta 1.0 (Monolith) (16:46) Nuclear Ramjet - Brightness 2.3 (15:04) Sandman - Starfinder (12:56) Atmos - Fill The Hat 13:29 BLT - Patterns Of 13:31 Juno Reactor - Luciana [61:32] Elysium - Journey [44:27] Planet B.E.N. - Trippy Future Garden [21:53] Boris Blenn - Source of Emotion [21:29] t.i.p. - under the overtones [19:58] Shpongle - ...and the day turned to night [19:57] Moksha- Calaidoscopick [18:20] Cybersnack - Edge of Harmonix [17:32] Pleiadians - Modulation [16:47] D.P.O.D. - Long Caravan ou soleil [16:00] Pleiadians - Seven Sisters [15:52] Shpongle - Seventh Revelation [14:25] Technossomy - V.T.O.L. [12:35] Battle Of The Future Buddhas - Domestic Bliss [12:05] Chi-A.D - Liquid Neon Sky [11:45] Shaolin Wooden Men - A Binary Input To Flesh Antenna [40.42] Makyo - Yakshini [20:46] Pete Namlook & Klaus Schulze - A Saucerful of Ambience [61:02] Philip Glass- Music In Twelve Parts (3:25:53) Morton Feldman- For Phillip Guston (4:25:13) The Haters - Untitled (25:05:14) Matt Coldrick & Matt Hillier 1 Terra Firma (12:08) 2 The Band From Atlantis (12:21) 3 Fire Dance (14:17) 4 Where The Evening Meets The Sky (7:24) 5 Air (23:27) Robert Rich - Somnium (7 Hours) but to really take the cake John Cage - As Slow As Possible (639 Years) (Seriously WTF?)

You might expect something quite different

Some good recommendations here

Segue - Synesthesia

Artist: James Murray Title: Where Edges Meet Label: Ultimae Records Released: 17th Dec 2008 Tracklist 1 Awayward (6:45) 2 Colour Has Its Own Language (9:03) 3 Outside Context Solution (8:19) 4 Gaijin (5:30) 5 Fear Of Falling (6:18) 6 Where Edges Meet (7:18) 7 Empty Spaces (6:08) 8 Eleven (9:43) 9 Invisible People (8:50) London Based electro-acoustic sound artist James Murray is out with his debut album on Ultimae Records. Having had great tracks on the compilations Oxycanta – Winter Blooms back in 2007 & Spiral Trax – Ease Division 3 earlier in 2008 put some expectations on this album. Often artists I expect a lot from don’t reach my sky high expectations but James has managed not only to reach them with Where Edges Meet but to surpass them by quite a distance. This album, for me, eclipses the other Ultimae releases in 2008 quickly becoming one of my favourite chillout albums of the last few years. James has blended lush electronic soundscapes with acoustic elements magnificently into a moody urban tale. Piano & violin merge with glitchy electronic sounds fluidly making this sound not so much like simple electronic ambient but a profound journey through the inner mind and outer views. Imagine walking through a city at 5am, the air is cold & still, movement is limited to a few other souls on which side of slumber you don’t consider. The usual urban sounds are there but weaker, allowing the natural elements and the song in your own head the perception they require. It’s all very peaceful and lovely. I really like all the tracks here but even on a great album like this there are standouts. The cold lonely beauty of Gaijin is heightened by the hi-tech noises in the background of the intro, the strings & piano play haunting melodies giving a real sense of isolation. The wind rushing through Fear of Falling is a nice example of how James adds natural sounds to the music adding a real narrative feeling to it. The title track Where Edges Meet for me perfectly sums up the whole album. The main melody effortlessly glides along creating an atmosphere so filled with emotion that one could almost weep at its beauty. This is just an album that you can listen right through, great flow and it feels so much like you are being told a story. The music is so vivid, describing a cold melancholic urban fairytale that draws you in & before you know it the hour is up and you are ready to take the trip again. This is one you can listen to many times over & it still sounds fresh. The melodies are beautiful and haunting but they are the kinds that don’t get stuck in your head and you will find amazing each time they are played. One of the best albums released on Ultimae Records and that really says a lot coming from me as I am a really big Ultimae fan. This is pure audio art (& visual art if you count the lush 16 page booklet) that I will be able to appreciate for years to come I’m sure. Track by Track Analysis 1. Awayward We start off soft and dark, the piano sounds are in the forefront of the imagery but lurking behind are glitchy sounds both urban sounding & natural like running water. It’s all very gloomy and when the beats kick in it adds energy without any lift. It’s like leaving your lover’s house too early in the morning with the prospect of work all too imminent. 2. Colour Has Its Own Language The muttered voices in the intro sound like they are overheard snippets not meant for me but that hold an appeal like secrets on the wind. When the melody comes in it feels strangely warm, like winter sun beating down on my face when I’m surrounded by frost. Everything else feels cold but the melody is bright & sharp. When the melody goes I can feel the wide open space I have found myself in. The minimal ambient sounds like something is lurking almost menacingly but when the melody creeps back in it alleviates any misgivings and once again wraps me up and makes me feel a strange warmth. 3. Outside Context Solution A sharp melody & accompanying synth scythe through the intro making way for some lush bass and shuffling beats. Like raindrops dripping from your beautiful lovers nose as the light refracts a rainbow through them. You’re still standing in a rainstorm but it’s much more beautiful than you’ve experienced it before. The steadier beats feel like harder rain & when the music breaks down leaving us just with an electro flute style melody I can feel an awkward sensation like I have missed something important because I was transfixed on a stunning but unimportant rarity. With the re-emergence of the melody though I can feel myself slipping back into my own little world. 4. Gaijin The disjointed flute at the beginning here really sets a moody of self reflection, the glitchy hi-tech sounds that follow the brief piano melody set me in a big city & the string melody makes me feel alone. The sense of being surrounded by a crowd of people but being totally alone is punctuated half way through when the melody seems beautiful yet haunting like the inner demons are preying on your mind and the whole world just rushes passed you barely even acknowledging your existence lost in a world you don’t belong in. 5. Fear Of Falling The cold wind & deep vibrating melody makes me feel like I am high up on a not so stable platform. The photograph in the booklet of the ski lift is a perfect representation of the music. High above a clear white world, cold melodies rushing passed you, looking down at how beautiful everything is but with a slight reservation. You don’t want to lean out too far to get that glorious view in case you fall and be terminated by the beauty of the world. The beats are quite strong and steady pushing us steadily higher, vibrating synths continue as a reminder of where I am even as the atmospheric drones try to push me into an ethereal dreamlike state. This is a great visual track. 6. Where Edges Meet The title track starts off with just a strange oscillating sound for the first 30 odd seconds but as the music snaps into place, melodies fly in from high above like a cascading sonic downpour of emotion. Such sadness is not often represented so acutely. The beats just accentuate the feeling and the long synth drones multiply the feeling twice over. This could be my favourite chill track of 2008, packed with so much feeling even after 50 or more listens I am still blown away by it. A fantastic track with excellent progression and emotion. 7. Empty Spaces This has a darker feeling from the beginning here with dim bass rumbles & a distant bell tolling with a matt finish. The beats similarly have a very flat, unpolished feel to them but not in a bad way, in a simple understated way. The melodies are restrained and the whole track feels like it is giving me breathing space, time for my brain to work on it’s own, imagine its own story and discover its own way of thinking only slightly aided by the beautiful chimes coming through the walls. 8. Eleven A haunting melody & other deep yet sharp melodic sounds fill the entire intro here setting a scene of sombre reflection. The melodious elements filter out briefly leaving us only with a subtle sporadic percussion like a heart that’s not quite beating the way it should. A heavy heart too dispirited to allow the brain to wallow in its gloomy sorrow. The melody creeps back in though like those thoughts we want to lock away but that will always seep back into your consciousness like a bad penny. I don’t know the significance of the number eleven but going on the feeling of the music it could be eleven years since the loss of a soul mate. 9. Invisible People A very soft ambient track to end on, quite minimal on the surface but teeming with life if you dip your head below the glimmering top. Lots of glitchy noises all over the place here in a seemingly random way. It’s very unstructured until the beat comes in to try and give it some direction but it still feels to me like I am looking down into a pond of green water and small goldfish that dart this way & that chaotically yet managing to give me a feeling of serenity at the same time. As the track goes on the glitch is filtered out slowly until only a long atmospheric drone is left to shepherd me back to world. Art As with all Ultimae releases this album has exquisite artwork. The cover although nice does not do justice to the photos included in the booklet. The pictures on the page relating to each track are very good representations of music. My favourite is definitely Where Edges Meet a wonderful pictures of birds in front of a yellow sky with the sun setting behind the clouds. Under the clouds are trees and what looks like a construction site. Above the clouds, high in the sky is what looks like fields and trees but it is subtle enough that it fits and I only noticed when I really looked. Like the album, subtleties that may require some focus to fully appreciate but well worth the time.

Artist: Unoccupied Title: Everyday Life Label: Aleph Zero Records Released: November 2008 Tracklist 1 Everyday Life (4:30) 2 Basic Conversation (4:15) 3 Always On The Move (4:33) 4 Time Off (5:00) 5 Stay Outside (5:02) 6 One Happy Thought (3:57) 7 Have It All (5:12) 8 She (3:28) 9 Painting Of A Forest (2:25) 10 Personal Interview (4:09) 11 Cash (5:39) Unoccupied are a duo from Israel, Eitan Reiter maybe better known as one half of Psytrance act Loud and Nadav Katz. Everyday Life is their view of our everyday lives. Before I write this review I'd like to say two things. First I am a long time fan of Aleph Zero having really enjoyed everything they have released to date. Aleph Zero definitely seems to have a quality filter so you always know when you pick up their latest release no matter the style the music will be a great example of it. The second thing I'd like to say is that I am really not a fan of vocals in electronic music. I feel that they are a dominating and often distracting layer that can make it more difficult to appreciate the real music that lies beneath. So what did I think of an Aleph Zero album with a lot of vocals? Well the music is great, the whole album has a nice urban feel to with a lot of nice melodies both electronic and played on the guitar as well as some decent ambient glitch. The vocals are okay. On the whole they don't distract too much from the underlying rhythms and themes of the albums and often actually have some meaning, social commentary on Everyday Life. The first two tracks are good examples of this with the lyrics in the cold & moody title track Everyday Life tells us of a recluse who doesn't join in the social events that his friends do. In the next track the retro feeling synth pop track Basic Conversation seems to tell of someone coming to terms with the simplest of social skills. That said though I think I would like this album more if most of the vocals had been left out. A really nice melody in the track Stay Outside is covered by a repeating vocal that sounds somewhat rude to me and it is only when the vocals leaves that I usually notice the melody. Likewise my favourite tracks or parts of tracks are usually vocal free. My favourite track here is She with it's cold moody feeling and indecipherable lyrics, it's quite minimal but packs in a lot of atmosphere. The only track I don't like is Personal Interview because the Monologue that dominates the first half while interesting on the first couple of listens becomes tired and irritating on repeated listens. The rest of the tracks are all good, they have nice urban textures, melodies ranging from warm to melancholic and a lot of nice percussion. It's not amazing but different enough from a lot of conventional chillout that it has me coming back to listen to it quite a lot. Recommendation: If you are looking for something a little different than what has flooded the scene in recent years, if you don't mind vocals and you enjoy nice urban textures then you should check this out. It's not the greatest album Aleph Zero has released but it's a nice example of how the guys at Aleph Zero are not afraid to try new things and explore new directions with their music. Track By Track Analysis 1. Everyday Life The opening track is a moody track with the vocals by Eitan Reiter describing a recluse who stays at home as the others do more social activities like dancing or watching movies. It’s a very simple track starting very well with a big bass synth & a simple melodic line. The vocals sound slightly distorted as does the guitar that finishes the track. This track is verging on pop territory & I’ll admit that when I first heard it I didn’t really like it but when listening more closely there is some good music here, he little melodic blips are great. I’d probably prefer it without the vocals but then again I am not a lover of vocals. 2. Basic Conversation Vocals right through a vocoder sound like a 1970’s sci-fi robot like the style of Daft Punk’s. Not sure of the vocals here, I’d guess they represent another socially maladjusted individual that cannot grasp the fundamentals of basic conversation much like a robot might struggle with the concept. Behind the vocals is some great music, it’s a little on the pop side but the melody that comes in before the soft guitar melody is really beautiful. Think 80’s synth pop with some lush downbeat elements to strengthen it. 3. Always On The Move This track sounds a lot like the last track in the beginning but without the vocals. Being vocal free allows us to focus more on the actual music and all though it uses guitars, the sound of which I rarely like, they are played well and blended in well with some fat bass, interestingly eclectic melodies and ambient glitch. The way the guitars are played sounds like they are the in your face glitch with the more subtle stuff only there for the more focused listener. As the track progresses it gets an identity of its own sound more and more different than Basic Conversation. 4. Time Off Time of is a more relaxed and beautiful track. Right from the start the melodies are warmer than the preceding 3 tracks giving more of a summer feel. The guitars are understated and the vocals are short and don’t dominate the track in any way at times they don’t even sound like vocals but just a scratchy instrument. In the Middle there is a strange melodic sound that in my head sounds like a whale calling out, this sound comes in more prominently at the end sounding very much like sonar communication. 5. Stay Outside More vocals through a vocoder make this sound very much like some 80’s synth pop. The bassline though is tight & sets a platform for the melodies to shine. The more subtle of the two melodies is worthy as being mentioned as art, I love it and wish it was a larger part of the track. The vocals for me in this track are a little too dominant and I feel a little sad that such potential is not reached. From the inside of the booklet we can see that the repeated lyrics are “Everybody is checking everybody out” but to me it sounds like “Everybody is jerking and I don't care” and it detracts from the music for me. I’d very much like to hear an instrumental version of this track 6. One Happy Thought We have here another vocal free track and this shows again that the music is really good. Here we have a bassline that plays a melody, some warm melodic lines and scratchy ambient sounds. The melodic lines seem to have some kind of Doppler Effect and shift as if they are passing you adding an urban feel to the track as it kind of sounds to me like a siren of a police car. A very nice warm urban track. 7. Have It All This track sounds more like soft or ambient rock. When the beats come in they are big but light and slow. The guitars have a very slow melancholic rock feel to them & the whispered vocals add an element of human sadness. The synth line at the start of the track is not really indicative of all this but manages to go nicely from soft ambient to soft rock in just a few minutes. I quite like the vocals here, simple and repetitive but moody and fitting well with the track. 8. She Very long drawn out distorted vocals would be indecipherable if it wasn’t for the lyrics written in the booklet, then they seem to make an eerie kind of sense. A great track here, so dark moody & bizarre, there is not much going on in the track, just the vocals a strange oscillating sound that could be wind blowing something just outside the window and a minimal bassline. I think though that this tracks minimalism is its charm and this has become my favourite track on the album 9. Painting Of A Forest Soft guitars and a melody played on some kind of flute make for a strange atmosphere. For me, guitar and flute do not compliment each other musically but the contrast can bring out some weird abstract image, in this case I can imagine a city park large enough to hide the urban feel slightly so we can imagine we are in the forest but with the roar of humanity in the distance. 10. Personal Interview This track has a monologue of a guy talking about his life, almost like a diary describing applying for and getting a job. It is I think cheesy in the extreme, a shame because the music underneath is good and you can appreciate it when he stops talking. The melody is optimistic and the acoustic beats are relaxing giving a nice chillout vibe but the monologue for me is too long that after a few listens I want to fast forward to vocal free second half of the track. 11. Cash We end with Cash, a conclusion to Unoccupied’s look at everyday life. The music does feel like it is wrapping things up. The beats are slow and sporadic and the atmosphere is like empty air but this is filled halfway through by samples of people talking, some sound like news stories, others sound like the stock market rabble. With this element of money and the morose feeling of the guitar and a strange oscillating sound I am left with an impression of money troubles leading someone to end it all. At the end all the sounds slowly ebb away until on the oscillating synth is left & I can actually picture a man standing in his suit on a ledge outside a very tall building.

come on joytron pull ya finger out!

google? discogs? you could just give it a quick search.

Entheogenic - Flight Of The Urubus

There's some good news

I think this one takes more time to appreciate than other albums due to the fact you have to get passed the vocals. I'm in the process of reviewing it though as the music itself is very good What link do you want?

I also enjoyed 1408. It was nothing mind blowing but compared to the recent drivel that has come out of America recently I thought it was pretty good

Lauge - Moving Ocean?

Well, I'm on the same latitude as North Africa might have something to do with it np

Good idea, must do that before it gets too hot. Damn, it'll be 21 celsius already tomorrow

I'm having the same problem with the new solar fields. It just doesn't hold my interest. But then again, none of his albums did at first

God damn this is good :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

The frosty ones are well cool

This could be HUGE

A Love Song For Bobby Long Perhaps John Travolta's best role. Weird as I never heard of this movie until I saw it on TV by accident but it's really good. A digruntled teen goes back to New Orleans after her mother dies. Expecting to find her childhood house empty, she finds to drunken reprabates (one is Travolta) an ex University English Professor and his protege who has been failing to right a book about travolta's life. During the year a lot of secrets of their lives are revealed and while it might not sound like much, all the actors do a great job & it's really worth watching