Delerium - Spheres

[seraph]

DELERIUM - SPHERES

1994

DOSSIER

 

1. MONOLITH

2. TRANSMITTER

3. WAVELENGTH

4. COLONY

5. DARK MATTER

6. CLOUD BARRIER

 

Here is the first ambient project by Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, guys that stands behind FLA and SYNAESTHESIA. They made this project at the end of eighties but I won't review their first albums cause they are more in gothic/alternative ambience style than this and their second Spheres that are more psychedelic. And that is the reason why I am reviewing them. This album is with the second Spheres their best DELERIUM albums, at least for me, cause they changed style from dark, demonic ambient scapes as their first 4 albums : FACES, FORMS AND ILLUSIONS, MORPHEUS, STONE TOWER and SPIRITUAL ARCHIVES. I like all of their first four albums but they started producing psychedelic ambience with these two. MONOLITH is very long, beautiful beginning. It is very spacey with lots of 303 sounds. TRANSMITTER is another long, slow song that gradually builds up. Whole album has specific spacey feeling with lots of 303 making perfect psychedelic soundscapes. WAVELENGTH and COLONY are the best on album. They have some kind of epic structure especially COLONY. They used choir voices that I assume they borrowed from Vangelis music from 1492, but it doesn't matter cause they go perfect with this music and ideas. DARK MATTER is slower again and drifts smoothly inside your brain frequencies. CLOUD BARRIER is even more slow but beautiful ending. Another perfect release by this great musicians...10/10

[Bahamut]

I agree, this album is exceptionally good. A real gem for ambient fans. Straight-forward, perfectly constructed melodic, dark ambient.

A lot of today's artists could learn something from this. This is what electronic music is about.

[kabamaru]

I really tried to like this one but the blatant ripoff of Vangelis samples made it impossible. They sound like they were pasted on top of everything in a hurry. The sample loops even sound a bit off (starting a tiny fraction of a second late!). Sorry, but I can't stand it...

 

Maybe I wouldn't react like this if I hadn't listened to Vangelis' one billion times so far.

[Bahamut]

well if only those few samples ruin it for you..

I think they work pretty well with the rest of the music

[seraph]

I can understand that someone is turned off by the samples, but aren't we talking about THE MUSIC here ?

I also agree that it goes nice with the music, maybe because I haven't been brainwashing myself with Vangelis before...not that I worship him in the way other people does.

To me, Vangelis makes good music but he is a bit overrated...

[Gnome]

Smoking a phat joint and giving this a listen.Nice nice....i like it!

[Tox]

So is this the Delirum who's track "Silence" got rmx'd to become a huge hit in the clubs in the late 90's ?

[seraph]

So is this the Delirum who's track "Silence" got rmx'd to become a huge hit in the clubs in the late 90's ?

425416[/snapback]

 

Yeah, but that is from their commercial phase, this album is from 1994 and it is completely different music...check it out if you like its description...

[Jon Cocco]

Good recommendation. I hadn't heard Delerium's Sphere album before. I really like it, especially tracks Colony, Transmitter, and Monolith. I think if they added a kickdrum and sped it up, it would probably sound pretty close to goatrance. I like the ambient sound though.

 

About the samples... yeah, the same year (1994) Prodigy relased an album called Music for the Jilted Generation, which I believe happend to have the same damn "My Mind Is Glowing" samples. Which album came first I don't know, but I do know that the Mind...Glowing samples have been used over and over again throughout the last 10+ years by multiples artists. I don't care for it but the song is still very well done. It's slow but it builds, develops, and compliments the songs with more animation or imagination and more attractive speed that follow.

 

I had heard some of Delerium's later, dance/clubby stuff...nothing great, some of it's cool, such as Silence and Truly (feat. Nerina Pallot), very upbeat, catchy, feel good pop/dance stuff. Was "Silence" ever made without Sarah Mclachlan singing on it? It's a song right off her 2003 album with a different beat and melody attached.

 

...but that sounds absolutely nothing like their earlier, more individualized expressions of art. I don't eveknow how the group evolved into songs with singing? It sounds like a different group.

 

The Spheres album is totally unique. It's not trying to appeal to the mainstream; it's an imaginative creation from the heart. I really like the dark tone, with melodies, atmosphere, gradual build up. I consider much ambient boring in general. I couldn't give Spheres a perfect score because I don't consider every track excellent or amazing. There are one or two tracks that really strike me as excellent for their time and still our, especially when realizing that they released in 1994! Several other tracks however far from bad, are not exactly excellent IMO. Overall a very well done album and probably one of the best ambient albums.