M-Sphere - Floating

[abasio]

M-Sphere

Floating

Yellow Sunshine Explosion

2008

 

Tracklist

 

1 When The Wind Blows (10:15)

2 Waiting All The Time (7:03)

3 The Source (8:36)

4 Walking Like Birds Fly (7:50)

5 Don't Look Back In Anger (7:18)

6 Funky People Transport (7:51)

7 Blue Summer (8:22)

8 Where Are You Now? (11:56)

 

M-Sphere’s first album, Electronic Relaxation was a big surprise to me. I bought it without knowing what it was & was delighted with its subtle melancholic edge & wonderfully morose melodies. Similarly I heard no hype of this follow up to that magnificent album but it had to live up to debut in my mind so there was some expectation there. The second album can be the most difficult, people are expecting something as good if not better than the debut, maybe in the same vein but also fresh & new. I think M-Sphere has done an excellent job with this album as it seems to have managed all of those things.

 

1. When The Wind Blows

The opening track seems to pick up where the last album left off with a sublime ambient intro that sounds like the wind blowing and showers being thrown around a dark open field. When the music gets going the melody is light & fresh yet manages to keep a touch of melancholy in it. The bass adds to the feeling & drives the track into a floating 10 feet above the ground kind of feel. It’s a very nice descriptive opener that builds its intensity slowly over the 10 minutes, never rushing and seeming to get its timing right every time so that by the end you have a great tribal beat surrounded by melody, winds & water without quite knowing how you got there.

2. Waiting All The Time

Waiting all the time is a busy piece with a heavy set beat just right for nodding your head along to. The bassline is subtle but is definitely the centrepiece on which the whole track hangs. The light melody in the intro is quickly replaced by a guitar that feels at once strange & integral. If the bassline is what holds the track together then it’s this guitar that gives it its special feeling. Sci-Fi sound effects and subtle stabs of acid synth all make an incredibly ordered randomness. I’m sure this combination of sounds shouldn’t work but here, it works fantastically.

 

3. The Source

More dark spacey sounds & a heavy set beat come in after a long intro with stabby little synth melodies & an atmospheric ambient drone rushing energetically in the background. Again the bass carries the track as the elements shift & build, fall & build again. Solid stuff, technically very well made with enough soul to please but nothing that grabs your attention until the semi vocal sounds come in. These take the track to whole new levels. Like a voice wailing from behind the wall of reality so that you cannot quite recognise it as a voice, just pure emotion. Very trippy, great track.

4. Walking Like Birds Fly

An intro that reminds me of cold European fairy tales leads into a steady 4-4 beat surrounded by synths & sounds like acidic dragonflies buzzing through the sky, all the while keeping the same mood. By the time the melody comes in, it is able to lift the listener from the ground to tree height & down again. Feeling both grounded & floaty at the same time is a feeling to be savoured but with the ever changing nature of this music the floaty feeling manages to overpower the earthy one & it ends with a sky high feeling of a chaotic journey through storm clouds.

 

5. Don’t Look Back In Anger

A long smooth intro reminds me not at all of anger, only peace & serenity. The smooth ambient drones, the relaxed synth melody & spacey sounds are just dreamy. The sample before the beat kicks in a bit too cheesy for me but the beat that kicks in is sublime in its simple trippiness. The twisted German vocal samples make up for the cheese before with what to me sounds like a cut up re-pasted vocal. The guitar in this track does not sound as good as in Waiting All The Time, it has more of a Spanish feel & for me is a bit out of place. It is sporadic though & doesn’t stop my enjoyment of the rest of the track.

 

6. Funky People Transport

This is not very funky is a disco way but it is more funky than the previous works. It has a more electro feel to it without crossing over into full electro cheese. The melody is simple & repetitive but is saved from tedium by more semi vocals. Dispensed with the despair they have taken to simply sighing. Following their inclusion the melody starts to rise & fall in time and after the breakdown everything that was stripped away is slowly reintroduced, subtle at first the melody manages to slowly work its way into the forefront & thoughts of it being boring & simple are replaced with respect for the minimal.

 

7. Blue Summer

This, for me, is one of the highlights of the album, with its warm summer feeling with just a hint of a melancholic edge. I imagine sitting on a beach of pristine white sand looking out over an ocean of crystal clear water thinking of missed chances & long lost acquaintances. Not sad just a slight ripple in the good summer mood. The sound effects add to this feeling with what I’m sure is the ocean & the buzzing of tropical insects. It’s the melody & drones that give it the edge of melancholy though & beats that make you want to rock your hammock.

8. Where Are You Now?

The final track shows perfectly how M-Sphere’s sound has progressed. A long 10 minute track, stunning in its natural ambient feeling of wind, waves & birds, the acoustic guitar half played like a player concentrating on his conversation rather than his music. The birdsong gets more prominent as the simple melody repeats in the background. This is a nice ambient end to a beautifully chilled album & definitely makes me float, towards the end away from the coast & out over the clear blue waters of an endless ocean.

 

 

This album is definitely worth the purchase, if you liked the first album then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If you didn’t then you should check them both out. This one is an excellent progression from the debut. It has kept the heart and soul of that, the melancholy, but added more elements. It is brighter, sharper, crisper with more natural & acoustic sounds than before.

[p(sy)ayam]

nice chilling album. first track is long and gets a bit boring. from the 2nd track the real journey begins. The Source, Walking Like Birds Fly and Don’t Look Back In Anger are all awesome trippy tracks. the sample on the 5th track reminds me of Schiller's music and is unnecessary imo. the album ends with two dreamy tracks, very relaxing and psychedelic.

 

i'm not sure if i like this album more than Electronic Relaxation or not. it's more like a continuation to the debut album. have been listening to this a lot this summer, recommended...

 

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