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Quiet Songs by Aisha Duo (CD - 2003)

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Cross by Justice (Jungle) (CD - 07/10/2007)

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Blue Album by Orbital (CD - 08/10/2004)

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Quiet Songs by Aisha Duo (CD - 2003)

"Quiet Songs" (2003) Electronic Aisha Duo, ObliqSoundAisha Duo: Andrea Dulbecco (vibraphone); Luca Gusella (marimba). Personnel: Marco Decimo (cello); Andrea Dulbecco (vibraphone); Luca Gusella (marimba); Glen Velez (frame drum). Additional personnel: Glen Velez (drums, percussion); Marco Decimo. Recording information: Chiesa Di Sant' Agnese, Bogogno, Italy (09/2003). Tuned percussion freaks are going to love this. Aisha Duo is the pairing of Andrea Dulbecco and Luca Gusella, who play marimba and vibraphone, respectively. The aptly named Quiet Songs is almost entirely a duet album, with only a little hint of cello and some unobtrusive Irish-style frame drums in the background of a few songs. (Only on the simply lovely bossa nova-style album closer "Amanda" do the guest instruments take more than a decorative role.) Otherwise, Quiet Songs is nothing but pealing tones from the duo's primary instruments. The album was recorded in the center of a 17th century Italian church, and the combination of stone walls and a large, open room gives the album an ambience so thick the listener can almost touch it, amplifying the natural resonance of the woody marimba and the weightless, ethereal sound of the vibraphone, surely one of the most beautiful-sounding instruments in the world. The centerpiece of the album is a reworking of eight of Chick Corea's Children's Songs, his brief piano solos transformed into equally concise but considerably more inviting duets, but the entire record is a delight, lulling and fascinating in equal degree. ~ Stewart Mason

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Blue Album by Orbital (CD - 08/10/2004)

"Blue Album" (08/10/2004) Electronic Orbital, ATO Records (USA)Personnel: Sparks (vocals); Brian G. Wright (violin); Andy Nice (cello). With charges of repetition and failure to keep pace with the standard set on initial releases, Orbital lost some critical standing with THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE and THE ALTOGETHER. 2004's BLUE ALBUM incorporates glitch-hop, big-beat techno, and many of the tricks the duo pioneered in the early 1990s and, as such, may invite some of the same criticism, but BLUE ALBUM is an engaging techno-flavored work that's melodic as well as danceable. Orbital is at its best on tracks that are either wholly ambient (particularly the beautifully textural, abstract orchestrations of the opener, "Transient") or moody, rhythmic odysseys ("You Lot"). But for every familiar techno revisitation ("Pants"), there are bright moments of innovation (the expansive "One Perfect Sunrise," on which a phased synth- and-vocal interlude is overtaken by a driving backbeat). In truth, Orbital's marriage of soaring melodies, dark atmospherics, and machine-driven beats still packs a punch, and BLUE ALBUM is equally appropriate for big-sound-system rave parties and living-room chill-out sessions.

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A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure by M...

Jean Michel Jarre in Concert: Houston-Ly...

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A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure by Matmos (CD - 03/13/2001)

"A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure" (03/13/2001) Electronic Matmos, Matador (record label)M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are actually sons of doctors. Matmos includes: M.C. Schmidt (spoken vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, sequencing); Drew Daniel (electric guitar, samples, sequencing). Additional personnel: Katie Williams, Jay Lesser, Felix Kubin, Hrvatski, Miquel DePedro, Stefanie Ressin, Richard Von Der Schulenburg (spoken vocals); Mark Lightcap (electric guitar); Stephen Thrower (clarinet); Steve Goodfriend (drums). Personnel: Drew Daniel (electric guitar, sampler); Mark Lightcap (electric guitar); Stephen Thrower (clarinet); Steve Goodfriend (drums). Watching plastic surgery procedures requires a brave heart (or at least a strong stomach): It's equally chilling and fascinating to see the body cut open, invaded, and manipulated with cold machinery in pursuit of aesthetic perfection. Of course, there's a parallel between the way plastic surgeons reshape humans to conform to some ideal and the way other artists sculpt their ideas into something distinctive or beautiful. Matmos' fourth album A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure makes that connection in the most literal, explicit way: The duo, brave of heart and strong of stomach (and both doctors' sons), recorded the snips, clicks, snaps, and squelches of various surgical procedures, then nipped and tucked them into seven remarkably accessible, melodic pieces of experimental techno. Though the source material has been recontextualized into music, it doesn't escape its origins; you can take the sounds out of the surgery, but you can't really take the surgery out of the sounds. The jaunty "Lipostudio (And So On)" recalls Mouse on Mars' bouncy electronic pop, but realizing that the song's cheery-sounding squelches come from body fat being sucked through a tube makes for queasy listening. To the duo's credit, Matmos avoids making A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure grisly or gross; Andrew Daniel and Martin Schmidt approach the album's concept with their usual playfulness and an appropriately clinical detachment, resulting in some clever and surprisingly diverse songs. "L. A. S. I. K."'s surgical laser zaps and "Ur Tchun Tan Tse Qi"'s electrical acupunture pulses make for synapse-frying glitchfests, while "Memento Mori"'s brittle, percussive funk belies its beginnings as samples of scraping and tapping a skull. "Spondee" mixes a test for hearing-impaired children with a kinetic bassline and a house beat, turning it into a dance anthem for a doctor's waiting room; "For Felix (And All the Rats)," built out of the sounds from a bowed and plucked rat cage, is an eerie elegy for Matmos' deceased pet and labaratory animals everywhere. Best of all, though, is the ten-minute album closer "California Rhinoplasty," which wittily juxtaposes a nose flute against the disturbing but undeniably rhythmic sounds of crunching bone, cauterized tissue, buzzing saws, and pumping respirators. Though its concept is somewhat gimmicky -- a word long associated with Matmos' cut-and-paste mix of everyday and extraordinary sounds and more conventional instrumentation -- A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure's fascinating idea and engaging results prove that Daniel and Schmidt are two of electronic music's deftest sonic surgeons. ~ Heather Phares

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The Foley Room by Amon Tobin (CD - 03/06...

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Jean Michel Jarre in Concert: Houston-Lyon by Jean Michel Jarre (CD - 10/19/1993)

"Jean Michel Jarre in Concert: Houston-Lyon" (10/19/1993) Electronic Jarre, Jean-Michel, Dreyfus Records (France)En Concert is an energetic live album with half the tracks played in front of Houston, TX, and the other half played to a crowd in Lyon, France. Jarre ignites the crowd in both cities, letting loose on a multitude of synthesizers and sequencers while playing his classics like "Oxygene V," "Magnetic Fields I," and "Equinoxe V." His sonic display in front of the French crowd is the more spirited of the two, since Europe is where his fan base is the largest. Jarre kept many of his slower mood pieces off of this album, which is rightly so. His quicker, more robust pieces seem to gain momentum as he dazzles the audience with his electronic sweeps and sharp stabs of brilliant synth. The lasers and lights can almost be heard piercing the night sky on "Rendez-Vous II" as Jarre ceases to limit himself to only a few instruments. Both performances are outside, so there are no walls restricting the music, which, believe it or not, can be felt throughout the album. The sounds that radiate from Jarre's keyboards sound large and expansive, capturing the live atmosphere and dynamically unleashing it onto disc. ~ Mike DeGagne

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The Foley Room by Amon Tobin (CD - 03/06/2007)

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Buddha-Lounge 4 [9/20]

Robot-O-Chan by Prometheus (CD - 01/27/2...

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Buddha-Lounge 4 [9/20]

"Buddha Lounge, Vol. 4" (08/07/2007) International Various Artists, Sequoia RecordsAudio Mixer: Gordon Brothers. Audio Remixer: Steve Gordon. Illustrators: Zack Darling; Ben Klocek. The fourth installment in the Sequoia label's Buddha Lounge series continues to aim its warm, soothing grooves and funky, exotic beats at those who like the Buddha Bar series but find it sometimes just a bit too hard or decadent. The emphasis here is on a worldbeat ambience that tiptoes up to the edge of new age mysticism but avoids committing to it, instead staying firmly in the real world of solid (but not too assertive) dance beats and multicultural vocal traditions. Call it chillout, or techno-lounge, or even easy listening; it all comes down to the same thing, and you're lying if you say it never hits the spot. The tracks that hit the spot particularly nicely this time out are Achillea's "Cape Porcupine," Nasser Kilada's cool and dark "Samah," and the faintly jazzy "In for the Night (Buddha Edit)" by the Moontrane Conductors. One at Last contributes one of the stranger outings on this collection, a pretty and vaguely Indian number called "Hamana Nale (Lotus Mix)," which is marred only by a rather weird-sounding slide guitar. Recommended overall. ~ Rick Anderson

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Pitched Up at the Edge of Reality by Ast...

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Robot-O-Chan by Prometheus (CD - 01/27/2004)

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Available at 9 stores

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Pitched Up at the Edge of Reality by Astralasia (CD - 03/16/2005)

"Pitched Up at the Edge of Reality" (03/16/2005) Electronic Astralasia, Voiceprint Records (UK)PITCHED UP AT THE EDGE OF REALITY features nine tracks from trance band Astralasia. The songs include "Celestial Ocean (Seven Seas Mix)," "Ursa Major Cowslip," and "Sands Of Time (Desert Mix)." Astralasia: Kim Oz (vocals, chant); Swordfish (guitar, keyboards, programming); Moonboot (guitar); Ed Bones (slide guitar); Chris Hayne (keyboards, programming); Wayne Manor (bass instrument). Personnel: Sam (violin).

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Realize by Karsh Kale (CD - 01/01/2005)

The Soccergirl EP [EP] by Kid606 (CD - 0...

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Realize by Karsh Kale (CD - 01/01/2005)

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Wreckage * by Overseer (CD - 08/26/2003)

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The Soccergirl EP [EP] by Kid606 (CD - 01/02/2004)

"The Soccergirl EP [EP]" (01/02/2004) Electronic Kid606, Carpark RecordsContains 6 tracks. The Soccergirl EP marks the second release in Carpark's "sports-FAN" series and just about the first time Kid606 strives to flex his lamenting ambient muscles. In its own way, this is as effective and intense as any of his earlier freako-nutso-breakbeat electro-punk psychosis. From the waiflike electronic glide of songs like "Thank You for Being My Angel (Rev 1)" to the amusingly sweet of others like "If My Heart Ever Ran Away It Would Be Looking for the Day When Right Beside You It Could Stay Forever," Kid606 refuses to even play by his own previous rules. His anarchic gabba has been replaced with a sentimental, Arovane-aping, Pole-like understatement and one might guess that Kid606 suddenly saw that his own specialized style has become a mini-establishment in itself. Which, one guesses, demands an internal rebellion of his own. Even his usually humorous titles suggest this shift. Instead of the insulting or the absurd, there is a sequence of songs that seem to encircle a simple narrative of a love found ("Start") and lost ("Over). This newfound candid step is a crucial earmark in Kid606's career. Understated, yet still unexpected. It's an admirable stab at joining the ranks of the unpretentious auteurs like Boards of Canada or Aphex Twin, and it's shocking how well he succeeds. It's likely that this will become the biggest understatement of all. ~ Dean Carlson

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I Love Presets by Kevin Blechdom (CD - 0...

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Wreckage * by Overseer (CD - 08/26/2003)

"Wreckage *" (08/26/2003) Electronic Overseer, Columbia (USA)Overseer: Rob Overseer. Additional personnel: Zak Speakerfreak, Chris Live, Nick Life, Sandra Pehrsson, Rachel Gray, Vicky, Ricky Wilson (vocals); Jakk Frost (rap); Brian Perkins (spoken vocals). Rob Overseer is yet another in a series of DJs sitting in their basements in northern England (in this case, Leeds) with a lot of machines creating electronic dance music and ethereal soundscapes. If much of his debut album Wreckage sounds familiar to almost anyone who hears it, there are two reasons. One is that its collages of beats, sampled instruments, raps, and repeated chants are not unlike the work of Fatboy Slim and Moby, to name only the most well-known purveyors of the same style. And second, like those predecessors, Overseer has managed to place his tracks in a variety of media even before this album was released, making it something of a compilation of tracks already heard in commercials (particularly for liquor and automobiles), video games (Gran Turismo, Stuntman), television series (C.S.I.), and movies (Snatch, Any Given Sunday). (In some cases, the tracks have been used only in commercials for movies, not on the soundtracks themselves. For example, both "Supermoves" and "Insectocuter Dub" were only in the commercials for Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life.) Overseer has a particular affection for 1970s-era heavy metal, particularly its fuzztone guitar effects, so that, for example, the middle section of "Horndog" is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." But he also calms things down in such tracks as "Aquaplane" and the concluding song, "Heligoland." Although the album has a running time over 76 minutes and that final song runs almost 27 minutes, that length is deceptive. After about six and a half ambient minutes, the track is reduced to the sound of a ringing telephone that then rings for the next 20 minutes until someone says, "Hello," and the album comes to an end. We listen so you won't have to. (The album contains occasional expletives, but it does not have a parental advisory sticker.) ~ William Ruhlmann

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Elevators And Oscillators [Digipak] [4/5...

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I Love Presets by Kevin Blechdom (CD - 05/13/2002)

"I Love Presets" (05/13/2002) Electronic Blechdom, Kevin, Tigerbeat6Kevin Blechdom: Kristin Erickson. Kevin Blechdom, laptop whiz for Blectum From Blechdom and Adult Rodeo, brings an instinct for giddy pop to her solo debut. Hipsters can smirk knowingly at "Mr. Miguel," a dirty ode to one-time boyfriend Kid 606, and at the outrageously cheesy cover of "Private Dancer" (not to mention the group portrait with Nelson on the CD face). The real highlights, however, are the hopped-up carnival freylekhs of "Shelley Sho'nuff" and, especially, "Interspecies Love," a swoony, silly delight. Less self-important than Kid 606 and more fun than Peaches, this is electronic music for those who expect their cultural deconstruction to come with tunes and real human emotions. ~ Daniel Browne

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Aural & Hearty by Mocean Worker (CD ...

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Elevators And Oscillators [Digipak] [4/5] *

"Elevators and Oscillators [Digipak]" (04/05/2005) Electronic Solvent, Ghostly InternationalSolvent: Jason Amm. Audio Remixers: Ectomorph; Josy; The Mitgang Audio; isan; Legowelt; Lowfish; Alter Ego; Perspects; Schneider TM. Elevators and Oscillators is an album of halves that isn't sequenced as such. Six tracks are new, while the other seven are remixes of tracks that originally appeared on 2002's various-artists Disco Nouveau compilation and 2004's Apples + Synthesizers. The 13 tracks are arranged to make the disc sound less like the hodgepodge it is and more like a proper album, which is remarkable since the rather distinct remixes and new productions shouldn't really fit together. A couple remixes steal the show: Legowelt's look at "My Radio" (technically a cover) turns the teary-eyed electro-pop of the original into weary, dispassionate EBM ? la D.A.F., and Alter Ego's remix of "Think Like Us" is irresistible electro-glam. ~ Andy Kellman

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Soul Strata by I-Wolf (CD - 04/08/2003)

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Aural & Hearty by Mocean Worker (CD - 09/01/2004)

"Aural & Hearty" (09/01/2004) Electronic Mocean Worker, PalmMocean Worker: Adam Dorn. Personnel: Mocean Worker (synthesizer); Bono (vocals); Adam Dorn (programming); Roc Raida (scratches). Audio Mixers: Adam Dorn; Martin Brumbach; Mocean Worker. Editor: Mark Fellows. After proving himself one of the more adept drum'n'bass producers on his first two sets, Adam Dorn branched out his Mocean Worker project considerably for his third LP, Aural & Hearty. The results aren't completely disastrous -- Dorn's production talents are as tight as usual -- but the parade of genre workouts on this album makes it all a bit tiring (though it must've been a fun one to record). After a short intro, Aural & Hearty begins with a beyond played-out big beat redux named "Hey Baby" (guess what the predominant vocal sample turns out to be), and the track's only partially redeemed by Dorn's production finesse and the guest scratching of Roc Raida (from the X-Ecutioners). The song with the highest expectations coming in, a Bono collaboration titled "Air Suspension," also turns out a distinct disappointment; Dorn frames Bono's tossed-off vocal with little more than a few bland acid-techno riffs and a vocal tag lifted straight from a Timbaland record. The rest of the genres Aural & Hearty soundchecks -- easy-tempo groove on "Tres Tres Chic," Brazilian samba on the scratchy cut "Velvet Black Sky," filtered disco on "Astroglide," beatbox techno on "Step" -- are pleasant enough, but quite clich?d coming on the heels of Dorn's inventive mastery of dark drum'n'bass and trip-hop on his previous material. "Intothinair" is one of the bare few highlights, a stab at paranoid tech-house with a devastating analog bassline and shimmering synth (Dorn apparently loved the bassline effect, considering he used it in two other tracks on the album). ~ John Bush

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The Lost World by Michael Stearns (CD - ...

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Soul Strata by I-Wolf (CD - 04/08/2003)

"Soul Strata" (04/08/2003) Electronic I-Wolf, Klein RecordsPersonnel includes: I-Wolf (Wolfgang Schlogl), Ken Cesar, Damon Aaron, DJ Collage, Daelek, Patrick (vocals).

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