Here's the second full-length offering of experimental ambient noise from the men of many talents: Aaron Turner, James Plotkin, and Stephen O'Malley. This time around things are a bit more varied and perhaps clearer and more vibrant than the LP. With this disc the trio throw down six monstrously long tracks (in most cases) that run damn near an hour in combined length. The opening track is one of the finer moments, starting out with some minimally structured acoustic guitars and ambient hums, then gradually getting quieter and quieter until things become more electronic and some watery blips start creeping in as the guitars fade out. The third piece is the first significantly long track at 14+ minutes. It's very dark and slow moving, complete with low drones and odd percussive sounds, plus feedback cutting deep into the mix. It's much more menacing than some of the other tracks, though oddly melodic in a very subtle manner. The second to last track is at times a bit louder and more chaotic than anything else, with what sounds like a lot of altered bass harmonics being pitch shifted back and forth. It's sort of cool, but there's a great little slab of grating feedback in the distance that has a much more powerful effect when it's left on its own with a lot of breathing room. Oddly enough this piece also has some of the most minimal and quiet passages on the disc as well. I love the last song. It's very hypnotic and fairly consistent for its tasteful eight-minute run. Very nice. The recording is quite strong. Everything is smooth and clear. A good portion of the disc is relatively low in output volume, which can be somewhat unfortunate, but there are a lot of drastic changes in volume as the compositions ebb and flow, so... it does make sense. The layout is strange, but looks good. Everything is printed on cream colored matte paper in dark brown and metallic gold ink. All of the photos are old, and I'm not sure how they tie in to one another (two kids on horses, a kid reading a book, two kids playing around on an old airplane, etc.), if at all, so who knows? I do like the layered text effects underneath the CD, though. This is another one of those discs that you just sort of throw on and let it play through as background music. It's really pretty good, though not the most engaging listening experience I've ever encountered. I'm not sure what the intentions are, perhaps it's meant to be more of a background music type of thing, and that's fine. I like it, I'd just like to hear something a bit more active, a bit more detailed. I know the three of these guys could do some something phenomenal compared to this. Not too shabby, though.
[Neurot]
Running time - 59:36, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: all are untitled]
Neurot Recordings - http://www.neurotrecordings.com
