This Israeli experimental project is a one-man show from Maor Appelbaum, who I've only heard of previously through his work with the unconventional metal band Sleepless. The entire disc was recorded using only bass guitar and effects over the course of 1999/2000 and varies from flowing ambient sounds to a more ethereal and spacey sort of approach, with all of the songs relying on fairly repetitive structures. I'm not particularly moved by a lot of these sounds, but I will give him credit for having done a hell of a lot considering a bass guitar was the only instrument - especially because very little of this sounds like bass at all! "Space Dogs of War" has more back and forth movement and lush depth befitting of its title, similar to "Coming Home"; whereas "Experiments" is fairly minimal in its use of soft bass drones and light smatterings of movement, but it also foregoes the spacey sort of aesthetic for a more sinister tone, and therefore I enjoy it much more. "Printing Images" is sort of a mix of the two approaches, with some darker passages strengthening the less interesting "outer space" kind of feel heard in the other compositions. It's pretty consistent in overall approach, with a few layers weaving in and out amongst one another and remaining fairly steady for the duration of the three- to six-minute compositions. The packaging looks alright, with a nice color scheme and images of trees and such. My only complaint is that the lettering is really plain and uninteresting, so it doesn't match the visuals very well. I don't dislike this or anything, I just think it's a little too limited, and stylistically a lot of the sounds aren't really my thing. As mentioned, I think a good job has been done to ensure that the source sounds have been manipulated to creative levels, and there are a lot of different effects and textures in place, but I would much prefer to hear more development taken towards the ominous dark ambient paths found in "Experiments".
[Maor Appelbaum]
Running time - 39:32, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Alone Suffering and Screaming, Experiments]
Maor Appelbaum Productions - http://www.maorappelbaum.com
