having suffered from a severe case of modern music fatigue recently, i guess that a few days listening to calm beautiful warm ethereal music is in order. so i delved into the pile and dug out a couple of albums that initially i glanced over to hopefully get me back into gear, and who knows, i may have just found the perfect album to soundtrack my journey back to the present.
one such find, was this by one man operation dextro, that’s due out on gronland, on the january 01 2007 according to the press release. a brave date to release new music i would say, considering most folks are going to be concerned with getting rid of the waist bound seasonal excess and/or as is the way in this new england, extending the seasonal wishes of family get together and suchlike, by hammering the bargain bins of their local river island et al. thankfully, for those of you that don’t understand the appeal of extreme mass financial warfare that are the new year sales, ewan mackenzie has secluded himself away for 6 months in the middle of nowhere up in scotland, plugged in his various machines and crafted a wonderfully rich, instrumental album that will definitely help calm the nerves of any of those that come across this 55 minute homage to all things eno, and motorik styled krautrock.
the sonically enhanced moods comprise of acoustic guitars, pianos and throbbing bass parts (hello peter hook, hello bill laswell), over which are the treated electro-ambient tricks dubbed to create a thick layered sound that rarely drifts into self indulgent boring software showcasing, instead, these tracks are all about the overall spread of warmth and structure. in parts think a delicate laid back orbital, or the easy on the ear krautrock grooves of baikonour, and you’re just about there. in fact there are a couple of sections where i was beginning to think ‘you know maybe i should dig out that tangerine dream album once again, and in my world, that’s a good thing as i have always loved a simple melody looped over and over with subtle but meticulous layering of overdubs to create a sense of impeding drama and atmosphere, prime example being the eight plus minutes of el viento. as usual song titles for this type of album are pretty superfluous, but hearts and minds is both a declaration of intent, as well as being the found vocal phrase that is looped throughout making for a rare human presence on an album that is devoid of anything jarring such as a radio friendly catchy chorus and jerky guitar lick.
so avoid the seasonal top ten best crimbo list programs ever, strap on your noise cancelling headphones, and immerse youself in this deep rich album and wait for spring to arrive, slowly.
more detail : here