Impressive that this is (sort of) dub techno from 99 given the production value, but I found it quite bland overall and devoid of groove whilst also failing to be truly ambient. It's fine, but I don't think I'd come back to it. 1 starts off nice especially once the pads kick in at min 2. On those first two tracks it is especially noticeable that the high frequencies are very prominent and aggressive which hurts the lushness imo. The hats and the bleeps stand out way too much. The dub techno aspects on 2 are cool, but the pointless bleeps and bloops will be a recurring theme in the album. 3 is more of the same although the midtrack is quite nice bassy funky ambient in the vein of Turn to Gaia. 4 is simple but sweet and it first half doesn't have bleep bloops which is welcome, sadly they do come in in the second half which is much weaker. On 5 at 1:30 again there are really sweet synths, and a 2:35 the groove is quite fun, signs of greatness, but the record just lurks on the edge of its potential without really ever fully going into it and quickly defaults back to bleep bloops. I do like how subtle and muffle it is though, but it doesn't focus on that enough for it to work. 6-8 is just boring, and 8 especially feels unnecessary - 7 was an ok end. The ghost track is funky though, but yeah this is a 2.9
Bump |