| review:
eddY / 2350org |
| Do not be cautious about this album, because
of a few less-than-brilliant releases from FAX lately. This
is a pleasant and interesting CD to listen to. The style is
a little like Pino and Wildjamin (Xangadix's latter tracks)
for chilled trance that plods along nicely, along with some
lush, organic synths and chords. The feel and mood is fresh
and oceanic, while remaining quite electronic. The sounds
are beautiful; chilled synth chords (reminisent of early Jarre,
in places, and of Tetsu Inoue in others).The first track is
a nice solid opening - 7Homes & Spyrits Part 1 - good soft
ambient/techno, which cools down into VCM 100F - Tetsu Inoue-type
sounds with chilled rhythms and soft synth passages. Ocean
is an even more chilled (to begin with), organic affair -
processed, echoey narrative voice with soft dubby beats kicking
in later. Level, Voice is mellow and yet has great presence
- synth, piano and slow trancey rhythms. VCF CS20 tones things
down - a beatless soft ambient passage with a narrative voice
talking synth-techno-babble (this track reminds me of the
track Albedo 0.39 by Vangelis). 7Homes & 8Spyrits Part 2 is
a trancey piece with watery-electronic effects and a general
synthy Jarre-ish feel. Omega and Alpha is the best piece in
the album; soft minimal trance, organic effects, excellent
chords (brilliant narrative feel with ambient piano pieces)
and synth (backing synths are very like Jarre - Oxygene/Equinoxe).
In fact, I would say the synth is comparable to (and as good
as) Klaus Schultz or Jarre in the 70's, although the rhythms
are modern. The last track is Hommage a Satie which is a nice
short piano piece much like Cosmic Baby's track Thinking About
Myself. |
| The tracks have a soft and narrative feel
with no weak spots. As a whole, it's a very good album that
has a soft trancey organic feel, with nice synth (and a pinch
of piano in just the right spots) and ideas that could easily
have turned out cheesy but are, in fact, pretty damn good
in the end. |
| A strong release from FAX. |
| eddY / 2350org |
|
|
 |
| review:
Roy SeGuine |
| Track 1: (7Homes & 8Spirits Part I) Haunting
marimba rhythm lines in 7/4. This opening track is reminiscent
of Percolations:Part1 by the band Gong from the album Gazeuse!
but of course in an electronica style. |
| Track 2: (VCM 100F) A nice low end rhythm
(whose meter changes subtly every fifth bar) underlies a journey
into breadth as a bass drum lightly thumps. The atmosphere
overlay consists of synth chords and musical saw like codes
peppered with occasional cicada sounds. |
| Track 3: (Ocean) "You look out over the ocean....
at whatever's around... and your mind clears... puts you in
your place. The wind, it moans at ya... it moans past your
ears... sorta like God talkin' to ya. I'm not crazy, it's
like God talking to ya." The dub kicks in as your mind clears
(as the voice clears) |
| Track 4: (Level, Voice) Nan-nee, nan-nee,
nan-nee chants over Pink Floyd like chords - wish you were
here. The chords become more staccato after about 4 minutes
and the latin like percussion becomes more visible. This melts
away into space for a couple of minutes and then the chants
come back into focus again to pick up where the journey left
off. |
| Track 5: (VCF CS20) Electronic quail and
sparrows warble and chirp behind a beautiful soundscape. We
get a lesson in voltage controlled filters - the heart of
the synthesizer. |
| Track 6: (7Homes & 8Spirits Part II) Sequencer,
chords, and a funky~dancy reprise of track 1. |
| Track 7: (Omega est Alpha) Phaedra like atmospheres
carry you from the end to the beginning. After about 3 1/2
minutes, simple piano and bass open the way for UFO watching.
The piece builds with some tasteful beats and percussive keyboard,
recedes, and then begins another TD voyage until the UFO lands. |
| Track 8: (Hommage a Satie) Reverent piano
for a French 19th century composer. |
| Roy SeGuine |
|
|
|
