Review of "Flying High", a CD by The Irresistable Force Written by Rob Berry for the Ambient Survey Copyright (c) 1994 ********** VITAL STATISTICS: The Irresistable Force "Flying High" (C) 1993 Instinct Records Licensed from Rising High Records, London (originally released Dec 1992) EX-258-2 # Name Time BPM ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Spiritual High 7:47 n/a 2. Sky High 12:11 n/a 3. Flying High 15:33 n/a 4. High Frequency 9:42 n/a 5. Symphony In E 8:47 n/a 6. Mountain High (Live) 20:15 n/a Total Running Time 73:46 All songs by Mixmaster Morris. Published by Copyright Control. ********** GENRE: Ambient RATING: 5 of 10 STRONGEST TRACKS: "High Frequency", "Symphony In E" WEAKEST TRACKS: "Mountain High" BRIEF DESCRIPTION: The music on this CD has lots of pretty sounds-- shimmers, twitters, sweeps and so forth. But the lack of structure makes it unsuitable for heavy- duty listening, though it would be perfect for relaxing or meditating to. Buy it if you like spacey sounds and don't plan to listen too closely. Oh, yeah, don't even waste time listening to "Mountain High" all the way through. That track should be taken out and shot. ********** REVIEW: "What happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object?" That well-known paradox is the inspiration for Mixmaster Morris' new handle, "The Irresistable Force". After listening to his debut CD, "Flying High", I can't help thinking that "The Immovable Object" might have been a better name. The music is far more likely to turn listeners into Immovable Objects than into Irresistable Forces. Ambient music of all kinds falls into one of three categories: Music that goes nowhere, music that drifts about aimlessly, and music that takes us some- place interesting. "Flying High", the debut album by The Irresistable Force, falls into the second category. There are plenty of pretty sounds and neat patterns, but they are arranged in no particular order. The result is music that is "interesting", but fails to grab us on an emotional level. Of course, if you want music for meditation or wallpaper, this isn't a problem. But if you are an "active listener", this CD will leave you unsatisfied. Ultimately, you must decide if this type of music suits your listening needs. The opening track, "Spiritual High", opens with airplane sweeps and a yoga instructor's voice. The song is a collage of jittery synths, echoed sounds, ring modulation effects, synth sweeps, and the like. The tempo is mildly up- beat, but there is no percussion or bassline. The song has a tonal flavor to it; noise effects take a back seat to the pitched sounds. The song ends with a bastardized airplane sweep and chirping bird effects. "Sky High" also features jittery synths, echoes, and sweeps, but adds in a simple bassline and very light drums-- mostly bass drum and hi-hat, with some handclaps towards the end. Also added to the mix are slurred voices and wav- ering chords. (Actually, they are many separate sounds echoed and blurred together to sound like one continuous chord, though they are not.) A theremin effect and an airplane sweep open "Flying High". Echoed tonal sounds create a monotonic backdrop for more twitters and sweeps. Eerie low pitched sounds gradually work their way into the mix as echoed percussive sounds form a sort of rhythm. Eventually, an uptempo hi-hat starts up in the background, adding a bit of much needed energy to the song. The song builds up for a while, then cuts out everything except the plodding bass sounds. A solo for echoed vibraphone then follows, followed by miscellaneous effects and synth sweeps that lead into a repeating synth motif. The hi-hat kicks in again for bit, then drops out again. The song plods along from there until it finally comes to an end, among ocean waves and echoed guitar. "High Frequency" is probably the best song on the CD. Globally, it is just as amorphous as the other songs, but on a local level there is a bit more structure to it. The sounds in the previous songs were pretty much independent of each other. The sounds in "High Frequency", however, are aware of each other, complementing or counterpointing each other at various points. The sounds themselves seem more carefully crafted than elsewhere on the CD. And a four-on-the-floor bass drum drops in halfway through, adding some kick to the mix. Only the spoken voice samples mar the song. Other sounds include liquid sounding twitters, subdued bassline, door creaks, and ringing sounds. Bird samples and synth sweeps start off "Symphony In E", which is quickly joined by a violin motif. This motif is then twisted in various ways through- out the song; it is echoed, played at twice normal speed (still sounding quite natural, and not "chipmunky"), and so forth. A bassline also joins in from time to time, along with metallic echoes and other effects. Halfway through, a bit of hip-hop drumming kicks in, and reappears at random intervals there- after. These drums make this song the most upbeat on the album. Alas, more cheesy vocal samples mar the song. (Like many ambient musicians, The Irresis- table Force needs to take lessons from Enigma or Deep Forest on the proper use of vocal samples.) The song finally ends by dropping all instruments except the violin (at twice normal speed), the metallic echoes and birds. The song then fades to silence. "Mountain High" was recorded live, and is the poorest song on the album. Consisting of a boring collage of still more echoed sounds, reverbed whips, and (I presume) Mixmaster Morris lecturing on the hallucinogen DMT, the song is a twenty minute and fifteen second demonstration of how to go nowhere fast. There is little variety in the song, and this is made even worse by the fact that the timbres just aren't that interesting. Twenty minutes of unstructured pretty sounds is hard to take, but twenty minutes of unstructured boring sounds is far worse. A drum pattern does eventually relieve a bit of the tedium, but it disappears after only a minute or two, leaving us back where we started. Later, the mood does change as a collage of glissandos takes over, accompanied by hi-hat. But then the boring motifs from the beginning return, with even fewer trappings than before. Mercifully, the song ends soon after that. There is no applause, probably because the audience died from boredom halfway into the song. ********** CONCLUSION: This CD has problems. The lack of large-scale structures in the songs make it impossible to really relate to the music. At any given point, there are interesting sounds, but they never join together to form a larger pattern. (And in the case of "Mountain High", there aren't even that many interesting sounds to begin with.) But there are still some good points about this CD. The timbres in "High Frequency" show that Mixmaster Morris can create original timbres when he wishes, and even combine them in interesting ways. Perhaps the next Irresistable Force CD will be more interesting. Of course, some people don't care about large scale structure in their music. I am an "active listener"; music gets my full attention when I listen to it. But others use music to serve a larger goal, such as relaxation, medi- tation, or just aural wallpaper. These ends are just as valid, and those who use music for this purpose might find "Flying High" far more palatable than I did. Thus, I recommend this album only for those who plan to use it as a means to an end for relaxing, meditating or tripping. But if, like me, you like to turn out the lights, put the headphones on, and deliberately listen to your music, you should probably avoid this album. ----- END ----- CUT HERE -----