Date: Fri, 22 Apr 94 14:55:05 -0700 From: Jonathan Mikio Takagi Only three reviews this time. Mail me back for more info or for any reason. I'll try to keep it short. PK 08/88 Namlook III Aliens In My Suitcase 1.03.00 Intruder 1-9 "Recommended Daily Intake..." Totally new direction for Namlook. Where it says "electro-ambient" on WILL-E's discography, highlight the "electro". Namlook uses only an EMS Synthi AKS and a Roland TR 606 on this one. I'm not sure if it's live or not-- it was recorded in Traben-Trarbach (where's that?) instead of the usual Frankfurt, so maybe it was live. I'd still count on seeing his SF live set come out soon. Anyways, this whole album is basically Pete making wild sounds come out of this machine. No droney synths that last for 15 minutes, this is minimal strange noise music. At times you wonder where Pete is taking it cause it seems directionless, but then he gets his act together and pulls it all in. He seems to be telling some kind of story. I interpreted it as him being abducted by aliens. Drums only come in at the beginning and at the end. At the end it's like he's being chased by aliens. The drums come in again and the whole feeling is very intense and suspenseful. Then it seems as if he gets captured and there it ends. Kind of similar to the Alien Community collaboration with Jonah of Space Time Continuum, but the sounds are a little bit more simplistic, but a lot of building goes on here too. New and interesting- but probably not for everyone as the disc is very similar for the whole hour. PS 08/43 Ambiant Otaku (Tetsu Inoue) 1 Karmic Light 17.04 2 Low of Vibration 11.11 3 Ambiant Otaku 10.49 4 Holy Dance 15.36 5 Magnetic Field 17.47 Solo disc by Tetsu Inoue, and if you're familiar with 2350 Broadway, his collaboration with Namlook, you know what you're in for. This is a very ethereal disc, full of lush, airy synths that you might expect in heaven or something. Karmic Light has swirling high tones interspersed with female voices with some soft percussion. Low of Vibration is almost lullaby-ish in its sounds. Ambiant Otaku gets a little strange with high pitched scratchy squealing noises that almost sound like animal shrieks. Coupled with the repetition of one line, it's almost spooky. Holy Dance has some heavily echoed chanting/singing that starts the journey into soft ambience. This is a quality album from Inoue. Incidentally, "Ambiant Otaku" would be something like a nerd that just sits around and makes ambient music all day. I wish I was one of those. Y-T 1 Passion Peter Kuhlman + Juergen Rehberg 1 on the way to the garden of destiny 2 the place of final consciousness 3 i shall walk this path alone 4 fear: beads of sweat as dark as blood 5 the power which gives me strength is from another world 6 i submit myself to my destiny 7 as old as mankind: slander + treason 8 alone, even on the last path 9 and the earth was desolate and void. it was dark 10 out of nothing a new hope was born 11 and the lord said: "let there be light- and behold there was light" Namlook uses his real name (get it-Kuhlmann = Namlook backwards) on this one. The sound here is much more emotional and melodic, yet still recognizeable Namlook ambience. This is probably the closest he's come to new-agey kind of stuff, but it's not really. If you can't tell by the song titles, it's "The destiny of the man whom they called the 'Messiah'". It starts out very solemn and stark. It gets darker until (5) where a female voice signifying power from beyond lightens things up a little. It gets darker and depressing until the end of (9) where it pauses for a second, and lighter sounds come in-- the sounds of renewal and purity. This disc is very much like a story and when listened to in the right mood, is very fulfilling. Hopefully the next offering "Wandering Soul" is just as good. There, I guess that's about it. Jonathan eabu751@orion.oac.uci.edu