The liner notes' hep descriptive term for the deep, slow, hypnotic sound that serves as the theme for this collection is "chunky". Since I rarely leave my neck of the arroyos--besides ASCII journeys into the overhyped place of dead souls known as the Internet--I dunno if this term is "fresh" or if it's "wack". But in a sordid, record-review kind of way, it fits. 110 Below is chock-full of big names and cool tunes: African Headcharge, Killing Joke, Nustrat Fateh Ali Khan, Julian Cope, Beaumont Hannant... Remixes--of Johnny Lydon by the Sabres of Paradise, Urban Jungle by Black Dog Productions, and N.F. Ali Khan by Massive Attack--accentuate the "chunky" vibe. There's a mix of some hip-hoppy (or maybe it's trip-hoppy) song called "Aftermath" by Tricky that's very dyn-o-mite... This collection is by no means exclusively ravey, trancey, grungy, jazzy, eta... it is a very smooth tapestry of all of thessseee... --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

Producer/editor/curator Steve Peters has a knack for tossing together a grand mix of aural documents. Every edition of The Aerial leaves me breathless, inspired, and thinking each is subsequently better than the last. The pieces for #6 were collected in tribute to the late composer and magician, Jerry Hunt. In his spirit, this wonderful array of songs, audio art, and sound experiments surfs the tension of electro-acoustic fetishism and more shamanic, magickal adventures. This effect is an emergent quality comprised of the discrete experience of each of the parts. So it would be unfair to review without mention of each constituent: Carter Scholz's "Talus" is composed entirely from a cheap digital reverb unit and reveals the "sounds that arise from unstable systems." Hal Rammel's "Afterthought", composed with his self-designed electro-acoustic sound palette, sounds like electric water trying to escape the morph from blip to bubble. Ricardo Dal Farra's "Xastock" reveals a silent, faintly percussive quality to the usually loud and wailing sounds you'd expect from a sax with digital effects. Larry Polansky's "Study: Anna, the Long and the Short of It" is composed using the digital manipulating program SoundHack to reconstruct a recording of his 6-month old daughter crying. John Duesenberry's "Wave Break" ushers in walls of industrial metallic surf. Robert Carl's "Levitation" features violin and marimba invocation of floating weightless ambience. Mary Jane Leach's "Xantippe's Rebuke" is several droning oboe tape loops and a solo oboe arranged so as to reveal a prismatic bouquet of sonorous enchantment with harmonic overtones. Steven Dressler's "Woonsocket" has enough of that ambiento hypnotic vibe to be on one of the gazillion ambient compilations--if only it didn't have that wonderful folky quality. The following piece features the amazing shamanic overtone throat singing of Yat-Kha--if you haven't heard these Tuvan vocals, you're really missing out. Francis White's "Walk Through Resonant Landscape #2"--recordings of his interactive sound installation--evoke imagery of walking through a mushroom-laden fairy land. Ellen Band's "Railroad Gamelan" concludes our sonic adventures with a witty, yet sincerely beautiful con-fusion of gamelan and train sounds. --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

This collection shimmers. It is a shiny, throbbing, warm, wet, and mossy helmet feeding your head experiential ecstasy from the froth of the ambient whirlpool.... err, ummm, from a large chunk of respectable names in the scene: Seefeel, Jonah Sharp, Bill Laswell, Aphex Twin, Spectrum (a post-Spacemen 3 project), Exist Dance, Pete Namlook, FSOL, et. al... --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

Silent specializes in the psychedelic opiates of ambient music: sunshine and seashores sculpted into breathy whispers and blippy spaceship ascensions. Tranquility. Yup. Entrancing Iris begins the submersion into the nonlocal netherworld of aphrodisiac relaxation with a song that invokes the sensations of a long slow fuck in a steamy bubblebath, radiant light illuminating the flowering poppies and steam. Antihouse brings in a subdued trance beat with a dreamy high-pitched blippy chorus. Dialux Rouge administers the sounds of Tibetan bowls floating by like aural balloons. A squishy gong and thunderstorm swirl us into ATOI's psychoactive collage featuring a pulsing Native American drum beat. Temporary Temple seeps into the soundscapes with a subtle space drone which gestates soft drums and slide guitar. Dreams Without Number wet our thirst with our first bit of analogue grit inside a witty gritty headspin ditty. After this climactic experience, Psychic Surfers of Zuvuya ripple waveforms in flushes of of coughing and orgasmic relief. Suddenly a soulful psychedelic house vocal erupts and fades into the next song. Ohmegatribe samples Tim Leary from that Rykodisc release (which I personally love, but I can understand how it may annoy) and continue from there to dish out one kickin' mellow dance groove. Vuemorph graces the listener with a bouquet of high-paced, beatless, cycling buzzing and a lovely woman's croon. And Earth Trance Interlude ends the journey with an amazing slow droning sci-fi tribal groove. Silent rules. This is the best of the From Here to Tranquility compilations yet! --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

Electronic dub from England on translucent blue wax. Yup, it's mellow; yup, it's groovy. The opening track, Templeroy's "Dubometer", kicks out some of that laid-back funk. Then this Tour de Dub churns us through choons by folx like Banco de Gaia, Higher Intelligence Agency & the Original Rockers that grace these electric blue grooves. --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

This compilation serves as a document of a certain London strain of Goan Trance. If you hate the techno sound, this collection will bore you to death. If you have an interest in the intersection of techno with some sort of spiritual significance, then check this out. It came to me by way of Raja Ram's friend Sambu, who lives in Taos. Raja & Sambu were in some 70s psychedelic Eastern-influenced prog-rock band called Quintessence. Anyhow, now Raja spearheads The Infinity Project in London and works the Goa rave scene all winter. Like the act of meditation, if you think about it, it all seems pretty cheesy. I guess you must let go, as Raja says in the liner notes: "Dance is the Way When One Becomes the Dance." --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

The great Saturnian in translation; a waltzy koto & flute arrangement of "There Are Other Worlds" by Tom Djll, a schizo-billy version of "Space Is the Place" by Eugene Chadbourne, a second, spooky synth version of "Space is the Place" by the Residents, "Planet Earth" as performed by an elementary school "artestra," voluminous readings of Ra poems by Thurston Moore, Can's Malcolm Mooney, Duplex Planet's David Greenberger & others, and numerous canonic, astral, swinging arkestra-esque numbers as channelled by NRBQ, the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet (both "quartets" have at least five performers), members of Gamelon Sekar Jaya--and now we are into names I don't know--Graham Connah Group, Juju String Ensemble...

This album is a fucking joy. None of the 32 cuts fails to bring Sun Ra to life; the arrangements are innovative, diverse (no mean feat) and spirited. Proceeds from album sales go to the surviving members of the arkestra, who, besides being the greatest big band in history, were for a time a dedicated intentional community. This record is as much a tribute to them as to their late great alien leader. --C.S.

(review date: 12/31/95)

Live material excerpted from two performances by this Belgian electronic composer, with the somewhat cold "celestial" synth sound he seems to have begun to favor generously augmented by warm organic elements: percussion, bells, chimes, rain stick, etc. (some handled by collaborator Djen Ajakan Shean, some by Obmana himself). Very drifting, but building to ominous swells punctuated by arresting background scatter. When the didgeridoo gets cranking near the end, it's a rather startling effect, especially at higher volumes. Discreetly attractive full-color sleeve. --K.S.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

last update 1/17/97

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