The penguins on the cover of this CD are emblematic of its awesome coolness. Chilling. The first faint echoes of Middle Eastern drumming and wailing erupt into an ecstatic breakbeat fusion... which then decomposes into jungle noises and slow, subtle synth drones only to kick out the ethnodubbeat once again. And that's just the first 32-minute track. What follows are mind-blowing soundtracks, hypnotic/percussive trance-outs, delicately pierced with movie collage weirdness. "Strange Air" is exquisitely crafted to be both haunting and alluring--its screams are amazing. The final cut, "Emperor", leaves us with a slow, low-frequency sine wave and the slowed-down sounds of moans and roars. --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

last update 1/17/97

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