Blastcaps

Edward's Lament!

BY Roman SokalPublished Sep 1, 2003

To continue his exploration of ambient sub-aquatic sound-making, main member Aaron Turner (of heavy cerebral hard rock outfit Isis) has invited an array of guests (including those from members of similar drone-dozer heavy bands like Sunn O))) and Cave In such as Stephen O' Malley, James Plotkin and Luke Scarola) to partake in this attempt to explore the idea of submerging oneself and floating within in a chamber of water. While the volume is somewhat low for the most part, the volume of audible intricacies is exponentially large and the powerful impression of these uber-experimental ambient tracks is incalculable, and it’s the emotional impact that seems to turn up the dial at key moments. The entire disc, in fact, seems as if Turner has taken the delicate near-silent moments when a song fades away and focuses in on just them, and plays about with its hidden treasures and breathes new life into them — as if finding a song within a song within a song. Lonely long hallways are turned into eternal aqueducts, stairs into waterfalls and the pulsing earth into a massive prototype electronic device. While the odd though sparse and rare melody manifests itself from time to time, it’s the anti-music formality factor that is the draw here; a phenomenon entirely on its own — an intellectual black-hole of sound that yields an infinite amount of new ideas.
(Neurot)

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