Detroit Escalator Co.

Black Buildings shifts between understated down-tempo breaks and synthesisers that hover and accentuate like soft room lighting. The Detroit Escalator Co. follows some of the standards set by Bukem's Good Looking Records, but tends more to ambience and mere ephemeral echoes of beats and rhythmic structures. Glancing over tracks with titles like "Mandala/Toronto," "Freeway" and "City Lights," one can't help but get the impression of a soundtrack to a late nocturnal drive through city streets, past mysterious muted figures, endless street lights and neon signs over closed shops. For the most part, this CD does just that, leaving a stylishly dark cinematic impression on the listener with 20 songs to soundtrack this inner film. Though some tracks sound like unspectacular transitional ephemera, there are also parts with striking depth expressed through haunting melodies that show Black Buildings is not all ambient fodder.