On 04-Mar-97 Ashok Divakaran wrote:
quoted 7 lines Unfortunately, the only Delerium I've heard outside of their Nettwerk>> Unfortunately, the only Delerium I've heard outside of their Nettwerk
>> contributions was an old compilation of early works on Dossier. I thought
>> it was boring, but I've heard nothing but good things about the Spheres
>> series.
>
>Hmm, IMO it's the Spheres ones that are boring - bland synthy stuff without
>much personality. Some of the old stuff had guts, e.g. Syrophenikan.
ok, time to set the record straight.
delerium - an overview
faces forms and illusions - very good late 80's "industrial/ambient". dark
melodies, menacing slow drum machine rhythms, ofra haza samples (de rigeur for
the time of course).
morpheus - an unsuccessful mix of ff&i style with stuff that basically sounds
like front line assembly outtakes. some of the tracks even have fla-growled
vocals. avoid. (unless you see it for like $2 in which case it's worth it for
the few good tracks.)
syrophenikan - a SUPERB album of tribal rhythms and evil sounding synths.
extremely clean and well produced. brilliant stereo effects. really really
top notch.
stone tower - peter gabriel's "passion" with more drum machines. very good.
spiritual archives - from the desert to the dungeon. clanking chains,
distorted noises, lots of gritty abbatoir ambience. the comparison to lustmord
is right on. notable samples: recoil, zoviet france, legendary pink dots.
spheres i - an EXCELLENT pastiche of old style 70's space music with a 90's
twist. tangerine dream & vangelis meet 2001 samples and evil squirty 303s.
fantastic.
spheres ii - somewhat lackluster sequel. same ingredients, but it doesn't have
the panache of the previous recipe. still worthwhile. notable samples:
michael stearns (baraka), tangerine dream.
semantic spaces - user friendly ultra commercial mixup of enigma, deep forest,
orb, FSoL... extremely easy listening. some good bits, some bits are just SO
derivative that you want to vomit. notable samples: everything mentioned
above, as blatant as it gets.
Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com
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