** A REVIEW **
Artists: Pete Namlook & Richie Hawtin
Title: From Within
Label: World
Cat No: AW 005
Made in Germany
Year: 1995
Tracks: 1. Snake Charmer (13:25)
2. Sad Alliance (12:25)
3. A Million Miles To Earth (29:18)
4. Homeward Bound (12:20)
5. Lost (03:19)
(70:46)
From Within From Our Minds... To Yours. The long-awaited collaboration album
between the ambient hero Pete Namlook, who churns out a new album in a time
it takes from us mere mortals to make ourselves a cup of tea, and the
wunderkind Richie Hawtin, the unofficial crown prince of acid and specialist
of sparse minimalist rhythms. A combination like this will undoubtedly make
every obsessive's mouth to water, and may even spark interest in those who
think both of these artists are hugely overrated among the IDM/ambient
circles... Windsor, Ontario via a quantum leap to Cologne, Germany. And you
guessed it: Namlook droning with the sparse Hawtin drums in the background,
but all in all very tasty with it its out-of-body-experience anaesthetic
chemical landscapes not unfamiliar to any FAX loyalist.
Hypnotic, melancholic, a little sad - the rhytmic Detroit techno roots are
apparent, although somewhat subdued (Snake Charmer). Simple pulsing bassline
throbbing among the almost invisible hi-hats slowly accelerating with the
lonely synth droning making electronic waves (Sad Alliance). Tiny Satie piano
licks dropping like water from the melting ice turning to a brooklet turning
to a stream turning to a flood in the most classic minimalist sense. (A
stupid notion occured to me: maybe the original Chicago acid might have
sounded something like this if those early DJ's and party people had dropped
ketamine instead of LSD, but let's not be that silly...) I heard Pete Namlook
called this song one of his best? (A Million Miles To Earth). A woman tells
us to take out our identification in German or something like that, that
clattering Hawtin snare/hi-hat and the Floyd TangDream synths singing in
unisono (credits thank Ludwig Rehberg of the legendary EMS synth fame, who
supplied the gear) - silent dramatic wham bam thank you ma'm i'm in Ekstasis
bursting song of Joy (Homeward Bound). Dissonant electronic wind outro, your
captains thank you for the pleasant trip, please come again (Lost).
ERkki
Tampere, pHinland
trerra@uta.fi
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