This is a first -- a recording that I can't decide whether to discuss
on the indie-list or on IDM. Prazision is the duo of Mark Nelson and
Carter Brown, and their music seems too have one foot solidly in the
ambient world, and the other in world of american indie-rock.
Synthesis -- what a rush!
Some tracks on this record feature strummed guitar, and they all
feature combinations of funky Moog sounds, heavily processed and
reverbed. Their is singing and spoken word, mixed at a level where
you might, with concentration, make out words. The overall feel is
dreamy and vaguely sinister.
'Soft Return' is a kind of spooky evocation of reincarnation -- "Going
round, it's clear you'll never stop/Going round, it's clear you'll never
stop ... I'll be there to take you back inside the womb ...' All done
to a I IV V chord change straight from the Jesus and Mary Chain, but
slowed down, with echoing Moogs.
They claim to have recorded it 'in Mckinley Hall, Downstairs at the
end of the hall.' Like the Cowboy Junkies' 'Trinity Sessions,' the
natural echo of the acoustic space lends a warmth absent from the
digital echo effects used by UK Ambient artists.
This is definitely a treat -- an album with ambient tendencies, but with
a distinctly American feel.
For the indie-listers -- 'Prazision' was recorded by Rob Christianson of
the Eggs.