I bought the "Visions of the past" (CD,Apollo) by Robert Leiner the other week.
Here are my descriptions & opinions:
1.'Out of control'. Starts out with a synth-murmur and a weird synthetic voice.
After a while, slow tribal percussion is added + an occasional voice. A bass
and some vocodernoises comes into the picture and later a melodyline on some
synth. The song the builds with more percussion, an 808 snare, strings etc.
I don't think this song is very funny, merely ok.
2.'Visions of the past'. Now this is a slow song. Droning sounds, strings and
a distinct bassdrum. Some occasional voices & synthlines. Not my cup of tea.
3.'Interval'. Just a droning sound for 0:35.
4.'To places you never been'. Now this is a great song. In my opinion this one
should have been released on a 12" instead of track no 8, Dream or reality.
The drums are reminds me of the drums in the beginning of 'Squeeze' on his
'Organized Noise'-album. Light strings and a very nice synth-line which makes
me think of AFX at once. It is atmospheric and beautiful. A jazzy solo which
does not sound like Robert Leiner *at all* turns up after a while.(Still,a
nice solo) The song gets more intense as time goes by. Great.
5.'Aqua Viva'. Wow. Vocoder bliss. This is how a vocoder should be used! The
song is much based on a sample which can be found at the beginning of
'Squeeze' + dolphinnoises (I think, they're all the same to me). The vocoder
is used without any lyrical content. The song builds with percussion and
noises. After a couple of minutes, a breakbeat (I don't know what to call it)
is added at half speed which gives the song sort of a dub-feeling. It gets
more intense and even a little 303 is thrown in top. 12 minutes long. This
is why I always buy his records without listening to them first. Gimme more!
6.'Full moon ritual'. Not much happens in this song really. A bassdrum with
a tone added (Quadraverb resonator I bet) keeps on pounding right thru the
song. Some strange noises and beats are drawn backwards & forwards. A
discrete droning bass. I skip this one when listening to the album. Still,
the first time I heard it I was quite amazed by some of the noises & beats
and thought it was really nice. It's easy to get bored with layers of noises
though.
7.'Zenit'. This one is more like it. It is fat, nice synths and strings.
A Jarre-type solo really enrichens the song and makes me happy. The drums
and percussion fit in nicely, too. It fades into the next song, which is...
8.'Dream or Reality'. Now this is an authentic *ambient* song. It is a sonic
web tied with strings. Various voices & noises get trapped in it. A
discrete melodic theme can be detected. Nice for those who like ambient
stuff. I like the 12" better, where a more distinct *beat* is added.
9.'From beyond and back'. Strrrrrrike! This one is precisely what I want to
hear. The ringmodulated percussion/beat is very metallic & machinelike.
Soooo nice. The very metallic 'bassdrum' (well kind of) doesn't pound too
often, it merely marks the beat. The strings are phased in an old-style
way. When the synth-line starts after a while, I suddenly know I've heard
these harmonies and experienced this atmosphere before. It quite reminds
me of 'No Mans Land' by Tangerine Dream. Not very strange, Mr Leiner being
a TD-fan and all... More stuff like this, please!
10.'Northern dark'. This is a very ambient song. It is slow with no drums
except for a slowly pounding synth-bass. Different types of strings are
layered on top of another. Some noises every now and then. Again: for those
who like ambient music.
In general, this album is well-produced, no doubt. It is a mixture of trance
tracks (in some sense, still quite ambient I suppose) and real ambient tracks.
It breathes quality. I'm a happy owner alrite. I would *not* like to live
without tracks 4,5,7 and 9. They alone make this album worth its price in
my opinion. But the rest of the tracks are ok too, I think.
Well, those were my opinions, go listen for yourselves!
Fredrik / RND