The intricate sculptures of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi find their ideal musical equivalent in Robert Rich's binaural geometry. Rich utilizes dense washes of electronics, which are earthy and gritty, but every bit as resplendent as the spirit of Gaudi's designs. Fluttering moths of synth accentuate the still life of "Serpent," whispering in the distance. The aptly named "Mosaic" starts out gently, until a talking drum, purring sequencers, and flutes carve out a polyrhythmic niche. Rich's grasp of composition and his fluid, effortless style support the precarious timbres of GAUDI with a craftsman's touch and solidarity. It's a hypnotic music to get lost in, wherein every trip back takes you down different corridors via different doors.

Where their self-titled 1997 release found them inhabiting a more lo-fi neighborhood, on 13, Blur joins forces with genius producer William Orbit on a record whose inclusiveness manages to find room for both, breathtakingly gorgeous works such as "Tender" and "No Distance Left To Run", and raucous, impudent ones such as "B.L.U.R.E.M.I" and "Swamp Song", while still being amazingly cohesive and consistent.
Blur's work with Orbit finds them plunging deep into a lake of space-rock overflowing with wondrous sounds such as the pinging, Floyd-like tinkling, and hypnotic rhythms of "Battle," and the sputtering transmissions and bristling distortion permeating "Bugman." In straddling the dissolving lines between genres in the late '90s, Blur manages to trod the same ground as contemporary electro acts on "Trailerpark" and subscribes to the aforementioned jittery, lo-fi aesthetics on "Trimm Trabb." Despite all this experimentation, Blur still sneaks in perfect pop nuggets such as "Coffee & TV," where cheery harmonies share space with a squealing guitar. All in all, a daringly original and accomplished work...

This monumental tour de force indubitably represents the culmination of what Eno was trying to achieve with the Ambient genre. The sheer brilliance, with which he was able to translate the places he envisaged into their aural equivalents, is nothing short of staggering; he is unquestionably in his element here. With this landmark recording, Eno has created a masterpiece that is illimitably greater than the sum of its parts, and stands amongst the greatest artistic works of the 20th century.

(There are a few guest appearances here and there, but they're mostly notable for how Eno incorporates their contributions into the blend - Bill Laswell's ominous rumblings on "Lizard Point", Jon Hassell furnishing "Shadow" with his trademark 'vocal trumpet' shadings to great effect, Michael Brook's poignant guitar work on the timeless "Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960".)

This EP is absolutely stunning!!! "Kid for Today" and the title track are truly amazing, achingly beautiful and warm pieces..."Amo Bishop Roden" is redolent of a heartrending melancholy, and Zoetrope is a minimalistic masterpiece, reminiscent of peak era Terry Riley or Steve Reich...BOC are
undeniably in their element here...An Essential!!!

I don't feel qualified enough to make judgements about the intricacies and complexities of this work of art, as I have experienced it only a few times... All I can say is, pieces like "Almost Touching" augmented my artistic definitions in innovative directions!!! It is good to see that Steve Roach is still extrapolating fairly challenging artistic theories... shall write an adequate rewiew for it after enough thought and aural experience... for now, my immediate reaction is... PHENOMENAL!!!

Spread out over two discs, WELL OF SOULS is chamber music for those of us wrestling with the late 20th century concept of "ancient modern." Here, Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana enter more unsettling, darker territory. Both Obmana and Roach wrench ever more potent atmospheres from one another's machines and earthen noisemakers. Each of their individual muses meld expertly into the other's, but both figure into the grand scheme of things; fixate on Roach's command of sensuous rhythms and monstrous troughs of sound, and Vidna Obmana's penchant for getting interstellar mileage out of even the most minimal of patterns. One might hasten to label WELL OF SOULS a masterpiece, but it's difficult to think of this richly imaginative work as anything but.

Regardless of the names above the title, the scary, omniscient tones and heart-stopping atmospheres of STALKER appear indelibly stamped with Lustmord's characteristic signature. Rich's geometric percussive networks are scarcely evident, and even his trademark chords and quagmires of "glurp" are in absence. Nevertheless, the aesthetics behind this recording, and the challenges each musician apparently inspired in the other, pay off brilliantly. This could be rightly labelled as "dark ambient", but the appellation is a vast understatement. A track such as "Hidden Refuge," alight with drone-like hesitancies and shifting winds blowing over barren, purgatorial dunes, is far too ambulatory to simply blend in to the surrounding environment. STALKER encourages you to actively explore its regions while simultaneously teasing you to passively resist.

While STRATA, the first collaboration between Steve Roach and Robert Rich, sought to peel away the substratum layers of the inner consciousness, SOMA attempts to reconcile those emotions with the outer world through a wondrous, gripping corpus of sound. Here, Roach and Rich perform a stunning series of lively, aural mosaics that are like musical puzzle boxes with hundreds of oddly colored pieces. It is as if they tore up the veneer of the desert itself and constructed these sounds out of the earth's very natural fiber. Like the best free jazz improvisers, Roach and Rich intuitively communicate their separate identities into one collective whole. Another brilliant collaboration from two higly prolific and accomplished artists.

After his genre-defining AMBIENT 1: MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS, Brian Eno collaborated with minimalist composer Harold Budd for AMBIENT 2: THE PLATEAUX OF MIRROR, which proved to be a natural pairing. By taking Budd's solo piano compositions and applying his unique sound treatments, Eno managed to enhance a startlingly spare work, yet keep its simplicity intact. On many tracks, Eno's additional sounds are so subtle that they easily mesh with any background noise that may surround the listener. Budd's delicate piano work, though, is always at the fore, slowly creating a quiet, yet expansive, sonic landscape. Here both musicians are wholly in their element, making this an album of truly astounding beauty.

Raekwon "The Chef" is already an irreplacable part of rap music's largest breed, the Wu-Tang Clan, but his debut proves him also capable of standing on his own two feet. Joining Raekwon on just about every cut, fellow Clan-man Ghostface Killah also delivers great performances.
In fact, CUBAN LINX bares closer resemblance to an actual Wu-Tang Clan album than any solo record by a Wu-Tang member. The backing track for "Guillotine (Swordz)" was previously introduced on Method Man's solo album TICAL, and Raekwon and his crew expand on it for a quick flashback. "Can It Be All So Simple" also returns--this time in a remixed form. These two songs, along with "Ice Cream" and "Wu-Gambinos" (both of which feature Method Man), escalate the greatness of this album to staggering heights. Raekwon's chamber briefly escapes the Clan's musical borders on "Verbal Intercourse," and though the track evokes other Wu-Tang material, Nas' lyrical presence adds a different dimension to the album's haunting reality.
As usual, The RZA dominates the production on each razor-sharp cut, and with appearences from just about every Clan MC, ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX... could easily be a Raekwon-sponsored Wu-Tang reunion.