STRANGE MOUNTAIN - MIRRORING
illuminated paths 2016, edition of 25
MIRRORING finds SM branching out from his established sound - there's a new-found ambitious melodic intricacy to his always gorgeous synth work, bolstered with meticulous f/x and found sounds, and even a piano motif or two - meanwhile the lo fi styling of earlier works has been marginalized in favor of a more classic ambient framework in a higher fidelity environment, reducing the degrees of separation from stuff like FRIPP & ENO, RILEY and BLADE RUNNER (watch out for the right-out-of-the-gate jaw-dropper "no more shall it shed android tears") while refracting downtempo rhythm elements on a couple of tracks kinda like APHEX TWIN informed reinterpretations of ANOTHER GREEN WORLD and TANGERINE DREAM's RICOCHET
the more dramatic heart-rending affect of previous works is not as prominent, as his focus seems more on sculpting sound than eliciting emotion - there's still plenty emotion but it's not saturated like my favorites GOLDEN DUST and SHADOW OF THE METROPOLIS - he's exploring new ways and means, and experimenting with them, playfully at times, perhaps taking a cue from LOST TRAIL when they crossed paths on their stellar split / remix double cassette (REC #49) - likewise i can see SM continuing in the same fashion as LT, perpetually proliferating his now multifaceted sound on an always-the-same-always-different trajectory, or perhaps he is poised to break out beyond the weirdo cassette blogosphere with a full length vinyl debut of deep house genre blending - i don't know, i'm just speculating, but who knows especially with a guy like this who's a member of numerous divergent bands - in any case i am intrigued - all that said, for my money, the tantalizingly brief "structure" is what SM does best, and i'll never not need more of that
highly recommended
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
