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Now up to its fourth volume, the amazing thing about the Bedroom Ambience series has been the way each new instalment has bettered the previous, evolving and shifting the aural posts, similar projects usually fade by this stage to become something that the label feels its obliged to do, yet Bedroom Ambience has maintained its vision and for that reason alone it should be applauded.
‘Good Vibrations’ is indicative of the serene landscapes and calming waterways on which Enraptured records navigate these days, they’ve shifted from the original template of post rock / minimalist electronics to embrace curvaceous atmospheric ambient pop. This collection features thirteen cuts of the sweetest star struck space pop currently to be found orbiting the outer reaches of pop music’s ever expanding generic cosmos. Accompanied by a lavish 20 page booklet giving detailed backgrounds on all the featured artists the main focus of the release is an interview between legendary New York art house / electronic guru Simeon of Silver Apples fame and BBC Radio Scotland’s John Cavanagh excerpts of which are spliced between each of the thirteen tracks that include an exclusive cut from the Apples mainstay himself. Viewed overall the set is meant to be heard as a radio show, Simeon gives an insightful account of his earliest childhood memories, the birth of the Silver Apples and a taste of the 60s scene that spawned them including the controversy around the sleeve for their ‘Contact’ album which caused the duo to go their separate ways oh yeah and that famous meeting with the pre-axe God Hendrix.
What makes ‘Good Vibrations’ work so well is the hypnotic aura it commits upon the listener, Simeons memories float almost ghost like, seamlessly supported by the gentle sound-scapes that combine to ooze everything from lulling guitars to dreamy electronics, the effortless transition from spoken word to melody is perfectly maintained so as not to disrupt the continuity of the collection. Opening to the tingle like shifting hush-rush pop of Monokini’s ‘High Falutin’’ where the sounds of xylophones brush wildly with disjointed piano arrangements to invest an off centre Oriental glow are soon replaced by the chill like serenity of the ever wonderfully graceful Ampop who serve up the frosted lullaby splendour of ‘January’ with a side order of igloo décor, smouldering stuff equally engaging are the melting melodies and skipping beats of the breathlessly optimistic ‘Yellow Cake’ by Ramp. On the strength of the elegiac ‘Children are Cruel’ it probably won’t be to long before Special Benny become a household name, combining subtle elements of 90 Degrees South, Tank and Lakescene, this Essex based quartet tumble out of the shadows with this lovelorn atmospheric debut that gentle saunters with a space jazz funk undercarriage incorporating blessed out textures and playground babble, simply beautiful stuff indeed. Ninja Mind Control is none other than Reuben Rios from Grimble Grumble fame who manages to sample William S. Boroughs into a web of wide screen middle-eastern claustrophobic and appearing out the opposite end sounding like an upbeat Muslim Gauze.
Jon Chambers AKA Sunray who over the years has adorned us with a handful of top of the drawer detuned psyche brainwashing for the esteemed Earworm label gets all softly sentimental and dozy eyed with the spectral ‘Song for Brion Gysin’ and pops up again as part of the duo Data 70 for a spot of mesmerising drone electronics. One of the albums high points sees David J Duckworth (whose latest album ‘The Parables of Artistic Creativity’ from which this is taken we are duty bound to recommend you track down) pamper us with the elegantly arranged ‘Quieter times ahead’ which can only be described as classic Primal Scream having a fist fight with Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart, magnificent stuff. Fighting for the mantle of coolest cut, The Exile known to friends and family as Joel Darby elegantly pricks the soul with his curious mix of Harold Budd’s ‘Get Carter’ meets Morricone and Ry Cooder to slum it in an all night bar exchanging heartbroken notes on the awesomely numbing ‘A room with three windows’. Not to be outdone Hyperex Machina the ambient alter ego of Hyper Drive gets all menacingly wires ‘n’ Terminator like on the impeccable retro futuro-funk ‘Shuffle / Repeat’ which to these ears sounds like early Echoboy c. ‘Scene 30’ in a scuffle over WD-40 with ‘Replicas’ era Numan. House favourites the Workhouse instead of opting for the trademark soaring to a crescendo atmospherics seek to dismantle the senses from inside out with the tear filled ‘Strawberry’ all cascading chords with the settings switched to sting, peerless stuff. By his own admittance Simeon ‘gets in on the sampling game adding loops, Winston Churchill speeches and oscillators’ for the remarkable stutter drone antics of ‘Snakebite’, which to these ears sounds like Herbie Hancock c. ‘Rock it’ fed through a shredding machine and wired up to the main frame of some demonic game machine. Bringing up the rear, and admirably so, ex Metrotone and Landshipping figure head and Peel favourite John Brenton follows up his latest outing for Awkward Silence with his new project OJN. ‘All roads roam to Leeds’ finds Mr Brenton getting down with it, all looping grooves, layered textures, undeniably catchy and blessed with the kind of irresistible toe tapping vibe that you’ll feel you’ve been bitten by the jitter bug. All in all shall we settle for essential? Quite right to.
MARK BARTON
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