Rifts

Good stuff.

Some of the music on this album is amazing, all of it is great, if you like Boards of Canada, or any great synth music really, get this, its brilliant.

grate album

If you like drone electronica a bit like later Death In Vegas, then buy this otherwise avoid.

oh 'eck - derivative...sorry...

There is a lot of debate over how original this is. The Wire and various others have claimed that it is an amazingly new innovation in music. In fact it isn't very original at all - to me it's like a cross between Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and the Future Sound of London. Also, the very ambient sounding tracks could literally be from a million different artists and, when compared to the likes of BJ Nilsen or Jacob Kirkegaard, are actually nothing special.However, who cares? All music is influenced in some way by other music. I like this album because it represents a sound I haven't heard anyone making for quite a long time. Despite likenesses to krautrock it's actually much closer in vibe to what was going on in the early-mid 90s with the after-rave chillout electronica scene. I miss those days and so I think this is great and I give it 5 stars!

I agree that this cd owes a great deal to 70s and early 80s synth pioneers like Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. Possibly if you don't "know your music" this will all sound quietly revolutionary (hence the Wire best of 2009 accolade). It isn't a revolution, more a slight evolution. As with the 80s based cosmic sounds of Lindstrom et al, this won't get the gold star for originality. But it is a very ennjoyable listen nonetheless. Buy it before it gets deleted and starts going for silly money on eBay! If you like Aphex, Eno or Carl Craig you will probably find something to like here.

Turn off the lights, put on some headphones and immerse yourself in this immensely entertaining compilation. It's akin to (I imagine) Roy Batty's dream sequences. Melancholic, hypnotic washes of vintage synth slink their foggy pitch-shifting way round your synapses. It's pristine, droning and perhaps a little soulless but since when has that been a problem with this type of machine music? There are clear echoes of the past and nods to retro-futurism of yore but as Oscar said 'talent borrows, genius steals'. These discs haven't left my in-car CD changer for over a month and are unlikely to be usurped for a long time. For once I agree with the hype...