VARIOUS ARTISTS

m1 - a magnanimous compilation

Magnanimous Records (2003)

review by Bill Binkelman

Here's an extremely solid and exciting ambient music compilation from Magnanimous Records, a relatively new label from what I can gather. It features eight tracks from eight different artists and nary a misstep among them, which given the relative variety of the music contained herein is quite the accomplishment.

Things start off in a dark and disturbing yet eerily beautiful vein with "prayer to infinity" from ligo. Swirling drones with a whistling characteristic carry the lead while two separate vocals are present: a distorted echoed female singing voice and a slowed-down vocoder-type spoken word vocal. The words are probably decipherable if one were to take effort and time to do so; what I heard sounded like pretty heavy duty stuff. Things lighten up with the next track, "read my dust" from jamesvanpilato, a low-key yet catchy slice of glitch ambient, with midtempo shuffling beats and what sounds like guitar loops. It's too short, though, at less than two minutes - I sure wish it was longer! greenie2600's "laid bare" is a minimal drone ambient soundscape, with the sound of wind discernible in the background. A whistling tone emerges from the shadowy darkness as well as a slow measured bass beat rhythm. As the track progresses, polar-cold synth lead lines grace the song with the warmth of the northern lights, along with haunting choral effects. This is one beautiful ambient track! And, at almost seven minutes in length, it gets its due. Seiss' "unattended analogue" is a miasma-ish whirlpool of liquidy drones and strange burbling noises, textured with tonal and atonal synth notes peppered here and there, some sounding like far off church bells. The track gets eerier as it unwinds, but never to the point of distraction, as the bells come forward in the mix and whooshing sounds intermix with reverberating crashes (I swear this sounds like it was sampled from sound effects from Forbidden Planet).

"ruretiflurems" by matthew p is an aphex-like glitchy ambient number, mixing spacy keyboards that have a '50s SF movie sound to them with contemporary skitch beats. When the beats drop out all of a sudden and a brief flurry of "pretty" ethereal bells twinkle in the blackness, I thought of another SF movie soundtrack, that being Bernard Herrman's work for The Day The Earth Stood Still (maybe all these artists are closet SF freaks like me?). Yet another type of ambient music is present on "the other side" from artist red orchestra. The sound of crickets is balanced against a quavering keyboard wash in the background, soon joined by arrhythmic hand drums and strange bird-like whistling tones. There is a faint feeling of retro electronic music to the cut, bringing to mind early works from Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, e.g. In A Wild Sanctuary.

The standout track for me is a "standout" in more ways then just being superb music. "sonic seahorses" by d-ork is the only uptempo cheery number on the compilation, and it's a stunner! Percolating pulsing bass beats and all manner of synthetic EM textures (some melodic and some more machine-like in nature) propel the track along a sunny ribbon of cyber-highway. Analog-sounding (mini-moog-ish) synths bring a great big grin to my face every time I play this song, and the ultra-catchy rhythms get the ole feet a tapping to keep time with the mid-to-fast tempo of the beats. At a few ticks over eight minutes in length it's the longest track here and every inch of it is a lot of fun.

The album closes with natrul's "descending part 1," a return to darker, more sinister sonic territory. Glitch beats, lots of panning effects, and what are probably the most bizarre assorted electronic textures on the recording all come together to craft a fairly weird listening experience, although not overtly unlistenable (although certainly more afield from the mainstream of ambient than everything else here).

As an introduction to a new label, m1 is outstanding, but it's also just a great album, period. Being a compilation, there is a certain lack of continuity, but the whole is much more cohesive than you'd expect, I'll wager. Dark ambient fans will doubtless enjoy almost the entire trip here, and maybe they'll also be glad for the relief of "sonic seahorses." Unlike a lot of dark ambient music, most of the songs on m1 offer more than just garden-variety drones and boring monotonous desolate landscapes. In order to get the most out of this recording, though, headphones are recommended. Speaking of recommended, I obviously do just that with this fine recording!