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review by Bill Binkelman Synthesist Jonathan Block, who records as Synthetic Block, has released three albums as a solo act, but this is the first one of his recordings I have reviewed. Sonic Approach is a unique combination of Berlin school sequencer-style EM, melodic floating spacemusic textures, and some subtly abstract qualities as well. The result is music that is complex in the best possible ways, as it shifts between various moods and styles on each track's journey from inception to completion. Some of the eight selections are shorter (in the three to four minute range) while others span out to as long as nearly thirteen minutes. Regardless of the length, though, each cut offers up music that is well-engineered, thoughtfully composed, and artfully performed. "Variations on a Theme Of Absence" opens amid a swirling sea of darker tinted synths and evolves into a pulsing neo-futuristic sequenced track, brimming with both retro electro-fluidity and cybernetic energy. "The Quartz Marsh" shifts gears, painting a forbidding soundscape - an eerie miasma of dark whirlpools laced with zapping electrons and twinkling bell tones. The tracks on Sonic Approach segue directly into one another, but each selection is separate and distinct so that only the bridging sections create continuity (although there are similar sounds and moods throughout the entirety of the CD). The title track matches percolating synth with wailing horn-like notes and an undercurrent of dramatic washes; this is one of more dynamic songs on the album and would make ideal highway cruising music. While there is some unmistakable familiarity to Berlin school motifs, Block's style (here and on other tracks as well) uses the Germanic subgenre as a mere starting point, not as a destination (he shares this compositional aim with a few others artists, such as Paul Ellis, as opposed to those who follow the tenets of Berlin music theory more closely, e.g. some of the artists on Groove Unltd.). Among the three shorter tracks, "Bed of Sphinxes" is sparse from a melodic standpoint, being more overtly electronic and textural in nature (although very cool in a SF way, with its reverberating electric pulses and circuitry-ish sounds), while "Inevitable" has a shiny pristine quality to it, as well as a quirky clipped sense of rhythm. "Sonic Recoil" ends the album as a reprisal of the some of the earlier musical themes from the CD in a deliberately-paced fluid mass of electronic tones and textures, slowly introducing stately Berlin-esque rhythms towards the end and then fading everything out into nothingness. Sonic Approach amply demonstrates Jonathan Block's imaginative vision of a contemporary direction for EM by integrating subtly abstract (yet accessible) elements with more mainstream Berlin school structures and sounds. Some tracks on the album have a rich cinematic characteristic and others are draped in neo- and/or retro-futurism. I enjoyed the album the more I played it, as (like so many "pure" electronic music releases) its compositional depth is revealed slowly, rewarding the patient listener. While less emotionally involving than, for example, the works of Dom F. Scab or Ron Boots, Block's album still presents music that offers an enjoyable experience and represents time well spent exploring its assorted pathways. Recommended. |
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