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review by Dene Bebbington Having began his musical life as a guitarist for rock and funk bands, Peter later turned his attention to making ambient/electronica/trip hop music. The Beginning is his latest foray into theses styles (and more) of music. At forty minutes long it packs in some infectious rhythms and tunes you can't but like, along with some laid back ambient tracks. The artist's background as a guitarist is one thing that stands out; the guitar riffs on a couple of the tracks, even when they are more contemplative than lively, are very good and help lift the album from ordinary status. First of the seven tracks (of which all but one are between five and eight minutes in length) is the title piece "The Beginning". Repeated falling synth sounds are heard while superb electric guitar riffs form a lead line over slip sliding drum programming and other assorted sonic paraphernalia. Just over halfway through it all changes to a more experimental style with springy sounds (of a mouth harp?) and various clattering of organised chaos. Another good rhythmic track is "The Victim of the Crow". Starting off with some metronomic like percussion and plonking sounds it soon picks up with a Mediterranean kind of rhythm on acoustic and then electric guitar. A few times we also hear what sounds to me like the processed "cock-a-doodle-do" of a cockerel rather than a crow. All this while synth pads help to fill out the background. The shortest, at under three minutes, track "Hollywood's Loss" is, I believe, a reference to Peter and his wife moving to San Francisco. It's the most subdued and reflective piece on the album, giving some sense of the bittersweet feeling that can result from moving home. Initially an Asian sounding gentle tone plays out a melody of sorts while high pitched sustained synth notes replace each other. A wistful guitar riff eventually comes while some of the previous elements develop. There's enough to like on The Beginning so that it gets my recommendation. Despite exploring several styles it all hangs together fairly well, and the experimental parts aren't too weird. |
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