2350.org - Shades of Orion 2

This is deep stuff. If you're solely into the lively, upbeat end of the Fax spectrum, you're on the wrong page! Quick, run! Head for the hills! :-) If, however, you enjoy a nice slice of extremely chilled, even spacy ambience, this is for you.

Another single-track affair, this one proceeds slowly, very slowly, on its journey from somewhere out in space to, well, somewhere else out in space, but like, it's the journey that's important, man! :-)

The piece works nicely as peaceful background, to be calmed by while you work or cook or whatever, but it also rewards the attentive listener by using track divisions to observe clearly defined sections (or parts of the journey, if you will), some of which are more eventful than others, all of which transport you to a (slightly) different place.

At the end of the day, though, it's pointless trying to describe what's going on here musically.....either you get it or you don't, and that's the way it should be. For the record, my favourite parts are 5 and 6....well, today anyway :-)

Verdict - Very nice, very nice indeed, just don't play it in front of someone who'll ask "So when's something gonna happen then?"

8/10.

(review by Martin Jones)

I love Tetsu Inoue. I love everything he does. And I also love it when he and Namlook get together. Unfortunately the only other release I have of them as a duo is 2350 Broadway 2 (which is spectacular!), but I knew without a doubt that this cd would be great. And it is. Wow. This is beautiful. On the inside reads "tinifni elbaniatta eht fo lobmys a sa noir", and it makes me happy to know what that means (and that has nothing to do with the fact that it is written backwards), because I've felt that in Inoue's music a great deal. Anyways on to the music. As you would expect this is very chill. This piece starts right up, with a floating beautiful soundscape that builds and shifts. New sounds come in and out, melodies surface and fade...I'm only on track 1 and I'm loving it. The sounds created are full and deep- not deep just in the sense of pitch, but in breadth as well. Then among the richness, a single note will shine through. Amazing. About 12 minutes in, things change a bit... then I skipped through and caught the first few seconds of every track and was amazed at how things had changed that much through the course of the piece. But doing that defeats the purpose I feel. It is funny, because I played some bits of Organic Cloud to friends and everyone remarked, "It's not doing anything!" Thing is though, it is...and it goes many places. It just takes time. Most things work that way (seasons maybe?). The same is true here, at 24 minutes a beautiful melody flows along, changing and changing. At 43 minutes things have gotten dark and spacey. At 47 the beginnings of rhythm come in, and the atmosphere of the beginning resurface once more. A constant evolution. I won't say anything more about it- except that this is brilliant and wonderful music. If you already have it, take some time out and listen to the whole thing straight though. An hour well spent in my opinion. Rating: A classic. Truly incredible.

(review by rdudley)