2350.org - Namlook III

The album starts off in a slow spacey ambient piece that seems to build into an abstract mix of scattered beats and ambient tid bits. It continues to take shape, and soon becomes a funky techno space piece. There are some Namlook sweeps throughout.

Track two mixes in a droney loop. The build is slower than the previous track. It takes on a more alien sound with its quirky and playful samples. Upbeat, without a beat.

Track three starts to roll and becomes even more quirky than before. It seems to have some motion, yet the aliens are still amongst us. There is a lot more intensity in this track. The happy EMS strings us along into a new world, with glowing bliss all around.

Track four is slow ever-evolving alien ambient and techno. The techno is restless, and sometimes unsettling (in a good way). Some nice bass toward the end of the track.

Track five follows with similar intentions. It is a more defined experimental sound overall (?). -3:30 is not for the timid ambient listener.

Track six and seven seem to mix well. Track seven is loud with its elongated samples fluttering about. The mix is uptempo, and almost at a nervous pace. The pace with -4:45 becomes joyfully frantic.

Track eight reminds me of the movie Close Encounters. It finally settles into something lurking and extraterrestrial The final track is brighter sounding, and the most organized. This is my fave on the disc. It seems to incorporate all the good things throughout the album, and creating a fast paced groovy techno track.

This is certainly not an album for everyone, and for those not so timid it is "Recommended Daily Intake...."

(review by jackthetab)

Having just read what is, until now, the only review for this title on 2350 I feel obliged to post a "reviewette" or, to be more precise - a word of warning. I'm a big fan of several of the Namlook live releases (4/7/9/11/12) but, this one should be avoided at all costs. It's totally weird, freeform, law-unto-himself stuff that you definitely won't want to play more than twice in your entire lifetime. It simply does not belong on disc and PK really pisses me off when he puts out rubbish like this.

(review by Paul Milligan)

This is an absolutely amazing concept album that illustrates how much art sound really can be. It is definitely a very coherent performance that I will call the piece.

The piece starts almost immediately with a rhythm part, easy going, that continues for a while until the audience starts to think that this is all rather basic. It is in fact the kind of music you and me would make when toggling on the steering wheel or doing some human beat box noises in bath. Once it gets to you that something is missing silence takes over. The only rhythm you're left with is a sound that occurs every three seconds -- yes, that's a lot of silence. However, this lights the gasoline. It's is beautiful and that is important.

Total antithesis occurs when even that little sparkle of rhythm is eliminated and silence is only broken by amazing sound structures like a massive space truck breathing down you neck (you'll understand once you hear it). It even gets funny once the aliens in the suitcase pop out -- hence the title -- and start conversing with each other. Pete would calm airwhales in later work. So now you're in the no rhythm at all area with individual beautifully crafted sounds walking around. They are definitely looking for that simple rhythm structure of the first part.

And then -- oh miracle -- one organ pipe gets an idea and starts playing this silly basic pattern. The other sounds jump in and bit by bit they manage to get in line. And so the piece goes slowly crescendo, getting more intense by the minute as the beautiful sounds and the rhythm pattern are blended better and better. Arms and legs start to move. It goes all the way up -- making you beg for more -- until the final synthesis where undoubtfully the whole crowd was going ballistic on the dancefloor.

And then it ends.

Probably the most difficult Namlook but very impressive and absolutely brilliant.

(review by Jean-Marc Dekesel)

Totally new direction for Namlook. Where it says "electro-ambient" on WILL-E's discography, highlight the "electro". Namlook uses only an EMS Synthi AKS and a Roland TR 606 on this one. I'm not sure if it's live or not-- it was recorded in Traben-Trarbach (where's that?) instead of the usual Frankfurt, so maybe it was live. I'd still count on seeing his SF live set come out soon.

Anyways, this whole album is basically Pete making wild sounds come out of this machine. No droney synths that last for 15 minutes, this is minimal strange noise music. At times you wonder where Pete is taking it cause it seems directionless, but then he gets his act together and pulls it all in. He seems to be telling some kind of story. I interpreted it as him being abducted by aliens. Drums only come in at the beginning and at the end. At the end it's like he's being chased by aliens. The drums come in again and the whole feeling is very intense and suspenseful. Then it seems as if he gets captured and there it ends. Kind of similar to the Alien Community collaboration with Jonah of Space Time Continuum, but the sounds are a little bit more simplistic, but a lot of building goes on here too. New and interesting- but probably not for everyone as the disc is very similar for the whole hour.

(review by jonathan takagi)