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Create 2 - PW 26 Release Date: 26 February 1996 Limitation: 1000 Environmental San Fransisco I 21.10 Siddhartha 11.26 OM 20.54 Environmental San Fransisco II 10.50 all tracks written by Pete Namlook and Charles Uzzell-Edwards
Environmental San Francisco I: The sound of a skateboard and trains clicking by are gradually overlaid by understated lurking orchestrals which give the feeling of approaching menace. Fire sirens and random low-key electronic stabs create an atmospheric urban landscape. A much warmer set of chords enters the fray to calm things down but the environment returns along with a pulsing bass beat that just rolls along. Contrasting beats with environmental sounds works well and could almost resemble a curious ambient form of jazz. Beats, sounds of traffic and noise lead the track out. Fine stuff. I was less keen on Siddhartha and OM. In Siddhartha electronic birds and washes of sound provide a backdrop for a spoken word piece while OM begins in a similar way with an electronically treated voice chanting wisdom as sub bass and washes of ambience fill the room. This particular piece improves into something more coherent but it remains a bit irritating. Environmental San Francisco II brings us back to the kind of territory we know and love. The sounds of heavy traffic moving are cut into sound fragments that end suddenly with echo's. This surreal effect is used as the backdrop to building warm synth sounds which shine out over the murky urban noise. Clicking beats and soft cymbal sounds give a slow pace to the washes of sound and voices barely heard in the background. Something of a fifty/fifty disc but many may rate the middle two tracks higher than I did while the San Francisco tracks are classics in their own right that probably make it worth getting for these alone.
(review by Rowland Atkinson)
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