Search - Pan-American :: Pan American

Understated, engaging music - good chillout disc

Rinchen Choesang | Melbourne, Australia | 12/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Something about this album grabs me and sucks me into its soundworld. There is some 'dark ambient' here, some dub and some plain spooky sounds.



The hushed vocals help to set an emotional level of melancholy, which stays pretty much throughout the whole CD. This is contemplative music. While there are flashes of other artists - Pole (Stefan Betke) comes to mind in the first two tracks, as do Datacide, Lull and the ambient side of Bill Laswell on the 'dark ambient' tracks - this album really has its own unique atmosphere.



1) 'Starts Friday' - great intro track, sets the mood for what's to follow - sparse beats and disjointed vocals

2) 'Remapping' - a sort of spooky, cool dub sound accompanied by soothing jangly guitar - sets a spacy ambience

3) 'Lent' - more sparse beats and disjointed vocals, more spooky stuff

4) 'First Position' - Dark ambient - smooth and deep

5) 'Tract' - back to a dub sound - warm and floating, punctuated with skittery synth bleeps here and there, with a supremely cool bongo beat to complement the solid bassline

6) 'The Dark Nest' - spacy vocals act as a complimentary beat to the pulsing organ and bass drone, then leave the dub theme to do its own thing - very cool!

7) 'Noun' - more dark ambient sounds, segueing into cultured dub-ambient - a bit reminiscent of some of the 2nd CD of Bill Laswell's 'Ambient Compendium'

8) 'Lake Supplies' - more spooky dub sounds

9) 'Part One' - trawls dark ambient depths in the Lull, or Datacide mould. Fitting end to a album that skilfully maintains a 'recessed', yet inviting, sound - music that often begs a question.



This is music with emotion - emotion that is dark, deep and elemental.



FABULOUS!!!





"

Kranky goes all dubby and ambient

Billy Pilgrim | Detroit-ish | 01/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Before I discovered the glistening dream pop and long, drawn out (and very good) feedback excursions of the Kranky label and bands like Jessamine, Bowery Electric and Stars of the Lid, I was consumed with music like this- dark, dubby, and menacing. Music that used to be called, rather imprecisely, "isolationist", yet included everything from SAWII to Scorn to Bill Laswell and the Fax label. So it's ironic, then, that my fascination with all things Kranky would lead me back to where I was in my pre-Kranky days, listening to slow, spare ambient dub. In sound and feel, this is very similar to Seefeel's Succour album; tracks vary in length, and activity, but are all essentially variations on the same theme- dub bass, sad, melancholy tones, and the occasional rhythm, or hint of a rhythm. Very captivating, and well worth seeking out."