Search - Rapoon :: Navigating By Colour

Not the usual Rapoon

Bill Perez | Chicago, IL United States | 11/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ever since he left the legendary :zoviet*france:, Robin Storey (a.k.a. Rapoon) has been injecting his brooding industrial ambient loops and washes with scraps of Indian and Middle Eastern flavors. While I have grown to appreciate the earthiness this lends his constructions, I miss the unflinchingly alien sound of :zoviet*france:. "Navigating by Colour" departs from the usual Rapoon pieces in that it entirely avoids the ethnic inflections that have become de rigeur for Rapoon, and yet manages to establish an experience distinct from classic :zoviet*france:. Sombre, yet open, this CD has no weak track, and withstands repeated listenings. It brims with the exquisite ambiguity that Robin Storey has a unique gift for: glum yet glimmering, organically mechanical, background music that insistently claws at your attention. He never panders--his music is not an attempt to comfort or lull, to depress or threaten, to warm or to chill, or to otherwise indulge any familiar human emotion. In a sense, his work speaks to itself, and establishes its own frame of reference. Robin Storey's genius lies in his ability to mesmerize us almost as a side effect. While I admire many of them, I have yet to encounter any other "ambient" artist whose work can so consistently and beautifully defy expressive interpretation without becoming random or automated.

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