Search - Various Artists :: Musique Mechanique

The Old School

M. Watkins | 01/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One look at the play list and you should

(unless you are very new to ambient)

know where you are. Analogueville baby!



We get a little bit of everything with this

package. It really is a sample of different styles

from the 70s "Departure From the Northern Wasteland",

(which I recall listening to on Philadelphia's

WXPN) through the post-analogue mid-90s.



Disk One emphasizes the classical/synth motiff of

several European artists and has several long tracks

which may not be up to current tastes or trends

at this point, but which are interesting from the

perspective of the music's history (the disk comes with

a booklet with an essay written by John Diliberto).

"Aguirre" by Popul Vuh certainly stands its own

against the waters of time. Those more heavily invested

in the works of Klaus Shultz will probably at least have

heard of Eberhard Shroener.



Disk Two starts off with "labyrinth" by Michael

Stearns and rolls comfortably into bed with Kevin Braheny's

"Desert Walkabout." This is followed by two

well known Steve Roach tracks and then two by David

Parsons (more etherial and less teutonic). Chances are,

if you like any of this stuff you already have it.

I already had most of it when I bought this, but i

wanted a few select tracks from otherwise somewhat more

obscure artists.



Celestial certainly didn't 'experiment' or strike

any new territory with this release, and its therefore

never likely to get much attention (the art department

responsible for the disk's cover certainly won't get any prizes).

However, I like this compilation well enough

and find most of it listenable and enjoyable.

Its cheap so you won't break the bank on it, but if

you're unsure, go with an album's worth of almost

any artist listed.



"