SEMAPHORE
Make (Laughing Shadow Productions)
Reviewed by Eric Saeger

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Subtly ambient, often brilliant electro instrumentals excreted by Kirby Clements. Notwithstanding their vigorous breakbeats, the tracks lean toward a more dated sound on the whole, with scads of primitive synth rarely heard nowadays outside of Heart's "Magic Man" (put less delicately, let's leave it at Robert Moog Has Risen From the Grave). This isn't to wave the whole thing off as anachronistic swill - the layers of Chemical Brothers/Haujobb snap-crackle-poppage are many and not un-creative - but both goth-fashionistas and couch-gangstas will be repelled by the choices in vibe and hurrying back to their chat rooms in no time. Opening gambit "Slipping South" catches Big Ben playing Tetris while striking midnight; the darkwave modulations of "Drone" bear a faint resemblance to vintage Wumpscut (or, more precisely, Diary of Dreams), eventually sliding into theta tones, muted clanging and psychedelic collisions. Thereon it's mainly an all-noise scratch-ticket with some good picks - hardy explorers will discover man-made ocean waves and army-chopper whirr ("Gel"), a walk through menacing desert canyons ("Push"), stun-guitar-washed rasta-riddims ("Veggie"), and a humorous poke at prog-rock ("Death to Me").

[Pick this up at CDBaby.]

© 2005 - Eric Saeger