Home Without The Journey (A-Frame010)

• Home Without The Journey
• Carbon Statues
• Cool Blue and The Plough

Andy Garibaldi (Dead Earnest) 11-08

"I have to admit that, since leaving my review post at CD Services Mail Order back in 2006, I have joined the throngs who look at electronic music from the outside. By that, I mean that I have listened to a load of electronic music since and not exactly been turned on by most of what I've heard, or, to be more accurate, found most of what I've heard, is in a style that's been done better, done before or done to death - sometimes all three. So, I've found now that the litmus test is to get an electronic music CD, put it on, and see how long it takes me to get my finger onto the "fast forward" button."

"In this case, the finger never saw any action!!"

"For this is absolutely superb - faultless, in fact. There are three tracks - forget how long each is as it's immaterial - and the way it's been composed, played and arranged is a delight. In the opening ten minutes alone, you'll hear atmosphere, melody, rhythm, shimmering heat, crispness, warmth and depth as an array of synths and electronic percussives simply flow through a composition that sounds so natural, so relaxed and yet so focused."

"Although in a sonic manner, this shares nothing with early-mid seventies Tangerine Dream, on a structural and arranging basis, this has exactly what made that band so legendary, and that is the fact that at no time does any part of the track stand still - there's always movement going on, as instruments, layers, melodies and rhythms come and go throughout. But another quality that it exudes is emotion, feel and atmosphere as the music just pours from the speakers in such a way as to make you absolutely riveted to what you are hearing, a stream of electronic music so seemingly effortless, so timeless and yet so naturally flowing, that you are simply under its spell from start to finish.

"If you want influences, you really have to look no further than a guy who's absorbed 35 years of the giants of synthesizer music and come out with something that is so musically satisfying, it's going to be a veritable crime that it's not going to be spoken about in the same breath as those past giants, for this is electronic, synth and keyboard music that ranks with the best there is. From sublime piano, through huge choral splendours, languid rhythms to solid undercurrents, swathes of synthesized depths and textures, melodies that are instant and yet never cheesy or cliched, sequences that sound as though they've always been there rather than having been created in some studio somewhere Ð all of these and more go to make this opening title track a thing of beauty and wonder. "Carbon Statues" that follows, with its mix of choral synths, languid rivers of deep, rich textures, emotive samples and twinkling stars of rhythms, is simply blissful, absolutely gorgeous and as hypnotic and warm as synth music gets, verging on pastoral but with substance and design. Finally, "Cool Blue And The Plough" starts off shimmering, providing us almost with a nod back to the early seventies way of textural communication, as organ, shifting cymbals, sparkling sequenced slo-mo rhythms and deep, eerie atmospheres, all combine to produce another flowing slice of heaven, above which rises a sharply focused, crystalline synth rhythm that echoes sequencers of old, as melody lines are drawn and sparse textures seem to appear and coalesce, here the richness almost in the background as the sequencers take over in a subtle manner, eventually the scenery changing to one of choral beauty, electro-percussive subtlety and deep, gorgeous synthesized warmth, the rhythmic portion of the track somehow chunky without being obtrusive, the main focus without overbearing as it all comes together with love and emotion at its heart, a thing of wonder, a thing of joy.

"So it travels - towards an end you hope will never come, and a beginning that is you simply turning back and playing it all once more Ð a combined action that you will experience many times to come as you get to know and love one of the most beautifully composed and played synth music albums I've heard in aeons."