Tetsu Inoue - "World Receiver" (Reissue)

This is such a classic that to review it now, 11 years on, seems completely unnecessary. Not widely acclaimed on its initial release in 1996, and unfortunately out of print for quite some time, Infraction is thankfully bringing this back to market. World Receiver ranks very near the top of best ambient albums lists, up with Eno's On Land, KLF's Chill Out, and Global Communication's 76:14.

Inoue was ahead of his time with this record, incorporating field recordings seamlessly with his own analog synthesizers. Field recordings had been used for years by the time this came out, to be sure. The perfect nature of how the music plays off the recordings and the reverse on this record still possesses the capacity to amaze. The location recordings are never too location-specific, sounding like they could be anywhere on the globe. Which they might very well be, as Inoue travelled Japan, Thailand, Pakistan, Germany, and the United States, gathering his sounds. Point being that the integration sounds so completely organic, composed around each other, on a level unparalleled upon initial release.

World Receiver deserves the accolades heaped upon it since 1996. There weren't many ambient releases that sounded like it at the time, and 10 years on, there still aren't that many. Even Inoue himself has moved on from this sound. There is nothing like this being released today. If you don't have it, what are you waiting for?

The Mighty Laibach

Igor Krutogolov - "White"

This one for igloomag.com, "touched up" by Pietro.

Here's an album that doesn't give you much to go on. No track titles, a booklet of blank white pages, and little else. It even starts nondescript, with a reverbed keyboard loop and environmental sounds that slowly, ever so slowly, find each other. Track 2 brings in strings, flute, and some operatic vocals. Track 3 invites an irritating, directionless clicking noise to the mix, along with some far-off wailing. What begins as strangely relaxing becomes quite annoying. And that is the really frustrating thing about White --for every really pleasing ingredient, there's something totally annoying going on at the same time --and it is impossible to ignore anything annoying. So White ends up being kind of a mixed bag, an evolving ambient soundscape that pleases while it detracts.

After the triumphant, majestic climax that is track 6, the track 7 denouement has that misplaced flute again, and then 30 minutes of unpleasant silence.