Search - Higher Intelligence Agency, Pete Namlook :: S.H.A.D.O.

A spatial hymn

Annika | Stockholm, Sweden | 01/19/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first several seconds of the album sound like a rather friendly overhead recording in a comfortable spacecraft. The journey begins. It feels like a rather welcoming dip into unfamiliar terrain, with only the slightest trim of a neccessary edginess.The tracks are long, and merge with an ambient ease which works extremely well. S.H.A.D.O. is simultaneously stimulating and serene. As I am quite fond of H.I.A.'s work in general, a bias of their production may exist. Yet this "bias" has only been birthed and nurtured through several listenings, and the realization that this is the sort of music which you grow to like a bit more each time you play the cd (or which, I can imagine, some may perhaps find to be a bit too much on the chill side, a bit airy). Airy it definitely is in some points, particularly "Secret Location"...but there are enough shifts amongst the few long tracks that you will not doze into a perpetual spatial meditation for the entirety of the cd: wherein lies the brilliance of its rhythm as well. Once you feel you may be drifting a bit, (as in, the craft is now on auto pilot, where is the crew and will the journey gain any sense of direction?)- this is when S.H.A.D.O. picks up the pace. With an ever so delicate and depthful beat (Space Interceptors). From here on out, the construction of S.H.A.D.O.s rather unusual matrix of beats intensifies.Some of the moments are even surprisingly hopeful. If a beat can be said to have a prayer encoded somehow into its acoustic textures, S.H.A.D.O. is a virtual collection of efficient and rather high spirited, deep souled hymns. The consciousness within this music is welcoming and, in a way, very kind. 'Maintaing Scan for UFO's' does diverge a bit and get distinctly heavy, but not in a dark, underworld-ish manner (which I don't mind, but which is rather absent from this album). Some of the sweetest sounds and dips are weaved in throughout the heavy tones, making for a rather energizing finale to a rather interesting journey, which I sense I will enjoy for many years to come. The cover image, of a large, nearly aquatically submerged window, with a distant view of Earth, is beautiful as well. An appreciable image, to introduce a much appreciated collaboration of two of electronicas most interesting influences (HIA and Pete Namlook), bringing to us sounds which perhaps only sound otherworldly."