Search - Terre Thaemlitz :: Soil

Ambient Sound of Fear

Paul Allaer | Cincinnati | 09/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD came to me highly recommended, and not really knowing what to expect (other than ambient--which says everything and nothing), I was quite taken by this CD, albeit somewhat taken aback at times as well.The CD consists of 6 tracks, each running in the 8 to 10 min. span. "Subjective Loss" starts off very slowly, no melody to speak of, with whispers in the background and an occasional ear-splitting feedback, like someone left the mike open and shook it around, but ending with several minutes of gorgeous sounding synths, like electronic waterfalls. "Elevatorium" features an electric piano, with a radio faintly playing in the background, birds whisteling, a dreamy atmosphere all around. "Aging Cone" is another dreamy piece, it reminded my of Mark Isham, era "Vapor Drawings". "Grass" starts with a dampened gun shot, has dreamy space music with constant talk in the right channel on "what you can achieve in the Marines", eventually leading to an angry crown yelling "Kill Kill Kill"... wow! "Cycles", the last track, starts with dreamy synths, backgrounds whispers, and a fat base line that continously pops up, and ending with women talking about domestic violence... wow again!I've really come to like this CD, although the "Grass" and "Cycles" tracks are a little unsettling. It is hard to review ambient CDs because oftentimes, as is the case here too, it is more about the overall atmosphere than the sounds on the individual tracks. Few melodies to speak of, but lots of undercurrents, with each subsequent listening revealing more and more details. Call this the ambient Sound of Fear."

Ultimate ambient album...?

Neil Thompson | Birkenhead, Wirral United Kingdom | 05/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'd never heard of Thaemlitz until hearing his collaboration with Bill Laswell, "Web". I liked what I heard there, but it didn't prepare me for what has to be the defining moment of 90's ambient music.Forget Tangerine Dream, Jarre, Serrie, and the rest; this is cutting edge. "Trucker" is spell binding with it's muffled repeated sample that you constantly think will become clear and "Cycles" is the best album closer I've ever heard. So ominous, yet so soothing...I would recommend this to anyone (and frequently have). His other work is patchy; "Couture Cosmetique" has some fine tracks and "Institutional Collaborative" is interesting. If you like Thaemlitz, Tetsu Inoue's work is worth checking out also."

Soil

Neil Thompson | 12/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In his second solo LP, Thaemlitz continues to explore the rich and uncomfortable edges of ambient music. Developing some of the sounds he explored in his first LP, Tranquilizer; the connective tissue throughout Soil is the use of sedate undertones as counterpoint to the uncomfortable noises and rhythms which surface in the foreground of each song. One of Thaemlitzs most notable abilities is to uncompromisingly integrate political consciousness into his music, as earlier evidenced in Fat Chair. In Cycle, the last track of Soil, after we are drawn in by the wanderings of a fat bass accented by haunting melodies and samples, we hear a distorted womans voice telling her gruesome and frightening story of domestic violence.Soil is much as it's name: it will not lull you into a sanitary utopia. It challenges you to push the envelope of your awareness, life's substrate, which is all-together joyous and hopeless, attractive and repulsive, and most of all awesome."