Serious Ancient Rhythm (Blood Red Crescent Moon Mix) (6:37)
6
Poverty And Solitude (5:33)
7
Be Here Now (Red Devil Mix) (4:54)
8
Soulcraft (Astral Mix) (6:35)
9
Be Here Now (707 Mix) (4:59)
User Reviews:
admrail_ahab, Oct 07, 2004
Thessalonians seemed to have disappeared right after this, and what a pity. At the height of the early nineties ambient renaissance came this very acoutstic and slow paced release which does not really seem to relate to much of what is called "ambient" music. It does its own thing as far as I can see. And it does it very very well....
The opener is nearly ten minutes of gentle sub-continent percussion and unintelligible whispering and this basically is a primer for the rest of the record. Plus it has a very cool, Boards Of Canadaesque, title "Absolute Equinox"
The second track, "Astronaut Voices," brings to mind The Anubian Lights' track "Outer Space Music" at first but the incompleteness of the drone/melody and odd percussion place it somewhere rather different.
Track 3, "Shellac" is easily the most disurbing piece on "Soulcraft". What sounds like a lonely heavymetal guitarist thrashing away in a warehouse is submerged in goopy samples and floating taunting laughter.
Liquid Legs (Track 4) is just 8 minutes of noise. Sorta like one looooong strings based pad.
Then follows "Serious Ancient Rhythm (Blood Red Crescent Moon Mix)" and it does quite effectively deliver that image to me. In the jungle, around a campfire, sitting in silence a blood red crescent moon overhead. Complex understated drumming and cicada-like samples here.
"Poverty and Solitude" (Track 6) is one of the strongest outings. Yes, by now "Soulcraft" is starting to sound samey. But this one is a little bit different. That distinct percussion is here again, but this time it backs up a old-film-score organ and weirdly looped vocal samples. And to top it off a woman's voice chimes in at irregular points with the single word "poverty".
To me it is Track 7 though that justifies the entry price alone."Be Here Now (Red Devil Mix)" is an awesome relentless piece of music. The percussion takes centre stage here and for the only time on the record. It is backed by an organ following in time, some heavy chimes, very quiet choral samples and whispered samples that say, among other things, "sway" and "be here now". This song still stops me dead.
The penultimate track of Soulcraft is "Soulcraft" and it sounds very much like the aimlessness of FSOL and is nothing too remarkable.
The final track "Be Here Now (Astral Mix)" has none of the power of its previous iteration. This is a nice enough closer, it moves very slowly through the album's main themes (sans percussion). This too sounds quite like early FSOL to my ear.
One disappointing thing about Thessalonians is that, though they can make incredible sounds, they can't write a song. None of these tracks really goes anywhere.
So there you go, a little review of a forgotten gem.
4.4/5 (