Bowery Electric ‎– Beat

Postscript is most definitely outstanding track, for any devoted Ambient fan like myself shouldn't disappoint, reminiscent of MLO's 'Io' 'In Search For Lost Times '

this is a nice, floaty little record occupying a crossover space between shoegaze, space rock, trip-hop and ambient music. the picture on the front is suggestive: this record works best when sitting on a long, scenic bus ride, the kind that you want to stretch out so as to really enjoy the opportunity to think. with all of our little gadgets nowadays, we're increasingly losing out on these quiet moments of reflection and choosing, instead, to occupy our time playing tetris or, worse, working. this, here, fights against that mindset by suggesting that sometimes it's best to just relax and reflect.

however, the electronic side of the record is also fairly danceable; the problem is that it's danceable in a dreary, cerebral kind of way. if your local library were to put on a rave, they would draw heavily from this record. of course, people that hang out in libraries aren't usually dancing types. so, there's a contradiction within the style presented - it appeals directly to two nearly mutually exclusive demographics, which nearly negates the appeal it has to either one.

the space-rock side makes it a good stoner record and the ambient side makes it work from a reading/studying perspective.

overall, it's a good discount bin pick up if you like any of the aforementioned styles but, despite it's unique fusion of influences, which is enough to earn it the grade of "strong effort", it's just not strong enough of an effort to warrant much more discussion than this. every bass part on the record is steadily downstroke at 4/4, the guitars are all reverbed out to the point that they're indistinguishable from the synths, the vocals never get over the whisper point and the drum parts could be all played by anybody with a month's worth of lessons, or even with a background in some other instrument. this simplicity is certainly soothing in small amounts and in specific circumstances but it gets a little bit boring by the time the record nears it's ending point.

oh.....and everybody seems to think that it's really important to point out that lawrence chandler once studied with lamonte young. i suspect that's likely at his insistence, but i would absolutely agree that there is a loose connection between the minimalist school and the primarily youth-driven american ambient movement that floated in and out of existence during the 1990s. bowery electric were in some ways central to this, so i guess if you missed that the first time you should hit wiki and catch up.