AMT c.ds almost never turn up in U.K music shops (at least not in the cities I go to), no matter how 'independent' or hipster-orientated the shop in question is. I can only presume that the tiny labels that put out AMT releases just don't have adequate distribution. Almost all the AMT c.ds I've got have either been bought at their gigs, or more recently I've been buying a lot of them through Amazon. I don't buy them randomly. As much as I'm a huge fan, I'm aware that some of their releases I'm not going to like as much as others, so I try to read as many reviews as I can, & if possible listen to their albums on Youtube in order to determine which ones I want to buy.
However, on a recent trip to Birmingham to check out the music shops there, I came across this c.d in Swordfish Records - a great little shop that also runs a label (this release appears to be a collaboration between the Swordfish label & the Riot Season label). It's a very early AMT album, first released in 1999 on AMT's own label, & this re-release is from 2006.
I bought this on sight. After all, it's so rare to find an AMT album in a shop, and who can resist that cover art ? It's one of their best ever album designs.
The concept behind this album is that it's a 'soundtrack' for an imaginary film. A good concept, but I found this album to be a disappointment.
Taking it at face value, as alleged 'soundtrack' music, this is more like abstract incidental music (that might accompany a strange dream sequence or druggy segment) as opposed to the kind of soundtrack music where tracks can stand up in their own right, even when divorced from the visuals (for instance the soundtrack to 'The Wicker Man' or the great soundtracks Goblin made for Dario Argento's films).
There are some films you watch where you want to go straight out & buy the soundtrack album, and others where the music just isn't strong enough to make an impression on you (as a purely audio experience), and if this film actually existed the 'soundtrack' would definitely fall into the second category.
Like many AMT albums, it sounds like they could have knocked this whole thing out (including the mixing & production) in an afternoon. While I have no objections per se to this 'one-take improvised' approach (& have even been in a band that recorded that way) it's not always going to result in good music, and I think that's the problem here. This just doesn't sound like it was an inspired recording session (with good ideas for tracks) & I think it just should have been shelved & not released, especially considering that AMT don't spend much time or money on recording (almost everything they release is a home recording). They could have easily put this session in the can (at no loss) & recorded a better album the next day.
That is of course only my opinion, and as with every AMT c.d, there are some people who really like this. Almost every AMT c.d on Amazon gets four or five star reviews (& is often described as 'essential'). As a fan, I try to be ruthlessly critical & objective. Any band who put out as much as AMT just can't be consistently making c.ds that are worthy of four or five stars. Their 'success' rate is surprisingly high though. Out of the forty or so albums I've heard by them, there are a lot of great ones. However, there are quite a lot that are really three star ('average' albums) & so far I've only heard one ('in Search Of Lost Divine Arc') that falls below that three star threshold & enters the realm of being a 'bad' album.
This isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album. However, there are a couple of bad tracks, & overall it's all just mediocre & doesn't ever amount to anything.
The first track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 1' (6.55) has a horrible one note drone (sounding like a cheap casio keyboard) backed by some acoustic guitar clanging through echo, and that's all this track consists of. It had me running to turn the volume down, as that horrible drone made me think the upstairs neighbours were going to run down & knock on my door, assuming that perhaps my fire alarm had gone off. This is the laziest track I've ever heard by AMT.
The second track - 'Space Bambino' starts promisingly - some lovely acoustic guitar (reminiscent of early Pink Floyd) & nice abstract echoing female vocals. After a few minutes though, I found myself getting bored by it. It doesn't change, develop or 'become' anything. Again, it's that failure of the 'one-take improvised approach. There's the potential of a good track here had it been worked on & developed more.
After about three minutes, it cuts jarringly into a noisier piece (which sounds like an entirely different track just pasted on) - a funky drum pattern, tightly played distorted rhythm guitar, and a crunchy synth sound (that made me think of a locust eating it's dinner). All the layers sound like loops, and overall this sounds like a 'techno' track. To my ears, this was headache inducing.
The third track - 'Sweet Juicy Lucy' (7.06) has a minimal drum rhythm & chiming guitar, both of which are reminiscent of Can, & some spoken female vocals which sound like they might be in French. Later in the track, there's a layer of treated abstract high-pitched female vocals.
This is potentially a good track, but as with some AMT tracks, there's one layer in it that's just clutter, & you just wish had been taken out in the final mix. In this case, it's a horrid keyboard sound (like the 'organ' setting on the cheapest casio keyboard) droning away repeating three or four notes without any panache or style. It sounds like someone who's never played keyboard before, but has found a few notes that are in tune with the guitar, and is just randomly alternating between them. Ouch ! That keyboard ruins this track.
The fourth track - 'Mammary Intercourse' (6.28) was described by one Amazon reviewer as being 'like a Hawkwind album being played backwards', & that's the perfect description (if you wanted to be more precise, I would say - one of the rockier tracks from 'Space Ritual' being played backwards). This is like a lot of AMT's 'noise freakout' tracks, except that it's lacking Makoto's wonderful wild lead guitar, & instead is mostly crunchy synth noises.
The fifth track - 'Hare Hare Hallelujah' (18.23) just meanders about for the first half, with everything going through a lot of effects. There's some tabla & abstract female vocals (accompanied by faint guitar & synth squidge) which sound good, but don't really 'go' anywhere. Once again I feel that, with a bit more work, this track could have been developed into something better.
About half way through, a drum rhythm comes in, & then the track goes into spacerock territory. However, it's a lot more muted & milder than AMT's usual spacerock tracks, and it sounds like listening to spacerock underwater. There's some good jazzy keyboard, but this track is lacking Makoto's fantastic lead guitar (which always elevates their rockier & noisier tracks).
The sixth track - 'Goodbye Ice Cream' (14.27) meanders about for the first few minutes, with acoustic guitar, synth & abstract female vocals. This section sounds a bit like the intro to Hawkwind's 'Space Is Deep'.
It then goes into a minimal rhythmic track, topped with a rather good slide guitar motif (& the usual AMT synth squidges). For the first time on the album. there's some (very quiet) male vocals. Though this is quite pleasant listening (& is my favourite track on this album), like many of the other tracks, it doesn't change, grow, or develop, and after a while it outstays it's welcome.
The final track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 2' (6.09) is more or less the first track again (chugging echoed acoustic guitar & a one note drone) & sounds like the band just needed a 'filler' track to make this up to the required length.
In the light of everything I've just typed (in the track by track descriptions) I'm very tempted to revise my previous assessment that this "isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album". I've certainly made it sound 'bad'. It's just that it isn't consistently bad from start to finish. There are some segments of this album that are okay, but even these segments are nothing special, and there's numerous AMT albums on which you can find much better versions of these kind of tracks.
If the music had lived up to the fantastic cover, this would have been one of the best AMT albums ever. However, it's just a shame that such wonderful cover art was wasted on such a mediocre & uninspired sounding album.
However, on a recent trip to Birmingham to check out the music shops there, I came across this c.d in Swordfish Records - a great little shop that also runs a label (this release appears to be a collaboration between the Swordfish label & the Riot Season label). It's a very early AMT album, first released in 1999 on AMT's own label, & this re-release is from 2006.
I bought this on sight. After all, it's so rare to find an AMT album in a shop, and who can resist that cover art ? It's one of their best ever album designs.
The concept behind this album is that it's a 'soundtrack' for an imaginary film. A good concept, but I found this album to be a disappointment.
Taking it at face value, as alleged 'soundtrack' music, this is more like abstract incidental music (that might accompany a strange dream sequence or druggy segment) as opposed to the kind of soundtrack music where tracks can stand up in their own right, even when divorced from the visuals (for instance the soundtrack to 'The Wicker Man' or the great soundtracks Goblin made for Dario Argento's films).
There are some films you watch where you want to go straight out & buy the soundtrack album, and others where the music just isn't strong enough to make an impression on you (as a purely audio experience), and if this film actually existed the 'soundtrack' would definitely fall into the second category.
Like many AMT albums, it sounds like they could have knocked this whole thing out (including the mixing & production) in an afternoon. While I have no objections per se to this 'one-take improvised' approach (& have even been in a band that recorded that way) it's not always going to result in good music, and I think that's the problem here. This just doesn't sound like it was an inspired recording session (with good ideas for tracks) & I think it just should have been shelved & not released, especially considering that AMT don't spend much time or money on recording (almost everything they release is a home recording). They could have easily put this session in the can (at no loss) & recorded a better album the next day.
That is of course only my opinion, and as with every AMT c.d, there are some people who really like this. Almost every AMT c.d on Amazon gets four or five star reviews (& is often described as 'essential'). As a fan, I try to be ruthlessly critical & objective. Any band who put out as much as AMT just can't be consistently making c.ds that are worthy of four or five stars. Their 'success' rate is surprisingly high though. Out of the forty or so albums I've heard by them, there are a lot of great ones. However, there are quite a lot that are really three star ('average' albums) & so far I've only heard one ('in Search Of Lost Divine Arc') that falls below that three star threshold & enters the realm of being a 'bad' album.
This isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album. However, there are a couple of bad tracks, & overall it's all just mediocre & doesn't ever amount to anything.
The first track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 1' (6.55) has a horrible one note drone (sounding like a cheap casio keyboard) backed by some acoustic guitar clanging through echo, and that's all this track consists of. It had me running to turn the volume down, as that horrible drone made me think the upstairs neighbours were going to run down & knock on my door, assuming that perhaps my fire alarm had gone off. This is the laziest track I've ever heard by AMT.
The second track - 'Space Bambino' starts promisingly - some lovely acoustic guitar (reminiscent of early Pink Floyd) & nice abstract echoing female vocals. After a few minutes though, I found myself getting bored by it. It doesn't change, develop or 'become' anything. Again, it's that failure of the 'one-take improvised approach. There's the potential of a good track here had it been worked on & developed more.
After about three minutes, it cuts jarringly into a noisier piece (which sounds like an entirely different track just pasted on) - a funky drum pattern, tightly played distorted rhythm guitar, and a crunchy synth sound (that made me think of a locust eating it's dinner). All the layers sound like loops, and overall this sounds like a 'techno' track. To my ears, this was headache inducing.
The third track - 'Sweet Juicy Lucy' (7.06) has a minimal drum rhythm & chiming guitar, both of which are reminiscent of Can, & some spoken female vocals which sound like they might be in French. Later in the track, there's a layer of treated abstract high-pitched female vocals.
This is potentially a good track, but as with some AMT tracks, there's one layer in it that's just clutter, & you just wish had been taken out in the final mix. In this case, it's a horrid keyboard sound (like the 'organ' setting on the cheapest casio keyboard) droning away repeating three or four notes without any panache or style. It sounds like someone who's never played keyboard before, but has found a few notes that are in tune with the guitar, and is just randomly alternating between them. Ouch ! That keyboard ruins this track.
The fourth track - 'Mammary Intercourse' (6.28) was described by one Amazon reviewer as being 'like a Hawkwind album being played backwards', & that's the perfect description (if you wanted to be more precise, I would say - one of the rockier tracks from 'Space Ritual' being played backwards). This is like a lot of AMT's 'noise freakout' tracks, except that it's lacking Makoto's wonderful wild lead guitar, & instead is mostly crunchy synth noises.
The fifth track - 'Hare Hare Hallelujah' (18.23) just meanders about for the first half, with everything going through a lot of effects. There's some tabla & abstract female vocals (accompanied by faint guitar & synth squidge) which sound good, but don't really 'go' anywhere. Once again I feel that, with a bit more work, this track could have been developed into something better.
About half way through, a drum rhythm comes in, & then the track goes into spacerock territory. However, it's a lot more muted & milder than AMT's usual spacerock tracks, and it sounds like listening to spacerock underwater. There's some good jazzy keyboard, but this track is lacking Makoto's fantastic lead guitar (which always elevates their rockier & noisier tracks).
The sixth track - 'Goodbye Ice Cream' (14.27) meanders about for the first few minutes, with acoustic guitar, synth & abstract female vocals. This section sounds a bit like the intro to Hawkwind's 'Space Is Deep'.
It then goes into a minimal rhythmic track, topped with a rather good slide guitar motif (& the usual AMT synth squidges). For the first time on the album. there's some (very quiet) male vocals. Though this is quite pleasant listening (& is my favourite track on this album), like many of the other tracks, it doesn't change, grow, or develop, and after a while it outstays it's welcome.
The final track - 'Reverse Of The Universe 2' (6.09) is more or less the first track again (chugging echoed acoustic guitar & a one note drone) & sounds like the band just needed a 'filler' track to make this up to the required length.
In the light of everything I've just typed (in the track by track descriptions) I'm very tempted to revise my previous assessment that this "isn't quite at the level of being a 'bad' album". I've certainly made it sound 'bad'. It's just that it isn't consistently bad from start to finish. There are some segments of this album that are okay, but even these segments are nothing special, and there's numerous AMT albums on which you can find much better versions of these kind of tracks.
If the music had lived up to the fantastic cover, this would have been one of the best AMT albums ever. However, it's just a shame that such wonderful cover art was wasted on such a mediocre & uninspired sounding album.
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