Terry's Reviews
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Music Reviews: |
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Dean De Benedictis Salvaging the Past Spotted Peccary 2005 |
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| This record label has
never released a CD that I didnt like. Spotted Peccary could be the most consistent
record company out there, at least for me anyway. Dean De Benedictis has put together an album that fuses qualities from the older days of ambience (Tangerine Dream) to the most modern ambient soundscape. He uses a variety of instrumentation to express his inner musical creativity. "The Tech Atonement of Bilagana" teeter tooters between flutes leading the way to dramatic piano and deep ambience. "Chasm Enchanted" is more melancholy and reflective. De Benedictis uses a swooshing electronic sound to sweep us under dark gray skies. Drums strike like thunder in "Occur." De Benedictis surrounds the drums with tapping percussion, swirling synth lines and sparkling melodic trimming. Heavenly voices open the doors to "Grid Holy 4." The electronic notes that echo throughout the track remind me of Charles Bernsteins score for APRIL FOOLS DAY. Though this tune is upbeat and certainly not scary. I felt at hypnotic peace while listening to "Where Is The Northern Sorrow?" De Benedictis creates raindrops of electronic ambience in "Sweltering Gazes of Sonora." Notes drop down from above splashing onto the composition. There is an emotional stillness, an emptiness captured in "Then Bled A Tear." "Death for Music" drips liquid notes on top of dreamy melodic foundation. The whip crack like percussion that hits every twenty seconds or so is nice. I truly believe that this track represents what it must sound like inside the head of Dean De Benedictis. "Memories Echo Far Ablaze in The Valleys" is constructed with a large wall of ambient sound that stands up around the emotional center of the arrangement. The longest track on the album "Same Drone, Different Story" wraps up the CD. It runs over sixteen minutes long and features the feel of the atmosphere of a faraway land. Flutes return to blend with the exotic percussion. Acoustic guitar breathes life into the audio space, taking the track to a state of elation. |
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