| |
Review:
|
|
Ti-cal is an ambient project of Tarl Broad-Ashman,
who also records as Innerrise. I have adored the remixes that
Innerrise have done for Portal
and Yellow6, so i tracked
down a copy of this CD on a very cool little ambient label out
of the UK called Council of Nine. Anyway, from what i can piece
together off of the press pages, Mr. Broad-Ashman apparently
is the nephew of Simon Gallup, and that is where his fascination
with music began.
No, Simon Gallup is in The Cure. You know, Boys Don't Cry
etc. etc. I don't think he has anything to do with public opinion
polls. I would have thought that was clear from my "music" comment...
Anyway, i tracked this CD down because i have been so impressed
with Innerrise. This, however, is most distictly not
Innerrise. Oh sure, it's the same human being, but the focus
is entirely different. Innerrise makes very lovely smooth remixed
electronica. All soft sounds with charming, if low-key, beats.
Ti-Cal is more about tones and waves of sound, without the beats.
This is an album of shapeless, quiet music constructed out of
cascades of synth tones. It is formless, quiet, relaxing.
Whereas Innerrise makes music within the constraints of concepts
like "song" and "time frame", the music of Ti-cal transcends
that to create a long, wandering piece. Basically, this album
is one thing. You would put it on and listen to it all the way
through, rather than just picking out a track to hear. Different
concepts, really.
It is also, quite frankly, rather beautiful. Mr. Broad-Ashman
does a damned fine job of it. His music is really minimal. It
is quiet and calming because it is slowly flowing from point
A, the beginning, to point B, the end.
You know how people say that glass is really a liquid and that
it flows, slowly, so that in a hundred years the windows on
your home will be thicker at the bottom than at the top? That's
a good analogy here -- this music is on a very long time scale,
moving imperceptably along. Most music makes a journey in 4
or 5 minutes. Most other ambient music makes a journey in 9
or 10 minutes. This album makes one journey for it's entire
duration. The only other album that i can really compare it
to, in that sense, is Consciousness
by Windy and Carl. This is 50 minutes of a meditative journey
that will last ... forever.
I know that this will bore the bejeezus out of many people,
but if you like ambient music, if you enjoyed such artists as
Pub, Casino
vs. Japan, and Loscil
that i have reviewed here, then you should seek out Ti-cal.
It's like all of those artists, only moreso.
It is also, apparently, difficult to describe. |
|
