Compulsion

Plat | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 11, 2005)
• Original Release Date: January 11, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Unschooled Records
• ASIN: B00078X1QA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,235 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Joshua Glazer, AllMusic Guide

...it's pure ambient bliss-out that would make Pete Namlook blush

Product Description

Ten lush, melodious tracks make up Compulsion, their debut release on Unschooled Records. Coumpulsion combines abstract electronic structures and beautiful melodies with live drums and guitar. Although they claim not to be inspired by nature most listeners will find themselves ensconced in fields of subtile sonic hues with new vistas on eachhorizon...compelled to listen again and again...

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic Ambience, June 14, 2010

By 

Daniel Boon - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Compulsion (MP3 Download)

First of all, if you found your way here, congratulations! I have made quite a few efforts to make it known that there are apparently two editions of this album with completely different track listings - this being the one that I initially heard, fortunately, as it is also much more elusive. I suspect that without knowing enough to look for it, I would not have had the wherewithal to ever find it. The first clue is that the cover art is upside down from one edition to the other. It is also obvious that this track listing reads more like an import to English-reading/speaking folk like myself. Anyway...just some info that I wish someone had provided me. I hope at least one person reads this, and even finds it useful.

As for the album itself, I immediately was enthusiastic about what I heard. Not to say that it's easily accessible and won't stand up to repeated plays, but rather, that it caught my attention in a rare way. After being only partly through one track, Flokt (Shiver), I could tell that I liked it. Perhaps more importantly, I could tell that I was probably going to like it even more as I became more fully immersed in all its barrage of aural cacophonies.
What stands out in my mind is the feeling of wonderment as I was continually surprised more frequently than I could even get over. The music just tumbles all over itself in clusters, constantly evolving without stopping to notice. Before hearing this, I don't think I'd ever heard quite this much variety of sounds in such concentration. The stuff is all over the place. At the same time though, the relationships created therein do have a sense of effectiveness. So it's not at all just for the sake of making the zaniest sound effects. Actually, it almost is akin to how instruments establish a rapport in orchestral pieces, passing music around, back and forth, finishing/answering each other, etc. perhaps more abstractly, though. In a more subjective regard, it makes me think of the instrumental bridge in "The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch" and how extreme it is in its occupancy of the individual space that the song exists in. That came as such a shock, it really warranted some suspension of disbelief. I could hardly place it relative to the rest. In that sense, Compulsion also reminds me of the myriad sounds that Beck sometimes employs; or perhaps even that of Self on Gismodgery.
Some unlikely comparisons, maybe. Still, these are connections I have made.

P.S. I have yet to hear the other edition. I'm curious about how they compare, too.