Customer Reviews

Electrosphere

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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This recording goes from the British Isles to
India to China with a touch of hardcore and noise.
The changes are sometimes sweet nd sometimes abrupt,
and played very skillfully by Barnes and many collaborators. The recording quality sounds analog
and homey but well produced. This albums is an instant
independent classic !

I cheated on the rating -- you'll either love this or put a spike through it. Over two discs and 39 fuzzed-out tracks, Henry Barnes and company swirl together Scottish, English and Indian folk themes, a little pop, a pinch of rock, and a bucket of atonal ambient noise. It's all played on tabla, Chinese piano, viola, guitars and various electronics (and what are those, bagpipes?). The disaster potential is great, but Electrosphere is free of the vanity and slapdashery that often mar soundscaping projects that know they're weird. From circular reveries like "Forward Pipes" to dirges like "King of Nothing," this is carefully written (if simply conceptualized) and neatly played (if scratchily produced). An aural sweat lodge.

If you like your music buzzing with energy, and I mean literally buzzing, you should at least give this music a listen. If Jimi Hendrix and Wendy Carlos of "Switched On Bach" and had a child who was then sent to the Steeleye Span School of Rock & Reel, that child would play music like what you hear on "Electrosphere". I wish I could tag this music; however, for me it's in a category all it's own. One of my favorites!