Customer Reviews

Salvaging the Past

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I ran into "Salvaging the Past" thanks to the program Echoes, in NPR, that mentioned his name and compared his work to Brian Eno's. While I feel the comparison may be a bit of a stretch, I am happy to have gotten this album, since it makes me feel like I am listening to what Vangelis would have evolved into, had he not gotten stuck doing epic scores.

There's some ethnic bits in this album and there's a certain Jean-Michel Jarre-like feel that always keeps it at a safe distance from turning into a formula-based New Age product, with a foot well into David Darling territory. Recommendable, by all means to all fans of the electronic genre (think Tangerine Dream, Jarre, Vangelis).

Dean's music comes at your brain like a sneak attack, with intelligence, feints, layers of shapeshifter sounds and coyote attitude that keeps you listening, wondering, "What is next?" Because you do not know, will not know, until after many listenings, the sinuous tracks may get gently worn into your gray matter. This music is a different kind of soundtrack, to Dean's inner movie, and perhaps you can try and make it fit yours too, but it never will completely, as this music is intensely personal, intensely Dean's own. I'm just glad that he makes the great effort to get it just right, and, when he is ready, shares it with the rest of us.

There is a lot of electronic music these days and it is apparent that either some of it fits (musically), or it doesn't. Dean's latest excursion into the realm of "ambient/sequencer" music takes this listener to the edge of infinity via "Salvaging the Past".
I have a host of releases by Surface 10 (Dean DeBenedictis) but this latest offering by one of L.A.'s most potent producers of modern electronica has a new edge to it not found in most of this type of instrumental meandering, rather, it breathes a new life and takes you on a journey to an expansive openess of vast landscapes, with gentle washes full of electronic color.. The listener will be exposed to Dean's studio prowess, recording technique, and synthetic textures by hearing this latest release, and by no means, skip through this, listen to it in it's entirety to get the full impact of creativity that went into it's development.
I highly recommend this recording for your library, but by no mean's compare this to such legendary composers Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze, it is of itself a fresh set of compositions that go beyond that retro "berlin-school" style of sequencing that everyone seems to base their final result as the only style of E-music ever conceived, it is fresh and it is revealing, like the composer intended.