Customer Reviews

Slider

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Slider" by Bruce Kaphan is one of the most amazing records I've ever heard. The first two reviewers captured the essence of this CD nicely. I would add that the music has an emotional quality absent in much of today's music, ambient or otherwise, which is due in part to the artist's mastery of the pedal steel guitar and numerous other instruments.

The fluid, echoing drones created by Bruce's pedal steel go right to the heart, particularly on tracks like "Big Brain Small Brain", "Arc Of Flight", "Undeserved Ending" and "Shinn Pond". He also uses the pedal steel to a quasi-harp-like effect on "Clouds", the album opener and one of my favourite tracks. "Outpost", which clocks in at over 8 minutes, creates an atmosphere of vastness and desolation, without leaving the listener feeling "cold". For me, the artist has created a work that evokes a response bordering on the "spiritual", a perfect soundtrack for relaxation or reflection.

Truly a sublime aural journey.

The more ambient tracks on this album seem to work for me. The first couple tracks seem to meander. If you like this stuff, search out some of Ry Cooder's soundtrack work, specifically the Johnny Handsome ST. As well some of the work of Michael Brook.

While the category of ambient music nearly always involves electronics, Bruce Kaphan has created a new kind of ambient with his steel guitar. The album's subtitle is "Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel Guitar," and that says it all. The steel guitar is used to make nearly all the music on the CD, but not in a style typically associated with that instrument. A track such as "Outpost" is as spacious (and space-y) as anything by Eno or Serrie. The effect of listening to the piece is like quietly floating high above a calm but endless sea; utter serenity. The CD is not just a homogenous block of spacey atmospheres, however. Kaphan mixes it up with oriental or near eastern textures on some cuts, and also begins "Back to the Light" with a techno-ish swirl of grungy, chopped-up backwards guitar loops. "Slider" is a highly intriguing disc that I will undoubtedly return to many times in the future.

if you have listened at all to AMC cuts over the years, you'll know what i mean about the spaces in the music. the wonderful thing with this CD is that you get innumerable spaces, the break in the song, with a sense of gentle repetition. I can't listen to this without thinking of american music club songs, though at the same time it stands and sounds something like its own. It works. It needs to be purchased, and listened to. Works perfectly in the fore or background.

This is not your father's ambient music. No whooshing sounds of astral wheels colliding. Instead this is a masterful soundscape of steel guitar that is plainly easy to listen to over and over like a great jazz record. In four years we have not once tired of it.

We were looking to give this album as a gift and were surpised to learn it was out of print. This is one record that deserves to stay in print. So come on Hearts of Space. Release this jem once again.

This is not your ususal release from Hearts of Space. The artist uses slide guitar to create an ambient atmosphere which matches the "blue" of the CD cover. Remember Steve Roach's CD, "Dust to Dust"? Well, this music by Bruce Kaphan has a similar sentiment without the natrual sounds added to the pieces (like rain and thunder). There are several cuts (number 2, in particular) which have added percussion from a rather insistant hand drum. In some cases the rhythm doesn't always seem to fit, although I must admit that the more I listen to the music, the better the instruments feel together. The last few tracks on the CD are very ambient, where the slide is used to create nearly synthesizer-like sounds much the way that Jeff Pearce does on his recordings. All in all, I enjoyed the CD, but with some reservations--especially the percussion. ... .