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 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

TER - Fingerprints [Cat Sun /Monotype Records - 2013]

T.E.R.'s "Fingerprints" is a back-to-basics album of electronic ambient/downtempo, similar in style and mood to the output of the Fax label in the early 90's, or to the ever popular Biosphere.  The songs are minimalist constructions of interlocking melodic loops, softly understated beats and circling murmurs of synth.  According to discogs, it's the group's first release.

It's a marvellous canvas for thought, more abstract perhaps than most Biosphere tends to be, and devoid of all human voices or samples.  The album was apparently creating using modular synthesizer, and it's certainly one for those obsessed with the sounds themselves, to be played repeatedly and slowly absorbed.  The Biosphere album "N-Plants", which abandoned his usual arctic atmospheres, was a similar flavor of micro techno.

The third movement is one of the best, with a thick, plodding 4/4 sub bass rumbling consistently beneath, and chime-like cascades of melody in the distance.  Despite being totally synthetic, there's a tribal primitivism to the repetitious pulses, and reverence to nature.  This track would make a great soundtrack to a run through the forest/jungle.  These sorts of sounds were commonly used for nature documentaries back in the day, and it's easy to see why.  There's a sense of having stumbled upon something mysterious.

In the reiterating square structures we see the ghosts of all of nature's circles: clouds passing endlessly overhead, the sun setting and rising, setting and rising.  If these sort of daydreams have ever filled your mind while listening to soundscapes or electronic textures, this album is for you.  Trance music, with its momentum charged constancy, has become my major focus in the last few years, and this album is a shining example of 'trance' by its original 70's Klaus Schulze derived definition, sparkling and seemingly endless arpeggi reflecting sun and moon light.  I look forward to any future work from T.E.R.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Josh Landry
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