According to the album’s official blurb, this disc was “based on [Tim’s] research and experience in using sound for induction of meditative states[.] I set out to apply trance-inducing sonic effects to drone-ambient music.” From what I hear, it paid off. Hence, the three-and-a-half rating:  Pulsations is a fine disc to get lost in from time to time, and it sits comfortably next to the above-mentioned Twin records without sounding like a soulless clone of same.

In fact, there’s a fair dollop of soul on this disc—it’s just understated. Track titles like “Temple”, “Seaside” and “Summer Insects” create that much more an evocation of long, lazy days in some sun-enveloped countryside. Each track has its own rhythm apart from what little percussion exists, instead using just the ebb and flow of the different sounds introduced to move things along. There is the faintest hint of a drum track here and there—the opening cut “Majestic”, the tracks “Kansai” and “Vaporous”—but it’s kept far enough back in the mix to be complementary to everything else we hear.

My favorite piece is “Temple”, the thirteen-minute closer, all infinite-reverb organ notes and chimes—a track which brings to mind another band to use as a point of comparison: Godflesh main man Justin Broadrick’s electronic-ambient outfit Final. Ethernet’s more serene and contented than Final was even at its most placid, but don’t mistake any of that for “boring”. It’s Deep Listening in the better senses of the word.