This is Cardamar’s latest full length album. I must say to start off that it is not simply more of what was seen in Steam. To give a perspective for the rest of the review, I liked Steam in so much as I thought it was good. Not great, but it was good. The sounds seemed a bit rough at times and it wasn’t as smooth as I tend to like my chillout, but overall it was good. I will also be making references to the style of Steam later, so I would suggest at least previewing the album.
The album starts off with a 2 track intro (of sorts). It is a very ambient introduction that seems to bring you to a dark and somewhat problematic location. It is another album that seems to want to take the listener on a trip, but this is a very different trip than what was seen in In Medias Res. In the second track, Distant Scenery, you get a bit of curiosity brimming in an otherwise desolate environment. The music become more interesting and much more chill than ambient. The same feeling gets much more intense as we enter Start, my personal favorite track of the album (though song 5, Stuck In a Loop, is very close). This takes in a lot move bass than a lot of chillout, but in a very cool way. I honestly was taken off guard by how cool this track really sounded to me. The two tracks really blended together well to give me a strong feeling. It seemed to calm down for a moment only to come rushing back again at full force. The track does conclude nicely before it seems that we move into Root Escape, the next track. Up to this point, you wouldn’t really know that Steam and Where The Skys End were done by the same artist easily. It is a very different starting feel. I really like this part.
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As mentioned in my post earlier today, I just got my new media player, a Cowon D2. Let me clarify farther: I got this device yesterday. As such, some of my opinions might change with more use.
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Somehow I am having a very bad time with electronics. A lot of them around me aren’t cooperating resulting in something breaking. As I try to stay on top of this, other things have been pushed back. I apologize again. I’m not going to give a target date so I don’t have to worry about writing delayed messages. Review of Cardamar’s cd should come in the near future though.
Also, Freefalling into Freedom (on chilloutmixes.com) is a great mix. The use of kettle was somewhat surprising but very well done. Check it out.
Ok, so my ajax-foo is no where near where I wanted it to be (though a small error, it was still annoying…). This resulted in the update to chilloutmixes.com taking until earlier today. It is now done and you can subscribe to the list from the main page (the list I will be sending announcements whenever a new mix is available or site related news). I will not be emailing the updates by hand anymore, so anyone who is currently getting updates will no longer receive them unless you subscribe to that list.
The tutorials are coming later still. I hope to finish them … um.. maybe by tuesday. So just hang in there! I made the reward better in compensation for the delay and will make it easier to get even without doing the optional third demo. Sorry for the delay.
Also, there is a new mix from Cardamar available. Honestly, i haven’t even listened to the full thing yet, so head over to chilloutmixes.com and check it out.
Ok, so I’ve had a lot of other things to play with (Including a Sidekick 3 and a PS3) which has this tendency to take away my time. I’m also working on getting chilloutmixes.com set up better for announcing new mixes. All of this is taking up my time. The curl demos are done being created, but I haven’t had the time to set up the tutorial to solve them. Um… I’m getting to it. Sorry.
Also, I just got Cardamar’s latest CD. I need to write a review on that as well. There was a new mix released by Marco Torrance in the past couple weeks also, so be sure to check out chillout mixes if you haven’t recently.
That’s all i can say for now.
I love streaming radio (along with many types of music). As such, I am a strong supporter of the Save Internet Radio movement. I encourage you to also take the time and talk to your senators/representatives if you are in the US or spread the word and try to help in other ways if you are not (there are ways posted on this blog post. The internet radio world thanks you for your support.
I feel bad. I haven’t been able to get any new cds recently to review and really haven’t had the time to do much work on my dev project. All I can ask is you bear with me for a couple more weeks. Cardamar is taking preorders for his next cd, Where the Skies End, up until April 30. On the release page (linked in the last sentence), you can hear a 6 track preview to whet your appitite.
In other music related news, iTunes is going to start distributing its music without DRM. This will only be for EMI stuff, but that’s definitely awesome. Per track it’s USD 0.30 more, but the same for full albums1. Also, Beat Port now sells wav’s (uncompressed pure quality) versions of music (for a premium) also. Very cool advancement. In both cases, the original versions are also available.
I need to get more time and music… working on both. Til later
Ok so i haven’t posted in almost 20 days. That’s not exactly what I would call being attentive of my blog. Um… sorry? This isn’t exactly a fix. I haven’t gottent any new chillout and my other activities I want to keep hidden for now. Yes, I have been doing something that I will eventually post here. If you’re really curious, my development site is located at dev.quad341.com and does have information about what is going on. Hopefully by mid-April I will have a working example of this project and announce it to the world. I welcome actual inquery and the repository allows for anonymous checkouts. In the mean time, I need more music. Suggestions?
Before I go into the music itself, I want to get a little annoying technicality out of the way. Michael Diamond makes new age music which is not chillout. Well, not exactly chillout at least. To be honest, new age seems to be the American equivalent to European chillout. It tends to be less electronic also, but otherwise very close.
Atlantis Rising is a new age cd that follows the idea of new age is similar to chillout. This actually could be related to ambient at times as well. It does have quite a few synths in the music, but it is all flowing. At times it even seems to give off an organic feel. Throughout the CD though, it is very rich sounding. I wouldn’t call it as rich as someone such as S. Zeilenga, but it has good depth on every track. There is variety also. Not everything is very ambient nor is it all organic. Little bits of both will appear in every track though. Each leaves a distinct feeling in its wake, but all are very well done. One of the main downsides to the CD is its length. It lasts a mere 52 minutes and leaves you desiring more. I can’t say that the ends of the CD are poorly done though. The lead in and lead out tracks are particularly good at their jobs. It really can get you in the mood for what the rest of the CD is about to present. The end track, “The Hero’s Journey,” is a stronger and less delicate track that the introduction, but there is an organic element that ties the tracks together regardless. I would say the cd is pretty good overall. Most chillout lovers would be pleased.
If you listened to “View from the Rainbow” from Cardamar, you heard 3 Clint Mansell songs from this album. That’s what inspired me to purchase it. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a whole lot more on the cd.
The best tracks by far are the ones named something about ghosts. Yes, there are actually 4 tracks with that name. There are slight variations, but all of the tracks are about the same. There are other good ones too. Summer Overture, for example, is a good track that isn’t named ghost anything. Any of the songs relating to emotions tend to be rather interesting in various ways, but there are other tracks that just seem out of place with genres such as House or Jazz cropping up. I didn’t particularly enjoy those tracks, but I was more disappointed by the lack of variety on the disc. I realize that in a movie certain songs might keep cropping up, but I don’t think the soundtrack needs to be set up in the same way. The few other songs are not good enough to correct for what I see as a major shortcoming. To be brief, I would call this cd OK. If you like chillout, etc., you might want to pick up the disc used or just get the ghost tracks off of iTunes or something of the like.