| Artist: Moodswings Album: Horizontal Label: Water Music |  |
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On the first two albums, "Moodfood" and "Psychedelicatessen", Moodswings (aka James Hood) helped to raise the mainstream's awareness of electronic music. The combination of infectious, intelligent dance rhythms, synthesized harmonies and heart-felt vocals and samples exposed pop's pedestrian audience to the sound and substance of our continually emerging genre of electronic - ambient - space music. On Horizontal, Moodswings embraces these values fully by foregoing conventional song structure and predictable commercial references; the focus is now on repetition and variation, a benevolent guiding soundesign and the gentle dynamics each realization arcs along once set into motion. What Moodswings does bring to this album from his more "accessible" releases is a wonderful sense of melody, harmony and rhythm along with the pacing and timing of a veteran chillout composer and the loose symphonic cues of a seasoned arranger. Primarily electronic in nature, Horizontal's sonic palette is further softened by soulful, reverberant viola solos, sliding pedal steel guitar steps, bright hammered dulcimer arpeggios, classical renderings on grand piano and the distant singing notes of the sarangi.
Throughout its 12 tracks (across two discs - disc#2 of Horizontal presents focused, energetic, even vocalized re-mixes and references from the pleasantly drifting source material of disc#1), the purpose of this music is to provide a comfortable space within which receptive listeners may luxuriate in the texture of their own imaginations. This album will satisfy those seeking substance in a marketplace where music is quantified into product and vision related in terms of marketing synergy. As the title implies, "horizontal" is the suggested posture (mental or otherwise) for experiencing the vastness of the swirling electronics, reverberant melodies and peaceful message Moodswings' music advocates. - Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 12 December 2002 | |
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