Various Artists
Inkeys 19

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(Excerpt from track(s) 'Kevin Kendle / Lagoon Nebula')

CDR / 14 tracks / 79.06 mins

Inkeys is basically a magazine on CD. It covers quite a range of Electronic Music so as a sampler where you can maybe discover new artists it is ideal - especially as it is free if you buy at least two full priced CDs from SMD (you just have to select it from the shop!).

After an introduction from Kath G and Michelle McLaren we get straight into a dance tinged gentle chugger by Gel-Sol called 'Assemblage Point'. And all very pleasant it is too. Next up is an extract from the superb album 'Pure' by Ian Boddy and Marcus Reuter. It is the most gorgeous album of ethereal floating soundscapes with just a little gentle rhythm and well placed loops. Simply wonderful. Following this we get 'Rasal Asad', certainly someone I hadn't heard before. Not to my taste but maybe more to yours? Get this CD and make up your own mind. UK Electronic Music veteran Ron Berry is represented by 'Strange New Worlds'. It's a gently rhythmic number with excellent atmospheric interludes which give the more upbeat sections even greater bite. Another new name to me is the rather spaced out music of Alisa Coral - OK if you like loads of drift and float with a slightly experimental edge but much more to my taste is the wonderful Free System Project, represented here by 'In The Ocean of Tethys'- and you don't get better sequencer driven Berlin School than this!

Relatively new kid on the block is Andy C with his 'The Glimmer Room' project. Here we have a track taken from one of my favourite albums of 2004 'Grey Mirrors'. It is hard to judge just how good this album is from the few minutes displayed here but it will give you some idea as to what all the fuss is about. Believe me though if you even remotely like this sample you really must have the full album, as it needs to be heard in its entirety to be fully appreciated. Kevin Kendle's music tends to be very pleasant and drifting though bordering a little too closely on the New Age for my own tastes. Having said that I did quite enjoy his track here so maybe his album 'Deep Skies 2' from which it is taken is worth searching out.

Yet another new name to me was Apologist. Apparently one of his influences is the great Sigur Ros and I can hear some of that though placed into a much more standard rhythmic modern ambient setting. One of the projects Paul Nagle records under (with Tim Rafferty) is Headshock. Unfortunately I don't think the track picked here really gives a good impression of what they are about. The next track by Box Reaction can best be described as experimental so I'm not really qualified to comment on it. Now onto something completely different. If you wondered what John Dyson has been up to lately you can listen to an interview by him here as well as get to hear a previously unavailable Wavestar track! You also get a track from the next Manuel Gottsching album 'Concert for Murnau'. Quite surprising it is too! If you buy two full priced albums from SMD please remember to ask for Inkeys 19 - whilst stocks last! (DL)

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