Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue Shades of Orion

Cosmic effects giving the album an appropriately spacey beginning accompany slow notes which end abruptly and echo into the distance. Some swirling / bubbling effects are then added low in the mix. At four minutes we get the slightest hint of melodic content though there are no lead lines as such. By five minutes we hear a restrained sequence / loop but this then develops and replaces all that went before it accompanied by even more cosmic effects. A very deep bass rhythm then starts up but it is quiet and restrained and eventually you hardly even realise it is there, serving only to increase the dynamic range of the piece. The sequence and rhythm chug along nicely and become rather hypnotic in the best fashion of modern ambient music. This really shows how it should be done. Fifteen minutes in we slowly step up a gear and the 'oh yes!' factor is increased still further- mighty but still keeping its feet on the ground. It all stays on the right side of accessibility without being over indulgent, yet it is still inventive and exciting. Next we drift into the title track which is even more cosmic than the opener with little discernible structure. Sounds build and swell then subside as if we are drifting past one mass of energy then travel through more tranquil areas of space until we arrive at a yet more powerful sectors of the cosmos.

We float into the superbly titled 'Did You Ever Retire a Human……' which uses a vocal sample speaking the title of the track then we move into more blatant dance territory, though still rather restrained this is the most upbeat track on the album . Initially it sounds a little cliched compared to the rest of the CD but it does develop nicely and by the half way mark I found my foot tapping to it and I was enjoying it much more than I thought I would given the first few minutes. 'Liquid Shade' couldn't be a bigger contrast to its predecessor beginning with minimalistic dark drones as if we are journeying through the deepest, sparsest regions of space. We start to get some detail at the three minute mark with occasional gently caressed notes floating above the ether. At eight minutes a looped sequence of notes gives the effect of a spinning object. As the loop gets gradually louder it is as if we we're getting closer. At fourteen minutes we get a lead line played low in the mix which grabs the attention just when the mind might have started to wander.