Ambient Allusions

Wire frontman Colin Newman recaptured punk rock aficionados’ attention earlier this year with the band’s second release in as many years. Now, he is joined by Minimal Compact frontwoman Malka Spigel–who also happens to be his wife–to produce the couple’s second offering of the calendar year.  However, this duo (formally known as Immersion) occupies a much different stylistic territory than that of Newman’s long-running, rock ‘n’ roll-minded outfit, favoring shimmering ambiance to gritty rock timbres.

Analogue Creatures Living On An Island builds upon the five-track EP released by Newman and Spigel earlier this year, adding four deliciously minimalist works to the project, which, in turn, leads to a much more cohesive and satisfying listening experience. Immersion maintain the electronic-inflected soundscapes that characterized their catalog from the ’90s–the last decade in which they released a full-length work. However, now we are treated to a much wider, richer blend of analog sounds. Analogue Creatures even marks Immersion’s first use of guitars, yielding some truly satisfying moments of sonic intrigue. The album opener, “Always the Sea,” boasts a medley of muted guitar chords that is somewhat evocative of Wire’s punk sound. Other tracks, such as “Fireflys” and “Living On An Island,” offer more subdued, twinkling guitar figures that are soaked in reverb and adeptly sent towards the back of the mix. Newman and Spigel ensure that guitars never become the focal point of the album, allowing them to become absorbed within the warm electronic textures that shape the duo’s twinkling atmospheres.

Immersion seem set on recapturing the sounds of an earlier generation of prolific ambient composers–e.g. Steve Reich, Brian Eno and La Monte Young. Their songs all maintain strong minimalist components, employing sprawling drones and hypnotic song structures. “Nanocluster” opens with a growling bass and an arpeggiated synth line that evokes Reich in its rhythmic rigidity, firmly entrenching the song’s dizzyingly repetitive harmonic structures. In “Organic Cities,” Guy Schneerson’s guest appearance on analog synthesizer helps to capture a distinctively retro sound, hearkening back to the highly electronic music of the ’80s, as its piercing synth tones conjure a dystopian-steampunk soundtrack, such as that heard in Blade Runner. Yet, perhaps the most blatant reference to classical minimalism appears on “Mechanical Creatures.” Running at over six and a half minutes long, it is afforded the time to develop harmonic layers at a much more comfortable pace, as compared to some of album’s shorter works. The song opens to a relatively vacant sonic environment, featuring a growling, two-note bass line that is accompanied by some delicate background electronica. However, as the song progresses, Immersion gradually introduce new subtle textures, evoking the harmonic stasis of more drone-based ambient acts, such as Fripp and Eno’s collaborations during the 1970s or, in more contemporary terms, Stars of the Lid.

Indeed, Anologue Creatures’ nine songs make little attempt to expand upon harmonic or melodic concepts, instead placing the emphasis on this intense and deliberate repetition. In true minimalist fashion, the duo frequently maintain the same chord progressions throughout the entirety of their compositions, with some songs only featuring a single chord. For example, the plodding bass and guitar figures of “Shapeshifters” perpetually repeat an A major chord to mesmeric effect. While these reiterative qualities obviously hinder the group’s ability to explore motivic material in great depth, they help to instill the album with a dizzying sense of anticipation, as the listener, eagerly waiting for resolution, becomes lost in Immersion’s mesmerizing loops of sound.

Analogue Creatures Living On An Island is a truly beautiful collection of atmospheric drone-work. That being said, it probably isn’t for everyone. Those who find the inertia of traditional minimalism tedious may want to look elsewhere to sate their ambient appetites. Furthermore, the abbreviated length of some of Analogue Creatures’ songs may irritate a few genre sticklers who feel as though they are merely listening to abbreviated derivatives of lengthier ’70s minimalist works. More patient, open-minded listeners will, however, be treated to a lush and diverse array of ambient textures, as Immersion’s delicate brand of electronica manifests a wide spectrum of emotions and sounds. All in all, while Analogue Creatures surely isn’t the most exciting or original of ambient projects, it manages to offer enough sonically to provide for a rich listening experience.