Ambient Extractions

Vol. 2 (C&S)
by Joshua Brown

A few big names are involved here, such as No Man featuring Robert Fripp and Mel Collins, and Divination with Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble. Blissed-out soundscapes are offered as well by 4AD artists His Name Is Alive, Single Cell Orchestra and C&S’s own Transambient Communications. While most of the music is sensory-deprivation tank material (slowed-down heartbeat and lazy, ghostlike hallucinations that change form lackadaisically), there are also acid jazz elements and a moment of clanking and banging deconstructionism in the beginning of Steve Jansen and Richard Barbeiri’s piece “In The Black of Desire.” Ambient Extractions: Volume 2 is mainly vocal-less (at least in the strict verse-chorus-verse sense) with the exception of Poppyseed who Goth it up in a nostalgic but not overly dated fashion. I sat through this whole compilation and pontificated on its worth so that you wouldn’t have to. Analyzation just gets in the way. Just make sure you have something else to focus on, i.e. homework, house-cleaning, or an afternoon nap, when you play this CD and you shouldn’t run into any difficulties.