Objekt4: Space Jungle Slums
Ajana
Much of Objekt4's (real name Anders Peterson) Space Jungle Slums is strikingly odd, and not just its title. The recording's split into two four-song suites—Nexus Sector A/D and Jungle Vibes—and the music itself locates itself within a midway zone betwixt ambient and industrial, a zone that's neither overly becalmed or excessively disturbed. The album's ghostly ambient sections unfurl in a hazy orchestral style that calls to mind Tangerine Dream circa Phaedra while the industrial sections emphasize tribal percussive patterns and textures.
Nexus Sector A/D's “Introsectory” and “Time to die” both feature passages of sweeping ambient haze interspersed with softly clanking industrial rhythms and gaseous machine expulsions. “Nexus Sector” adds a more pronounced textural dimension of crackle and static to the gossamer symphonic tones while the episodic “Hype no C#” simulates the abrupt transformations that occur within a nightmare. In Jungle Vibes, percussive patterns alternately thrum, churn, rattle, and clatter over droning chords but do so fleetingly, as if someone is flickering from one section to the next like a channel-surfer impatiently clicking from one program to another. During the ambient moments, the music's skeletal character establishes a mood of gloom and desolation that's more calming than depressing. Also unusual is the album's unusually svelte thirty-six-minute running time, an album characteristic that's far from displeasing, much like the project in general.December 2007