Articles
2011 Artists' Picks
Spotlight 5
Albums
1982
Marvin Ayres
Big Quarters
Birds Of Passage
Brunborg / Huke
bvdub
Charlatan
City of Satellites
Cokiyu
CYNE
Dakota Suite / Sirjacq
Tomoyoshi Date
Dday One
Vladislav Delay
Ensemble Economique
Esperanza
Frost & Bjarnason
Integral
Lullatone
Mario & Vidis
Dean McPhee
Mint Julep
Muhr
James Murray
Muta
Nicholas: Nu Groove
pacificUV
Papir
Andrew Pekler
Pimmon
Simon Scott
Quentin Sirjacq
Stormloop
Swod
szilárd
Tapage
Carl Taylor
Willamette
Boo Williams
Reissue
Pink Floyd
Compilations / Mixes
Marcel Dettmann
Fabriksampler V4
Inertia: Resisting Routine
Tech My House 5
Visionquest
EPs
0311
A Sun-Amissa
Jacksonville
Arev Konn
Neon Cloud
Phasen
Photonz
Rivers Home
Charlatan:
Equinox
Aguirre
What a beautiful set of blissed-out synthesizer music this is from Digitalis label head Brad Rose under the Charlatan name. This aptly titled Equinox recording, the second vinyl release under his new solo project moniker (following the release of Triangles on Digitalis), spreads seven sunblinded and starry-eyed settings across two twelve-inch sides.
“Titans” opens the album with nine declamatory minutes of widescreen radiance where long synthetic trails blaze and soar in transcendant formation, until the track flames out in a massive climax. Following that grandiose opener, “Pyramids” and “Tetrahedron” bring the intensity level down for their reflective, dream-like presentations. On side two, “Delta” and “Minus Ten” evoke realms of wonderment and serenity in their becalmed blends of reverberant chords and shimmer. At times, the keyboard tones exude the bright clarion tone of a calliope, such as during “Seed & Light,” and a hint of psychedelia sneaks into the closing piece, “From Dust,” when dazed vocalizing forms part of the entranced, hiss-laden sound mix.
Though the material is wholly keyboard-based, it's compositionally rich enough to render that detail moot, and one finds oneself repeatedly being swept up by the ravishing synthetic textures, as if one is warming one's ears before their radiant glow. A sense of uplift and exultation permeates the album's material, and one comes away from it refreshed and rejuvenated.
January 2012