Jim Coleman

Trees

Why is it so hard to review ambient music like this without mentioning Blade runner? Every time I’ve read reviews, that film is brought up and I’m almost dreading what I’m about to hear. Lucky for us then, that Jim Coleman has (for the most part) gone against the grain and released an album worth repeated listens.

With this, his debut under his real name, the ex-Cop Shoot Cop man has provided the ground work with mostly organic sounds, so instantly we’re done away with the synthetic  ‘space’ bullshit and taken to a reverb & echo laden lesson in looping and sound collage. At its best, it’s stunningly beautiful and atmospheric. At its worst, it’s dull, generic and needlessly long.
Songs such as ‘Under Current’ are majestic in their simplicity. Trumpets give the song an uplifting feel to it, whilst the growling bass rattles through to your stomach. With the sound affecting you in this way you can’t help but feel invested in the music. ‘Tracks’ is another stunning song. Reverb laden key strikes provide the meat, whilst an acoustic guitar used sparingly adds real depth.

It’s a shame then, that Coleman reverts back to type and produces boring songs such as ‘in to another place’ which drags on far too long and doesn’t really have a point to it. This kind of stuff has become so typical of the ambient genre, it pisses me off.

A striking first effort let down by a few tracks being too stereotypical.

#Albums #Ambient #Jim Coleman #Wax & Wane #Wayne Chuter