Arnold Mathes - "Cosmic Memory"
(self-released 2003, AM60)
Arnold Mathes - "Cosmic Memory"
(self-released 2003, AM60)
Uploaded to Aural Innovations: January 2004
Arnold Mathes is a sound creator who comes from Brooklyn, NY and his new self released nine track CD, Cosmic Memory, is packed full of spacey atmospheres. It mixes ambient Tangerine Dream styled sequencer pieces with more up beat dance like tempos, It is a journey through sound, a headphone experience that moves over its tracks hectic here, mellow there, with plenty room for indulgence.
The Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze style is in the forefront of tracks like "Dream Zone", "Twilight Dream" and "Damn Hot Laser". These tracks are all sequencer pieces and they build from obscure sounds to full on Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze journeys. Arnold has moulded these pieces with his own feel and imagination, the sounds that he uses reflecting in ways Tomita, and to a certain extent Vangelis could be mentioned. Arnold uses this genre in a way that Bionight do, bringing up to date a pioneering way of creating sound and rewriting it for now, using new equipment but always striving for that then sound, just as bands like The Orb and Orbital have done but in a dance orientated way.
"Amplitude", "Pythagoras", "Foreign Flick", and "Supercar" all have this definite dance orientation that I have just mentioned and have a feel like a poor man's versions of the aforementioned bands of that ilk. I feel that they tread old ground. The tracks are ok, but I do not like this brand of music, the shit beats on these tracks put me off, I much prefer the Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze style tracks. Throughout the CD, as far as sound quality goes, there is little to question it is good quality. On a production note, it sounds as though it is mixed through headphones because the levels seem all wrong instrument wise through a hi-fi system, but good through headphones. I also thought that it was too metallic sounding, rather than earthy, a problem with some modern synths I feel.
osmic Memory is on the whole a fresh approach to this field. In the world of home recording anything goes. It is a chance for bands and solo artists alike to air their work to ears that want to listen. It is also a learning process and I hope that Arnold will continue to produce stuff.
For more information, you can email Arnold Mathes at: amathes.1@netzero.net.
All CD's are $14 postage paid from Arnold Mathes, 2750 Homecrest Ave., #320, Brooklyn, NY 11235.
Reviewed by Albert Pollard