Hastronaut - "Bottle Universe" (Flightlog Restricted Recordings 2006, FRR2)
From Aural Innovations #35 (January 2007)
UK's Hashtronaut returns for another excursion into deep space electronics and Berlin school sequencing with his latest, Bottle Universe. With only two tracks, both clocking in at over 35-minutes in length, you know you're in for a trip as soon as you put the CD on. And Hashtronaut does not disappoint.
The title track opens with over 7-minutes of drifting atmospheres, taking you on a slow ride out to the edges of the solar system before launching into hyperspace with a powerful, oceanic sequence that pulses like sonic waves through your mind as electronic curlicues swirl and twitter about, playing in the galactic surf. Hashtronaut's leads are subtle but effective, dancing over the sequences and weaving through them like cosmic thread. Your mind keeps tugging on it, and it keeps pulling you onward…where? It's hard to say. Either further out...or perhaps deeper in, or maybe somehow it's some of both.
In the second track, Mind Bomb, shivering, pulsing liquid space textures eventually give way to a slow sequence of fat bass notes. Fluid electronics wash through the sequence, punctuated by a steadily more punchy percussion line as striking lead synths play a melody full of tension and release. It's irresistible space music through and through.
If you like the 70's music of Tangerine Dream (especially their lengthy live shows) or the solo work of Klaus Schulze, you'll love what you'll here inside this Bottle Universe.
For more information you can visit the Hashtronaut web site at: http://www.hashtronaut.net.
Email at: hashtronaut@hashtronaut.net.
Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald