Strange Attractors Audio House

Artist: Cul De Sac Label: Strange Attractors Category: Music Average customer rating: Format: CD-single Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 789856301126 EAN: 0789856301126 ASIN: B000084TT9 Release Date: 2003-02-18

Strange Attractors Audio House

Tracks:

1. Dust Of Butterflies
2. Bamboo Rockets, Half Lost In Nothingness, Searching For And Inch Of Sky
3. Turok, Son Of Stone
4. Bellevue Bridge
5. Death Of The Sun
6. I Remember Nothing More

Similar Items:

1. Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall
2. Immortality Lessons
3. China Gate

Customer Reviews:

late night listening.......2003-06-15

it has the same slow treacle-like pace as stars of the lid, but like the stars, they make wallowing in it is one of the finest points of the album. take for instance the first track; the new addition of turntables pays off for the band as a phillip jeck-like sample lazily loops over and over, creating a rich backdrop for the band to colour and detail with their own contributions.

as for those, theres something unassuming about the instrumentals they provide that bring the books great debut to mind. its certainly not as densely layered as some points of that album become, but what is there seems suited to the spirit theyre trying to communicate here. the sitar and the tribal drums may not have been their best creative move ever, tho. the record is sparse for the most part, but if anything, i'd prefer them to remove elements rather than add them.

so, all up, not a bad effort at all, and sure to please those who like their "space-rock" folky and with plenty of space to sprawl out.

Junkmedia Review - Refreshing.......2003-02-21

Though many consider the four-year span between 1999's Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall and Death of the Sun a hiatus, the extensive CD liner notes by various members of the band tells a different story. The stories speak of a collective with shifting membership struggling to figure out just what they wanted to accomplish with their project, leading to some three years of composing, constructing, tearing down and rebuilding the music with the cold-clean world of digital processing and the organic sounds they've been known for in the past.

Though electronic music-making means were incorporated extensively, Death of the Sun slinks and bubbles like no electronic music could. "Dust of Butterflies," the opening track, presents a wonderfully lush groove, with warm voices from an old 78 record laying the foundation for sparse guitar work and a soothing drumbeat.

It seems, however, that once Cul de Sac has worked out an idea, it rarely looks back. Later tracks on the CD utilize tribal drum sounds ("Turok, Son of Stone") and muffled eastern-influenced guitars shrouded in an incidental cityscape ("Bellevue Bridge"). It's refreshing to hear a band move from idea to idea so completely instead of merely looking in different directions while holding rigidly to a known foundation. The pieces all seem composed from scratch, as if each one is an entirely separate project.

Certainly there are some missteps, such as the sitar-based track, "Bamboo Rockets, Half Lost in Nothingness, Searching for an Inch of Sky," which, along with its long-winded title, seems to be yearning too much for some kind of contrived "mysticism" that doesn't come through. The final track, "I Remember Nothing More," treads the line of over-sentimentality with its scratchy sample of an old singer coupled with overproduced, New Age guitar. But this is bound to happen when a group attempts as much as Cul de Sac does.

If it takes another four years for the next Cul de Sac record to come out, I'm sure it'll be worth the wait. While some music thrives on spontaneity and sudden energy, Cul de Sac has made an art of attention to detail.

Martin Pavlinic
February 20, 2003

Music Album:

1. Nothing Like the Sun ~ Sting
2. Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man ~ Guadalcanal Diary
3. Death Party ~ Gun Club
4. Past or Future ~ Nik Turner
5. Young & Still Young ~ Teddy Redell
6. The Girlie Years ~ Mighty Mighty
7. Eddie Cochran ~ Eddie Cochran
8. The Twilight Era ~ Sanford Arms
9. Sevens ~ GNAC
10. Idle Acres ~ The Belles

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Reunion with Chet Baker ~ Gerry Mulligan with Chet Baker

Fred Hall & His Sugar Babies ~ Fred Hall's Sugar Babies with Arthur Fields

The Most Exciting New Guitarist on the Jazz Scene ~ George Benson

The Best of Brass ~ Rolls Royce Coventry Band

Touch ~ Michael Dowdle

Sirius ~ Clannad

L' Homme Qui Murmure a l'Oreille des Femmes ~ Guy Marchand

Jongo Trio ~ Jongo Trio

Ano Natsu No Naka/Ai No Sanka ~ Sophia

Tales of the Drum ~ Various Artists