The Dead Texan
The Dead Texan
When it succeeds, ambient music provides some of the most sonically interesting soundscapes anywhere. When it fails, it’s banal New Age hokum fraught with cheesy keyboards and visions of crystals and unicorns. The Dead Texan, the brainchild of Adam Wiltzie (of Stars of the Lid and Aix Em Klemm), escapes the ambient genre’s pitfalls entirely, in large part by mostly avoiding keyboards, instead turning to airily layered guitars. Like Brian Eno’s 1979 masterpiece of the genre, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, the Dead Texan has produced a very subtle album, and one that is rewarding upon repeated listens. Fans of locals Tycho and Park Avenue Music will like this.
More Music » In the Mix - Music
The Ulster Orchestra, Thierry Fischer
Francophile alert: 20th-century composer Jean Françaix, whose artful, polished music hearkens back to an earlier, more classical time.
Published on 09.16.04
Percy Howard’s Meridiem
The second album by local singer-composer Percy Howard’s Meridiem, A Pleasant Fiction, sounds closer to 1980s downtown Manhattan than present-day Sacramento. And that’s a good thing.
Published on 09.16.04
Max Richter
Max Richter’s The Blue Notebooks is a beautiful, stirring and rather episodic work of quasi-classical compositions.
Published on 09.09.04
Various artists
The third Shanti Project compilation flows beautifully, providing the ideal soundtrack for dreaming.
Published on 09.09.04
