EARLabs album review::: :: : "lapgazer"! 9/10

RATED: 9 / 10 reviewed by Sietse van Erve
1/24/2010
Old Slowdive drummer shows his modern day variation on the 90's shoegazer music. Eerie ambient with a mystic doomy mood and a classical twist

facts
LABEL
[ Miasmah ]

RELEASE
[ Navigare ] [ CD ]


How your history can keep on haunting you, even when it is one to look back at with pride. That must be something that has been going through the head of Simon Scott, former drummer of the band Slowdive, quite a lot lately. About every review, interview or what ever your read about him and his first solo release Navigare it gets mentioned (and now I am doing it also, even if it was only to prove my point). Besides it being an obvious starting point it is not even this strange a reference considering the music.

While Scott has moved on in to new territories by playing guitar and programming electronics (he is a fond user of max/msp from what I have read) he still has his feet in the tradition of eerie soundscapes. Though, it wold be to easy to classify the music just as eerie. With influences from (modern) classical music as well as modern electronic music he creates his own world of sound.
Each composition contains several layers from deep in the background to up-front sounds. Scott plays with these layers to create diverse dreamy pieces that drag you in sometimes soothing moments and other times haunting. The mysterious mood in this work reminds a bit of the films by David Lynch. Like dense layers of fog in the woods.
While some important ingredients are noise and hiss, Scott never loses the eye for harmony and melody. Combined with his drums we hear in some pieces we are reminded of his legacy. This doesn't mean the music sounds as if it was written in the early nineties, no rather you could call it a logical evolution. The term lapgazer fits in very well with the music.

Navigare is a good album which shows a logical progression from the early nineties shoegazer to modern day classical ambient. With ingredients from both eras a delicate sound is created which makes long for more. A logical choice to release this on Norwegian label Miasmah and a promising release for future work.