If you like indie and/or electronic music you need to know about this website. Launched last week, Altered Zones is portal (or group of blogs) with reviews, releases, and everything about weird, strange and cutting edge music. The amount of information is staggering!
I’ve been listening to “Leylines” for two weeks now and I think I can express my opinions about the album. It’s absolutely AMAZING!!!
In fact, I think is the best Ultimae release since the last Asura album (“Life²”), and that’s saying a lot if you look at the label stream of great releases.
Some adjectives I can think about this album are: Incredibly deep, sharp, reflective and hypnotic. Amazing production skills!
Easily the best ambient album of 2009 and his best since “Season 5″. GO GET IT!
I came across “What a great place to be” 3 months ago on the web. Do you know when something catch your attention and you think: this is special! The cover, the title(s), the theme… At the minute I saw it I knew I was going to love it. And that´s what happened!
It´s a really special album, full of organic and deep emotions. It fully transport me to a childhood that I never had… Very special feeling.
Easily one of the best albums of 2009 (the best?).
… and a review by Joseph Sannicandro:
“Sumner McKane’s much anticipated new album is a tribute to his home state of Maine, each song encapsulating a different aspect or historical or personal anecdote. The narrative quality of What A Great Place to Be is clear, but of course he achieves this in an ambiguous way, by means of song titles and styles of playing. It is also obvious that it was a labor of love, from the subject matter, from the care of production. McKane, in the time between records, has also become a father twice over, and I can only imagine that this impacted his work as a musician. (His daughters’ can be heard buried in some of the tracks, according to this cute story). In January of 2007, I reviewed Sumner’s last studio album, Two if By Sea. At the time I knew it to be a magnificent record, but in the time since then the album has only served to become more and more dear to me. McKane is without question amongst the most talented songwriters, producers, and guitar players making ambient instrumental music right now.”
(Read the rest of the review here)