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LISTEN + BUY @ AMAZON |
POINT LOMA - FORNEO (AZRA) |
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Point Loma - a founding member of Tijuana's Nortec Collective and the artist behind "Polaris", considered by some the "Blue Monday" of nortec music - has come to the world with a solo offering, "Forneo". This is a release that has left me strangely ambivalent. Yet it's not a good vs. bad, matter vs. anti-matter cancelling out. I don't feel neutral. I feel of two minds. Ambivalent. On the one hand, this is expressive atmosphere generated by strong ambient work and chilled, subtle beats with a noticeable dub influence. On the other hand, this is repetitive. Of course, repetition is almost unavoidable in the world of electronica and it's all a matter of how an artist handles it. With "Forneo" I find myself shifting between being caught up in the dense, semi-spacey atmospere of the work and being set adrift in a repetitious environment. This is good work and the ambience is well-done and absorbing. But there are times when you just can't help but feel you could get up and walk awa from the disc for five minutes, come back, and find things much as you left them. Of course, that's not really true - entirely. "Forneo" must be seen to some degree as one long progressive work and not just a collection of tracks - this all does go somewhere. It builds and changes. But it is a slow, deliberate build and you almost have to approach this not from the angle of traditional music (which it's not), nor from the angle of pure experimentalism (which it's not) but sort of askew to both. For those wishing to simply seep into a realm of pure ambience, Point Loma's solo debut could do the trick. -- review by Kristofer Upjohn
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