Expanse At Low Levels

"Expanse at Low Levels" is one of the few electronic compilations that truly delivers what the album title promises. Breaking it down, the tracks on this album do take the listener through an "expansive" audioscape. This is largely accomplished through an emphasis on repetition, distortion, and a diverse repertoire of sounds. There's a lot of variety on this album, both in style and content, but it nonetheless feels internally consistent. The "low levels" come through in the fact that most of the music is processed through low channels of the audio spectrum. The bass is low and, though not overused, persistent throughout most of the album. The places where there's a break in the bass patterns are all the more poignant for the absence of background noise. On the other side, there are a few tracks with lyrics, but they're always both subdued and submissive to much "louder" instrumentation. These two different threads blend together to weave a rich aural fabric. But if I had to suggest a few standout tracks, the first is—undoubtedly—Praveen's "Tour Around This House." Like much of this diverse author's work, the song defies classification and transcends its genre. The recorded message provides and emotional subtext of loss and nostalgia to a song which would sound very "cool" without it. The Reflecting Skin's "And She Disappeared Into the Snow" is the kind of track that takes you places. It builds up from a low repetetive bassline into a blend of sounds which—though never melodic—remain harmonious until they drop back out, leaving the listener with a very strong impression of travel. This album would have been better served by a different track from Tokyo Bloodworm, but "Still Passage" is nonetheless a good song. It's a little too repetetive for a hook track, but it doesn't hurt the album any. It just doesn't make the album any better either. "Birch Bark Vessel," with its emphasis on high-treble notes, is jarring in comparison to the rest of the album. But it's jarring in a way that prevents you from falling into a lull. "Belieau Wood" by Viul is a very "tense" track, one that reminds me of bleeding on concrete. (Damn, it's the rare album that makes me speak in metaphor.) It beautifully sets up the melancholic "Library Tapes," a song that takes me back to those grade school days when you realize that summer's almost over and you don't want it to be. Seriously, screw the piecemeal stuff. This is an album that's absolutely without a doubt worth ten dollars. If you have any inclination to listen to ambient electronic, this album must be purchased.

...and I've bought a lot of music on iTunes.

This little compilation is definitely a good purchase! The artists vary, but by listening to it, it all has the same style, although different "feels." Every track takes you to a different time and place. If you like Boards of Canada and Marumari, then you'll love this one. Being a big "BOC" fan, this one will hold us up until their next release, at the least! I won't go into detail for every track, but trust me, none of them make you want to skip to the next, of course, if you like music of this type. This one is also very hard to find--this is about the only place where I found it, and accidentally too! So download this album on iTunes, get yourself some Chai Tea Latte, and pull out a good book, or just plain close your eyes and let it take you!

This is jam packed with relaxing mix's of some of todays finest electronic artists. very nice collection. not sure what else to say. ten stars.!!!

the uninterrupted theme of space on “expanse at low levels” parallels the reflection of repetition, every track is measured with mirrors--ensuring your ears will to travel infinite horizons when listening to this spherical album on repeat--over and over again.

Ambient can sometimes be a dirty word, what "Expanse At Low Levels" does is slowly through everything from lo fi folk to piano music to string music to tracks that just have beautiful repetitive warmth to them and shows you how diverse this low level sound is. Most of the songs have a pop length to them so you don't wear out the melody and 20 tracks for 9.99 Moodgadget makes it a nice size addition to any headphone music collection.