AARON SPECTRE - Lost Tracks

Fledgling DJ and Drumcorps breakcore enthusiast Aaron Spectre delivers something from the opposite end of the spectrum with his solo debut. Written over a lengthy six-year period and incorporating contributions from label-mates Lapsed and Jon De Rosa of ambient guitar project Aarktica, Lost Tracks is skilfully-crafted album of brooding, downtempo soundscapes.

The album opens in subdued style, with fractured guitars playing intermittently over echoing keyboard drones and slivering synth lines – sounding somewhat like a mid-eighties David Sylvian instrumental. Lost Tracks builds on its beguiling opening with the equally seductive Half Silver, where a tinny beat clocks relentlessly at the forefront of reverberating digital tones. It never really develops into much, despite threatening to.

Spectre ups the decibels on The Wrong Fuel, building layers of gristly feedback noise in union with his favoured ghostly synth bars. This grinding barrage of noise does irritate after a while, although this is tempered by the solitude of the following Voices, stitched together by broken beats and pleasing melodies – this is a lot more coherent, and the later addition of guitars adds a much required organic element.

Lost Tracks steadily improves from herein, Down In The Gutter is a an excellent slab of moody electronica, as slick hip hop beats wake from their slumber, co-joined by spliced vocal samples and dark cinematic rhythms – the following Lapsed Remix treads a similar path; this is suffocating X-files soundtrack stuff. The album closes with arguably the best track on show, Dulcimer, a haunting ambient piece with gently plucked guitars drifting over glitchy digital programming and Kazumi’s poignant, somewhat eerie female vocals – it blends together wonderfully well.

All in all a welcome change from Spectre’s usual breakcore warfare, which partially succeeds in delivering a thoughtful brand of provocative electronic music. However, Kazumi’s vocal on the closing track is so memorable you kind of get the impression an opportunity has been lost by not featuring her more on the rest of the album.



	AARON SPECTRE - Lost Tracks
	7.4
	Ad Noiseam ~ adn80 ~ 5th June 2007
	Fledgling DJ and Drumcorps breakcore enthusiast Aaron Spectre delivers something from the opposite end of the spectrum with his solo debut. Written over a lengthy six-year period and incorporating contributions from label-mates Lapsed and Jon De Rosa of ambient guitar project Aarktica, Lost Tracks is skilfully-crafted album of brooding, downtempo soundscapes. The album opens in subdued style, with fractured guitars playing intermittently over echoing keyboard drones and slivering synth lines – sounding somewhat like a mid-eighties David Sylvian instrumental. Lost Tracks builds on its beguiling opening with the equally seductive Half Silver, where a tinny beat clocks relentlessly at the forefront of reverberating digital tones. It never really develops into much, despite threatening to. Spectre ups the decibels on The Wrong Fuel, building layers of gristly feedback noise in union with his favoured ghostly synth bars. This grinding barrage of noise does irritate after a while, although this is tempered by the solitude of the following Voices, stitched together by broken beats and pleasing melodies – this is a lot more coherent, and the later addition of guitars adds a much required organic element. Lost Tracks steadily improves from herein, Down In The Gutter is a an excellent slab of moody electronica, as slick hip hop beats wake from their slumber, co-joined by spliced vocal samples and dark cinematic rhythms – the following Lapsed Remix treads a similar path; this is suffocating X-files soundtrack stuff. The album closes with arguably the best track on show, Dulcimer, a haunting ambient piece with gently plucked guitars drifting over glitchy digital programming and Kazumi’s poignant, somewhat eerie female vocals – it blends together wonderfully well. All in all a welcome change from Spectre’s usual breakcore warfare, which partially succeeds in delivering a thoughtful brand of provocative electronic music. However, Kazumi’s vocal on the closing track is so memorable you kind of get the impression an opportunity has been lost by not featuring her more on the rest of the album.