REVIEWS: Bottle Universe

[hashtronaut]

review by Psychatrone Rhondakk


Well,"Why 'Bottle Universe'?" you may think right off the bat. I may have thought of one good reason! Way back in the misty past a certain "gonzoid" rock reviewer used to rave about going to Tangerine Dream concerts after drinking a few bottles of codine cough syrup,...and hell he recommended that people do just what he did to get into the vibe of those now fabled shows. I can't say that I'd recommend that type of abuse ,even if you could score some of that 1970's cough remedy today. BUT I will recommend that, if you know what era of Tangerine Dream (and Klaus Schulze) was halucinatory enough to cause such "ravings",you should grab a copy of HASHTRONAUT's "Bottle Universe" and submerge your brain in it's waveforms! Just two long pieces are here...


#1 "Bottle Universe" starts-out floating in space static transmissions and then accellerates into a sequencer driven trajectory towards deeper regions. There's a bit of Klaus Schulze in the solos that weave their way through the pulsating centre of this journey that phases harder and harder until you're sucked back into your own world by the track's end. You are settled gently down to earth by the last few minutes of the track,but for the whole middle section it's pretty much a trance-inducing flight.

#2 is "Mindbomb" and even though it's name (to me)seems to reference to "Mindphaser" by Mr. Schulze,it sounds all the more like his former mates in sound Tangerine Dream.(There IS a difference,you know...) This track starts in a free-form-ish, Delia Derbyshire-like vein that changes to another sequenced middle section that is a bit more relaxed and flowing than the title track's centre all with tasty lead synth voices pulling you along nicely for a good 15 minutes,when for the last minutes of the disc you are confronted by a concluding segment that could have been an out-take from Tangerine Dream's classic "Phaedra"! High praise for this last segment is due. It's no easy feat to referece to that era of sound.


If any of this pushes your "interest" or "memory" buttons the way it should, then you know that this is one independent CD (limited to 100 copies) that's destined to be scrabbled for as soon as the fools who wait to order it realize it's out of print. Don't miss out, this is a quality analog sounding synth trip that's shure to please the "old" heads! Hashtronaut's web-site also offers an old album's tracks as free downloads to whet your appetite,...so go and get yourself a taste and then order some of his newest sounds.

Reviewed by Psychatrone Rhondakk (Check out his albums on Summersteps Records)
or visit his MySpace page here: www.myspace.com/psychatrone

[hashtronaut]

review by David Law


We begin the title track with deep spaced out windy effects. There is an uneasy feeling as though we are being stalked by some strange alien creature. The mood lightens a little as softer pads drift through the ether. I am soothed into a lovely relaxed state of float then wallop- in comes the sequence. This is the second album I heard by Hashtronaut and I am beginning to pick up a little of the style. The sequences are always huge and when they arrive there is no subtle build up- its like an earthquake hitting without warning. A slow questing lead line, silky smooth, glides above the boiling pulsations. Different elements come and go. It’s all rather organic sounding but also thick and many layered. Indeed it is difficult to take in all that is going on as we gloop between one new lead line, to some interesting effects, to the twisting and bending sequence. By the twentieth minute the sequence seems to be submerging into the sonic quicksand to disappear altogether as all the shimmers and solar flares take over. We are nowhere near finished yet however. A repeated echoing motif provides some focus in a dreamy misty-eyed sort of way. We are then brutally shaken to full consciousness as an even more aggressive sequence spews forth gloriously like an erupting volcano.

‘Mind Bomb’, as with other Hashtronaut tracks starts very twittery and bubbly, the sounds gently echoing and fading into infinity. Some sort of vast reactor starts up, throbbing away energetically. The power is shut off but we still speed though the cosmos on the back of an insistent four note sequence which gradually rises through the mix A moody lead line weaves its spell causing me to close my eyes and just let myself be taken along with the flow. It then becomes more intense (maybe a little overly so?) as I am dragged back to the job in hand just in time to hear another wonderful percussive sequence emerge, mixing perfectly with the first. He then goes for it big style for about twenty minutes of chugging sequences and soaring lead lines until a rather strange and abrupt finish. Not for the faint hearted that is for sure! (DL)


Reviewed by David Law. David runs an excellent and highly regarded Electronic Music online store.Go and visit it at: www.synthmusicdirect.com/

[hashtronaut]

review by Jeff Fitzgerald

UK's Hashtronaut returns for another excursion into deep space electronics and Berlin school sequencing with his latest, Bottle Universe. With only two tracks, both clocking in at over 35-minutes in length, you know you're in for a trip as soon as you put the CD on. And Hashtronaut does not disappoint.

The title track opens with over 7-minutes of drifting atmospheres, taking you on a slow ride out to the edges of the solar system before launching into hyperspace with a powerful, oceanic sequence that pulses like sonic waves through your mind as electronic curlicues swirl and twitter about, playing in the galactic surf. Hashtronaut's leads are subtle but effective, dancing over the sequences and weaving through them like cosmic thread. Your mind keeps tugging on it, and it keeps pulling you onward…where? It's hard to say. Either further out...or perhaps deeper in, or maybe somehow it's some of both.

In the second track, Mind Bomb, shivering, pulsing liquid space textures eventually give way to a slow sequence of fat bass notes. Fluid electronics wash through the sequence, punctuated by a steadily more punchy percussion line as striking lead synths play a melody full of tension and release. It's irresistible space music through and through.

If you like the 70's music of Tangerine Dream (especially their lengthy live shows) or the solo work of Klaus Schulze, you'll love what you'll here inside this Bottle Universe.

Jeff Fitzgerald writes for Aural Innovations, the web zine that focuses on Space Rock, Psychedelia, Stoner Rock, and space/psych oriented Electronic music. You can read online issues here: www.aural-innovations.com/

[hashtronaut]

review by Sylvain Lupari


Hashtronaut continues on its impetus. After striking opus like The Lambda Variant and Nexus, our daring English synthesist strikes again with an opus even more daring. Bottle Universe is a voyage in the center of sequential whirling movements, which leaves little place to the idleness of dream, of magic thought.

A cosmic intro deludes our senses. Like a cosmonaut, we let ourselves lull by space breaths, accompanied by intersidereal sound effects. The movements’ waltzes in an obscure sphere and, at the 8 minute mark; a steel breath propels a whirling sequencer, aspiring our senses in the meanders of the structures polyrhythmic of Bottle Universe. The rhythm is heavy in rotation. It whirls with force, on acrobats percussions, nervous, nourishing a furious sequencer which twirls with force, in the shadow of superb synthetic scratches which wrap a boosted atmosphere. Static synth pads circulate at an opposite speed with the sequential swirl, creating 2 parallel movements which are harmonized in spite of the oppositions of the phases. Synths are smooth and Hashtronaut scents his Bottle Universe of suave solos which are based with the unrestrained movements and bring us to the borders of an ambient passage, where the atmospheric elements have the breath short. Because the sequential swirl sets out again, with more rapidity and on superb synth solos. A great track at the top of the musical art. Electronic music, experimental, dark, dared and daring; what could we ask more to this strange Hashtronaut?

Staccato sound effects are hustled on their echoes, yielding space to Mindbomb. Far away, we can hear a sequence modeling and taking a spiral form. Winding analog sound effects, as well as floating pads, the movement is stuffed of superb solos of synth and more nourished percussions which increase rate on a hypnotic sequencer. A heavy title, moulded for a repetitive tempo, allowing synths to insufflate inveterate keys, among acute solos which striate a dense universe. The rhythm rams a more nervous tempo which is clutched with a structure more raised where the intensity progresses subtly since the beginning of this Mindbomb. In this highly experimental musical gratin, Hashtronaut successfully stick melodious segments which hang and encourage a new listening. Furious, powerful and incisive. Bottle Universe leans easily all that can be done by big names in EM today. A heavy sequential swirl which does not leave room to breathe and no places to hide our chimerical imaginations.


Hashtronaut seems furious, because he delivers here an opus even forceful than The Lambda Variant. He despised conventions and structures established on great musical movements; no long atmospheric developments in the search of sequenced exits. Constant rhythm by a bubbling sequencer and of synths thirsty of sequences rhythm. A superb album, for those who likes the unimaginable imaginary.


Sylvain Lupari writes and reviews for the French online music site 'Guts Of Darkness'. This review is translated into English by the Author himself. Thanks Sylvain!

[hashtronaut]

Hashtronaut “Bottle Universe”

(www.hashtronaut.net, 2006)

2 tracks, 74.12 mins



Similar in sound and style to The Lambda Variant, Bottle Universe features two lengthy solid Berlin school outings, starting with the 36-minute title track. This one disguises itself as a slow atmospheric piece for several minutes. Oftentimes, this type of music will gradually shift into a sequencer-based section, but this one jumps in totally out of nowhere at exactly 7:54 into the track, boom, there it is. Whoa, just like that and we’re off to the races for the next 13 minutes, before it fades into the distance leaving a soft bed of synths behind to explore the sonic nooks and crannies for a while. Then at 24:57 the same sequence as before, in the same manner as before, jumps in unexpectedly. Squelchy synths belt out a last solo, almost more in prog rock style though still very electronic music oriented. “Mindbomb” is even longer, 38 minutes of Teutonic goodness. A shuffling, crisp, percussion-filled groove reminds me a lot of some of AirSculpture’s music. This one finds its rhythm just over 7:00 in after some cool floating space music, just a hypnotic bass line at first for several minutes as a variety of electronics play around it. The underlying sequence morphs subtly during that time, adding just bit more texture here, a little more bite there, like a ball rolling downhill and gaining mass as things cling to it. Strong retro synth leads take command, weaving in and out of the mix. After hitting a wonderful high it all gradually dissolves into another spacey passage for the last couple of minutes to bring the disc to a sublime close. Highly recommended.



© 2007 Phil Derby / Electroambient Space

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