Genre: Ambient Drone

01 Agent
02 Mandarin
03 Clockwork
04 Blood

These Canadian experimental drone artists have taken the time to record and release their collaboration, titled “Orange,” for the rest of the world to observe and theoretically enjoy. Interestingly, there is a song on here titled “Clockwork.” This minimalistic, perhaps subliminal ode to the works of Stanley Kubrick is very vague, perhaps even nonexistent, much like the music on this disc. This duo release gives the feeling of an Eno-esque ambient/New Age record that someone has added additional noises to give it a more industrial texture. A piece of paper inside of the sleeve for this compact disc describes this music as “Dream Nightmare Terror Ambient,” however those looking for Terror or Nightmare elements would be rather disappointed with this release, being forced to resort to imagination for your terrors. Luckily for you, I am a rather deranged individual and I will hold your hand through the process.

“Agent” starts out sort of like a river of grue, bloody guts of the virgin pouring out of the elevator. Scary people filled remorse stare blankly at the wall for hours, in the dark, on this first track. Awkward synth-stabs at the beginning underline the improvisational nature of the process. Piles of theoretical dead bodies amass as poison gas possibly interrupts a children's parade. Bloated human corpses exhaling stench from their ostensibly lifeless husks, wafting down the imaginary road. The Eno/New Age comparison stems largely from the presence of very nice musical equipment. The synthesizers have a markedly familiar palatte of ethereal sounds, although they do their best to provide ones that we have never heard before. “Mandarin” is vastly improved when one spices it up with the backstort of being the soundtrack to this decade's Green River killer. One can imagine the camera zooming in and out as human limbs float by.

Just as easily, this same track could be the soundtrack to a children's programme about a space station. Which brings us to the somewhat sinister nature of this disc. Ambient music, in its original form, was described by Eno as a sort of audio furniture. Accordingly, it is up to an individual's tastes as to what sort of furniture they would prefer lying around their house. This would be somewhat akin to an ice futon. To involve Ayn Rand in the matter, this record has a “grey, uncommitted, passively indeterminate sense of life.”

When I listen to track four knowing that it is titled “Blood,” it sounds much darker than when I still think that I am listening to track three, “Clockwork.” If nothing else, listening to this music is a good opportunity to see where your mind will wander, and if you are a dangerous maniac who should be locked up or not.