Album: OFF LAND – Grey Surfaces (Resting Bell RB046 2008)

This is pretty good. Off Land (an Eno-esque pun?) is a chap called Tim Dwyer from Belmont, Massachusetts. Grey Surfaces is a set of glacial, ambient tracks which are infused with hazy melody, and augmented by various field recordings. The pace is leisurely, but the mood ranges from the laid back pastoralism of “Information Stencil” to the brooding menace of “Slow Blow”. What beats there are, are low key and mixed down.

“Trapezoid” starts with birdsong and dark drones and builds gradually with swirling organ loops. It sounds very much like pre-Virgin era Tangerine Dream. The five original compositions are augmented by a couple of remixes. Placement’s rejig of “Slow Blow” doesn’t add much to the original, but Ennio Mazzon’s excellent glitchy rework of “Input Shape” strips the track down into a fizz of microtones, high frequency hiss and quiet distortion.

Grey Surfaces is well worth a listen. It can be downloaded for free from the Berlin-based netlabel’s Resting Bell’s website below.

Tracks
1 Input Shape 3:40
2 Information Stencil 7:36
3 Slow Blow 7:16
4 Increase Swell 2:16
5 Trapezoid 10:38
6 Slow Blow (Placement Mix) 6:52
7 Input Shape (Ennio Mazzon Mix) 5:04

Websites
www.myspace.com/offlandmusic
www.restingbell.net/releases/rb046-grey-surfaces