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I don’t know Amp but was aware of fellow sonic experimenters Flying Saucer Attack, whose Matt Elliot has been a member of the Amp family (as have 28 people other than Richard Amp, all listed in the very informative booklet contained in this set). So the 3 CDs here (playing for more than three and a half hours!) are my first introduction to the band but also to a 15 year retrospective of their music. Richard Amp was originally inspired by a BBC Sound Effects album to make music that gives equal weight to ambient sound and musical melody so the 38 compositions here (“songs” seems such a restrictive term) range from atmospheric soundscapes and experiments in repetition to electronic music and space rock. The effect can be unsettling (CD1 played havoc with my perception of reality when listened to on a train) and sometimes moving (especially the piano composition ‘Le Revenant’) and seems to be more melodic where Karine Charff, singer since 1994, is involved. Generalising wildly, CD1 feels (the most appropriate word to describe the visceral impact of these songs) like the more experimental and challenging, CD3 the more accessible, with its versions of songs by Spiritualised and the Silver Apples, as well as the out-of-body-experience that is their take on the traditional ‘Scarborough Fair’.
Having been immersed in hours of Amp, it feels disorientating but sometimes stimulating and occasionally exhilarating. These compositions are atmospheric as much as tuneful but would set the nerves twitching, in the right way, of anyone who likes left-field electronica as well as the less self-absorbed sort of post-rock.
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