Empathy Test is a fantastically loaded title for the latest from Anthony Kerby, recording as The Circular Ruins. As science fiction oriented ambient fans may know, the empathy test was the technique used to determine if a "person" was in reality an android replicant in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (and featured in the film Blade Runner, based on that novel). In short, the test determined via made-up emotional scenarios whether or not the subject was a human through the subject's emotional and biological responses to the scenarios themselves. When applied to the concept of electronic music created by humans on solely "virtual" instrumentation, the parallel is clear. Is this music an artificial construct trying to be human?

Where Kerby's previous releases (Conjunction was reviewed here some months ago) were chaotic, synthetic, buzzing works of ambient electronics--beautiful, but not altogether humanist--Empathy Test is a less dense, more melodic album reinforcing the notion that there may really be a person behind all the synthetic textures.

The tracks are short on Empathy Test, allowing a more song-oriented feel than previous TCR works which often hinged on ten-plus minute epics. We begin with a lovely introduction to the lighter side of TCR with "Empathy Test," a track reviewed here via the Databloem compilation, Collection 2: Moving. Needless to say, Kerby allows his Namlook fixation to come to the fore here, creating a lovely Fax-like ambient track that transcends both Kerby and Namlook styles of electronic. This is an absolute highlight of the album, and a great start. Next is "Over Fields of Light" featuring a repetitive techno sequence overlaid with buzzing and chattering electronic textures and nature samples, chopped up beyond recognition. Kerby synth-solos on top of all of this, once again in a distinctly Namlook style. Without the context of knowing what artist we are listening to, Kerby's music on this album is like hearing a heavyweight Namlook without all the filler tracks he tends to clutter his discography with. "Recollections" tones down the textures for an unusually spare atmospheric track which functions as a sort of darker, older brother of Saul Stokes's recent work. The longest track on the album, "The Interpretation of Dreams," (which Kerby describes as "a Freudian opus" in his liner notes) is as epic in nine minutes as Namlook and Inoue were on their "The Art of Dream" track on 2350 Broadway 2. A sequenced melody is accompanied by fine soloing and very low vocal samples. While the track doesn't shift appreciably over its length, the soloing and synth backgrounds are interesting and diverse enough to hold interest. At the end of the journey, lovely Turkish sounding synth-percussion takes over, harkening to the glory days of mid-nineties Faxlabel works. "Salient Features" reminds of Kerby's side project Lammergeyer with stratospheric and dramatic synth pads coupled with muted techno-percussives. This is another favorite track of mine--propulsive, somewhat melancholy, and always subtly shifting. "Eccentric Souvenirs" is quieter with synth-washes and drones that never seem to gel. It's bubbly music, but not particularly engaging, even with delightful vocal samples here and there. "A Little Different from Reality" (no kidding!) is also rather understated, approaching the glitchy digitalism of recent electronic artists, but tempering the experimentation with lovely synth drones and strange textures. Tetsu Inoue fans will find a lot to enjoy here, as this approaches the natural artificiality (how's that for an oxymoron?) of World Receiver. Finally, "The Seven Sisters" brings the album to a close with a satisfying anthemic ambient piece; a softly pulsing tone poem.

Anthony P. Kerby continues his streak of excellent, engaging electronic albums with Empathy Test, this time allowing his admitted influences of Namlook and the Faxlabel to define the sound of the album. In some respect, this attention to the "Fax style" constrains Kerby's usually wild inventiveness and experimentation (all the while still maintaining listenability). The Circular Ruins is still the premiere outlet for Kerby's music, but it seems to me that this work touches too heavily on past glories of classic mid-nineties ambient work. That said, it's been a long time since the Fax label, and, arguably, Namlook himself, has released a work of such high caliber. It can be said that Kerby's beaten those past masters at their own game with Empathy Test. While I still feel the quintessential TCR album is Realm of Possibility, Empathy Test is no slouch, continuing the fine development of an exciting ambient artist well worth watching.

Released on Databloem records.

since July 15, 2003