For a guy who professes not to care much for newer forms of Berlin School EM, I certainly find myself listening to and enjoying much of it. At the forefront of this wave of new artists is Craig Padilla whose Vostok was one of my favorites of 2002--a chilled, icy landscape; an hour of drifting ice floe synths. Padilla returns with his latest for the Spotted Peccary label, Genesis. At first listen, Genesis is far, far different from the somewhat static and ambient environs of Vostok--this is the kinetic, cosmic Padilla, very much in the style of past German electronic music, but new, fresh and vibrant in sound.

The monumental "Genesis" opens the album, a twenty-minute frenzy of shifting sequencers. Bold sequences bubble to the surface, a mixture of both classic synthwork in the Michael Hoenig style and ambient-techno atmospherics that would not be out of place on an Irresistable Force album. Gusty wind and oceanic sounds give the track an ethereal quality, complimenting the charged and exciting phasing of synth sequences rather unusually. This is beautiful material, on par with "Departure from the Northern Wasteland" by the before-mentioned Hoenig and "Toward the Dream" on Steve Roach's masterful Dreamtime Return--a searing whirlwind of extremely emotional, yet classic in feel, electronic music. "Moon Tides" calms the atmosphere down with bell tones and melancholy synth pads. A lone piano melody intones now, and we have returned to that misty shore Ashra works such as New Age of Earth occupy--twilit, haunting, the far horizon within view. At the seven minute mark, a mellotron enters the scene, echoing Stratosfear. The percolating sequence that follows is delightful, propelling the music along while maintaining the haunting ambient flavor of the earlier sections of the track. “Moon Tides” finishes up like classic Tangerine Dream, a lovely reminder of why we were so enamored with electronic music in the first place.

Next up is "Ascension," another sweeping ambient piece featuring the unlikely addition of guitar playing that vaguely echoes Ennio Morricone. Synth-wind phasing and desolate planets are recalled, and when the synth harmonics sweep in, we are smack dab in Klaus Schulze's Timewind rewritten and updated for 2004. Perhaps the sounds and contexts here ape Schulze a little too closely, but I'm the kind of listener who got chills anyway, just as I did when I first heard Timewind. This track, though modern, echoes all the great kosmiche classics of yesterday, without seeming hackneyed or a recapitulation of what's been done before. The final track, "Message from Within," is the most modern of space music, rather like a meatier and less flighty Jonn Serrie. Interstellar winds and lovely synthwork color the sky, somehow wistful, as a stargazer might look at the heavens knowing that in all likelihood he will never get out there--continuing to gaze, nonetheless. This, the longest track on the album, is masterful; the kind of space music you’d love to listen to for an entire evening under the stars in your own neighborhood, a celestial brotherhood present wherever you happen to be. It changes gradually, eventually introducing a down-tempo sequence, morphing almost continuously till the end, which comes all too soon.

To put it briefly, Craig Padilla has crafted his masterpiece with Genesis. Everything about this album has "new classic" written all over it. I'm unable to put a finger on just why most of the modern artists of Berlin School electronic music don't satisfy me--obviously, it's not the style itself, because Padilla's album has hit all the right notes and spots for this listener. Certainly, the album contains nothing we haven't heard before, but I think that's missing the point. While Genesis breaks no new ground, it does manage to freshen and revitalize an often slavishly imitated style of music, instilling it with the same joy we felt when we heard the originators' lauded works. While fans of pure ambient music will find this album a touch too active or too light for their tastes, I heartily recommend Genesis to all who look back on the "Golden Age" of synth-based electronic music with nostalgia. A fine effort.

From Spotted Peccary.

since July 15, 2003