Hard Particles by Dave Fulton Eurock, 1999 Eurock Contact Address: P.O. Box 13718, Portland, Oregon, 97213, USA The sequencer-driven rock of the late ‘60s and 1970s, especially that of the Germans and the French, is still echoing clearly in electronic music from 30 years later, as can be heard in this 1999 album by Dave Fulton. This fin-de-siecle album is untouched by the trends of those last thirty years: no “tribal” percussion, no “nature” sounds of birds and streams, no Celtic pipes or voice samples or industrial clanks. It’s pure electronic sound, created from an impressive array of both custom and ready-made synthesizers, and it sounds as futuristic as it did thirty years ago. The ambiguity of that last sentence was deliberate. The future isn’t what it used to be, and Fulton’s sound tends toward the “retro,” using the same hard, open tones and modal rock-based harmonies that were used in the late ‘60s and 70s, especially by venerable artists like Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre. You get that déjà vu feeling listening to this. His drone and ambient pieces move along well, his sequences cruise, but you’ve heard this before. The album title and some of the track titles suggest the language of modern physics, a field which has been evoked by other electronic composers such as Richard Burmer (the delightful track “Physics” on his 1990 album Mosaic) and by “Vir Unis" on his apocalyptic 2000 album Aeonian Glow. You’d think that electronic rhythms and sequencing would be just right for this physics metaphor, and indeed this album picks up both speed and interest in its second half. On his track 8, “Clouded Flats of Radiations” and the following “Particle Reversal,” track 9, some of that dynamic subatomic quality comes through. But often, Fulton’s musical particle accelerator seems to be working on well-worn theory which needs some updating. HMGS rating: 6 out of 10 Hannah M G Shapero, EER-MUSIC.com 8/4/01
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