TRACKLIST

1. Iz . . . . . . . . . . . .7:01 2. Mourning Wok . . . . . . .6:38 3. As Far As Eye Can See. . .8:38 4. Disko Bay. . . . . . . . .5:06 5. Bubble In The Sky. . . . .5:40 6. Secret Island. . . . . . .6:33 7. Raneboze . . . . . . . . .7:26 8. Orca. . . . . . . . . . .10:46 9. Your Day In The Sun. . . .7:33

Since the 2006 release of Andrew Reichel's critically acclaimed 'Unifactor' LP on Canada's Upstairs Recordings label, he's obviously been a busy chap, writing and recording its follow-up, 'IZ'.
The time taken he's taken to construct this new piece of work has been well worth it - this album doesn't disappoint. The opening title track sets the prevailing ambience perfectly, rising slowly like a golden eagle drifting on the air currents. This blends seamlessly into the second track 'Mourning Wok'; a combination of classic ambient and edgy shoegazer.
'As Far as the Eye Can See' slides into view, and this is the first track on the album to contain steady dub rhythms; the bassline and shimmering ambience collide gently, keeping my head nodding steadily. As the bassline subsides we sink into 'Disco Bay'. This is Eno-esque territory; reminiscent of a favourite comfy sofa, the pads enveloping you like warm cotton wool. Absolutely sublime.
Crashing waves mark the entrance of 'Bubble in the Sky', coming on like a stoned Harold Budd with the added benefit of lush orchestration, spun out with heavy reverbs and analogue synths, FX burbling and bubbling away throughout. 'Secret Island' wafts in with a wonderfully melancholic chord structure that literally makes the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. This is music from the chasms; a mellow bassline underpinning subtle choral arrangements.
We dive deeper still on 'Raneboze', a mysterious track which sounds like it's been recorded deep underground in a cavernous space, chords left to hang in space. The penultimate track 'Orca' slithers around in the darkness, gradually fading away to nothingness.
And then we're rising again, awakening to meet 'Your Day in the Sun' where an optimistic chord structure brings us back into the light and beyond.
There are a mountain of influences here, ranging from Spacemen 3 and the Cocteau Twins, through to the very best ambient electronica albums that you care to mention. Gel Sol has adapted and fine tuned these influences to create an genuine aural trip that in my opinion is up there with some of the best atmospheric chillout I've ever heard. Check it out. ~ by Bruce Bickerton (Alucidnation)

SPOILER!

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008 EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2008, 13:45 Gel-Sol / IZ Used drive : HL-DT-STRW/DVD GCC-4241N Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 102 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : No Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\wavpack.exe Additional command line options : -hmxd -w "GENRE=%m" -w "DATE=%y" -w "COMMENT=Released by a-one" %s %d TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 7:01.23 | 0 | 31597 2 | 7:01.23 | 6:36.72 | 31598 | 61369 3 | 13:38.20 | 8:38.34 | 61370 | 100253 4 | 22:16.54 | 5:06.66 | 100254 | 123269 5 | 27:23.45 | 5:40.51 | 123270 | 148820 6 | 33:04.21 | 6:33.60 | 148821 | 178355 7 | 39:38.06 | 7:26.72 | 178356 | 211877 8 | 47:05.03 | 10:46.33 | 211878 | 260360 9 | 57:51.36 | 7:33.19 | 260361 | 294354 Range status and errors Selected range Filename C:\Rips\Gel-Sol - IZ.wav Peak level 94.7 % Range quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 1F471FB2 Copy OK No errors occurred End of status report

SPOILER!

REM GENRE "Experimental, Ambient" REM DATE 2008 REM DISCID 7D0F5409 REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" TITLE "IZ" FILE "Gel-Sol - IZ.wv" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Iz" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800001 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Mourning Wok" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800002 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 07:01:23 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "As Far As Eye Can See" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800003 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 13:38:20 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Disko Bay" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800004 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 22:16:54 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Bubble In The Sky" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800005 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 27:23:45 TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Secret Island" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800006 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 33:04:21 TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Raneboze" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800007 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 39:38:06 TRACK 08 AUDIO TITLE "Orca" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800008 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 47:05:03 TRACK 09 AUDIO TITLE "Your Day In The Sun" PERFORMER "Gel-Sol" ISRC USYUC0800009 FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 57:51:36