Traditional Psychedelic Electronic Music (Planet 2)

text

Planetarium Music is the solo effort of Alex Bundy, keyboardist for space-rock-improv band Yume Bitsu. On 'Traditional Psychedelic Electronic Music (Planet 2)', Bundy leaves his band mates behind to travel back in time to the inception of the '70s school of German electronic music, the kind pioneered by artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Washes of synth stream and diffuse through the CD like monolithic fingers of flame shooting off the surface of the distant sun - seemingly slow, infinite, and mesmerizing.

The disc starts off with a patter of percussive static similar to disrupted radio transmissions heard during severe sunspot activity. After this initial shower, the synthesizer drones start to build, becoming glacial in nature. Layers of colorful analog sound - alternately solemn like on 'Tribute' and threatening as on 'Terrible' - grow into a single shifting, drifting mass of ambient force.

Particles of electronic noise-dust skate this surface, adding a sense of speed to the foreground of the music. On 'Terrible' these bleeps are like the inner workings of a spaceship, random disturbances generated by a host of control panels and scientific instruments. They gain more cohesion on 'Annual', becoming a kind of ancient distress signal transmitted from some long dead race in the corner of the galaxy.

'Metal', the last track of the disc, takes the splendor of the previous compositions and shreds it into a glittering display of feedback. It's like the sound of an interdimensional locomotive chugging out of control, tearing up the tracks in the wake of its breakneck run. 'Metal' imparts a sense of closure and decay to 'Traditional Psychedelic Electronic Music (Planet 2)', making the disc its own miniature organic universe - billions of years of formation and destruction compacted into a 50-minute life cycle. Cosmic magnificence on a microscopic scale.