REVIEW: u-Ziq vs The Auteurs/System 7.3: Fire + Water - 777

(Astralwerks)

- Joe Silva

You know when National Public Radio starts running stories about the ambient craze that (or any craze for that matter...), the scene is already looking back at it's apex and the members of the subculture as a whole have already singled out a time past which they refer to as the good 'ol days. Ambient is not about to displace the cover music in the bowling lanes of middle America, but it has a niche that might not be considered "thriving" but could easily seen as sustaining itself nicely.

Both of these discs share the same roster, but upon listening you'd think they come from different planets. 777 are British guitar godhead Steve Hillage and pals, late of the UK outfit known as Gong. Hillage is part of the English cadre that see their salvation in rhythm and synths. 777 began as a collaborative move with help of King Orbian/DJ Dr. Alex Paterson, but manifestation 7.3 is want for the good Dr.'s influence. If you can get your media going in a continuous loop, over time you'll realize that there are few points of distinction on Fire + Water despite its newly enlightened or at least well seasoned parentage. Among others, producer/original Killing Joke bassman Youth (who's added 777 to his Butterfly record label) is mentioned as being somewhere aboard, but 7.3 has warped itself into the most non-descript of ambient quadrants, that no one's hand in particular can be seen or felt. Even the Future Sound of London, who probably inhabit the same mellifluous camp as 777, are keen to the fact that beyond trying to envelop their listeners wholesale, there has to be some meat...um...or at least some flesh in the mix for the listener to latch on to.

u-Ziq (pronounced "music"), aka Michael Paradinas, however, instinctively knows just how much should be stripped away from the ambient bone. His source material for this project (The Auteurs Now I'm a Cowboy LP) quickly came and went with few positive nods in its direction, but what this 22 year old former architecture student has distilled from it make you wonder if Cowboy shouldn't have been granted a slighter longer half life. As spare as the opener ("Lenny Valentino 3") comes off, it thrills in the same spooky manner that Wish You Were Here era Waters and Gilmour did. Rhythms are hyped to the point where they distort blissfully and the whole cut has the classic electro-tuetonic aura of the analog era. From there the intrigue just grows boundlessly as uZiq drops poignantly into and out of the Auteur riffs and melody lines where he sees fit. The ambient crown stands contested.