Terminal 23 -- THE MELTING OF ICE ep [Inam Records]

More mysterious noise-drone action from Inam Records, this time the work of an Athens trio wielding strings, efx, generators, and homemade electronics, all recorded to two-track. The first track, "Sort Hagl," is centered around a cranky buzzing drone that cycles over and over as other noises, humming sounds, and random sonic violence come and go behind the cyclotroni sound. The cyclotron rhythm eventually segues into an asthmatic mechanical wheeze that dies away as the track segues into "Drivis," where the rhythm is not quite so heated, even though the sound is still rooted in vaguely dissonant but subdued shards of noise. The final track, "Rod Mane," is the quietest of the bunch, with a slow cycling rhythm and ambient sound pulsing in waves like the ocean tide, a dirge drone that plays out inexorably over the course of approximately eight minutes, finally expiring with a brief screech of muted feedback. The trio of drones work equally well as separate pieces or as one long track, and can be enjoyed as background noise or with more studied listening. (the one true dead angel)

Terminal 23 - The Melting of Ice [Inam]
Another winner from Inam. Haunting electronic drone and noise. Tones pulse and vibrate, swell and dwindle. I find this album really beautiful, it seems bleak and at the same time uplifting. (kuci fm)

This is a rather short, sharp shock of a CD: 3 tracks of garden-variety ambient/noise-art, with that icy, stark, European soundscape. This Danish combo lays down three tracks on The Melting of Ice, their 3-track EP for the UK’s Inam Records. Each song seamlessly segues right into the next, so unless you listen to this every day for months, you won’t know which track you’re listening except by guessing or looking at the CD player.

When you take it out of the context of its genre and lay it next to something that you might hear on some commercial radio station then you feel thankful that there is this truly “alternative” underground out there, continuously whipping out new, exciting sounds, musical experimentation to the Nth degree: everything from samples of “found sounds” - street noise, incidental music, bits and pieces of “overheard” conversations or whatnot. They also do a lot of recontextualizing of other parts of songs, not well-known, easily identifiable songs either, but obscure notes and measures that were re-worked: maybe slowed down or sped up.

Critics of this style of music, the “hybridization”, the sampling, the computerized loops and the so-called “loss of humanity” say that all this sampling and mixing in of scattered noises and beats, etc is a sign of unoriginality or a sign that the artist is not really making music, since he’s not coming up with “brand new” notes that get written down on sheet music paper, so it’s not really a “new song”, just a rehashing of a bunch of old material, created by others.

But the way to reply to a point of view like that is to show how, even though the band/artist may not be writing new notes, writing on sheet music like Beethoven, or Igor Stravinsky, John Cage or the great rock songwriters like Lou Reed, Neil Young and David Bowie to name a few. This new form is a different sort of artistry: the talent and creativity show up in the way that all these tape loops, recorded voices, weird noises, samples of songs, television/movie dialogue, etc: it may sound simple, at least at first, but the deeper you get into it and the more you really think about it there is a lot of work that goes into this stuff: timing, continuity, originality, innovation, making something innocuous sound edgy or ominous.

That is the way to go about getting into Terminal 23: don’t prejudge, don’t come to it with preconceived notions and try not to thing of who to compare it to right away, if it does sound like someone from the past, it’ll show up and come to you, rather than you having to figure out to whom you could compare it. (heathen harvest)

Terminal 23 – The Melting of Ice
Inam Records
Another new limited run EP from Inam Records means another chance to bask in the glory of disorientation. Terminal 23 are a group from Athens who appear to do most of their work on self-made electronics, generators, effects, and software programs. On The Melting of Ice, pulsing drones slowly compete with sustained drones, all set against cavernous echoes, phased oscillations, and other found sounds. With assistance from the title, this noisy piece can be interpreted as a representation of the natural process of ice melting, a process which constantly leaves behind a form different than its predecessor. Despite this, the overall tone has more of an industrial feel than a natural one. Perhaps they mean to make a link between industrialization and melting ice. Regardless, this is drone music for the active listener, as a continuum of tones are visited throughout the 23-minute running time, always complimented by some other non-drone sound source, whether that be repetitive descending tones, swooping grand gestures, crumbling electronics, or swirling radio frequencies. Melting has never been so serious. (adequacy.net)

Another from Inam records, this by Terminal 23: The Melting of Ice (INAM RECORDS 31), an EP full of sonorous and primordial droning effects. It sounds such solitary and lonely music that I was surprised to find a trio of young men from Georgia made this, using their tone generators, home-made electronics and effects. (sound projector)

Three moody, biting drones that sound washed out, haunted in a jaded but approachable way, “the melting of ice” is not so much about liberation as about a slow but growing change. Not much ice melts here, though occasionally there is enough of a din made that an avalanche is threatened.

The three songs build off of the same motif or, rather, use the same technique throughout, so that each songs can be dissected on its own, or all three—“ Sort Hagl,” “Drivis” and “Rod Mane”—can be heard as one long piece. On of the joys of this kind of ambient, with its mix of electronics, found noises and loops or beats swiped from other recorded sources, is that there are layers upon layers to explore if you so chose. If not, then the surface soundscape still has much to offer in its moody, frigid buzz.

So “the melting of ice” sounds like most ambient music out there, especially as practiced in the Old World. Then again, sometimes it doesn’t. Ambient music plays tricks on the ear, and is never completely what it seems. This effort by Terminal 23 deserves a few repeated spins so you can figure out your personal verdict. 7/10 -- Mike Wood (22 July, 2009) (digitalindustries )