Ousia - [Ousia website]

Experimental/ambient/drone/noise Guitar Manipulation, Analog and Digital Synth Experimentation Live Hypnotic Visual and Audio Modulation


$10.00 [buy]
Ousia- Face the Robot- MMCD061

A hybrid collection of ambient soundscapes and manually altered rhythms complimented by extreme manipulation of sound. Created with heart felt knob tweaking and an extraterrestrial sensibility of aesthetics and virtuosity. "Trippy, surreal, and often hypnotic...Ousia tunes are the stuff that dreams are truly made of." - babysue


Review by Jeff Penczak - The Vinyl Junkie

"Robot In" opens this Minneapolis quartet's (pronounced ooh-SEE-ah) long anticipated follow-up to their award winning debut, 1997s Why Is That a Four with smooth, chill-out electronics. "Ebow Lullabye" combines the ambient atmospherics of Eno with the glacially shifting tones of Stars of The Lid or Azusa Plane. I was also reminded of Aeoliah's Angel Love, my favorite "chill-out" release of all time, so we're on strong footing here. Krautrock fans may also hear references to Tangerine Dream and (K)Cluster, which will give you a good idea of where these guys heads are at. Emanating from the frozen tundra of Minnesota, they prefer to think of their ambient/noise/drone compositions as "Snowbient," and that's as good a description of their sound as I could ever come up with.

Songtitles are insignificant in instrumental music, serving merely as identificational place holders on a CD booklet, and they mean even less on this release, which should be experienced in its entirety as sequenced by the band. Besides, I doubt much grey matter was wasted coming up with titles like "Robot In," "Robot Out," "Face The Robot," "Ebow Lullabye," "Sound Check",...you get the idea. This is not the type of album you're gonna invite your friends over to hear and toss on track 5 and say, "Here...listen to this song." It is not a collection of songs, rather a series of moods, and the subtle shifting of those moods carries the listener through to its conclusion. You can also add this to your list of albums to fall asleep to.

The rest of the album retains the same high quality/low maintenance electronic hum with subtle use of Paul Horn's treated guitar and Dave Onnen's rumbling bass, and with three keyboardists doubling on two guitars and no drummer, Face The Robot is highly recommended to folks who prefer the more comatose side of today's music, as well as those of you whose idea of a peak listening experience is to stare at the walls and listen to your speakers hum.