Step Through the Portal With Windy and Carl
Written: Jan 09 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great background music, soothing, relaxing.
Cons: Or, weird to some
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a good space rock CD, this is one you might want to check into.
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| teamfreak16's Full Review: Portal by Windy & Carl |
Windy (Weber)& Carl (Hultgren) own a record store (Stormy Records) in Dearborn, MI. I can't say that I've ever been there, but in my mind I picture it as an independent, dusty place. I imagine it's the kind of place where you can browse peacefully for hours, searching for that hidden gem. The kind of place where I discovered Windy & Carl and their 1995 release, Portal.
Portal is a re-release of an earlier cassette by the duo, with a couple added songs. It contains the type of music my girlfriend says gets on her nerves. I say it's space rock played as well as anything by similar acts such as Labradford, Spacemen 3, or Flying Saucer Attack. On Portal, Windy (bass, voice) & Carl (guitars, keyboards, percussion) give us 72 minutes of dreamy, hypnotic space rock.
It would have been very easy for the duo to label Portal as one 72-minute song - it flows that effortlessly. Instead, the CD is broken down into eleven tracks, each subtly different than the one preceding it. Preparation, for instance, is seven minutes worth of swirling electric guitars hovering over acoustic strumming. It wouldn't sound out of place on a Flying Saucer Attack CD. Ode to Spaceman has a droning, spacey keyboard playing over subtle electric guitar picking. Windy does a spoken-word bit here, and as is the case with space rock, her vocals are buried inside the mix.
Firebursts is a shoegazer number, with a heavily distorted guitar sharing time with icy guitars coming in over the top. Carl also uses an effects pedal here, getting an assortment of whoops and squeals out of his guitar as he plays. On Sound Ignition, the guitar is distorted so much that is sounds as if a spaceship taking off - except that it keeps going throughout the song. Meanwhile, Carl layers more distorted power chords over and under it. It's a lesson in distortion and feedback, and it's wonderful to listen to. Wonderful, that is, if you are like me and like to listen to that sort of stuff. Approach/Descend tones it down just a tad so that Windy can do another spoken-word piece, this time not so buried in the mix.
Lest you begin to think it's all droning, distorted guitars, it's not. Exploration is a dreamy, ambient piece full of uplifting keyboards and subtle guitar strumming. It would work well on a documentary of a lunar landing, for instance, giving the listener a peaceful feeling. It also flows effortlessly into Departure, which cuts back a little on the keyboards and brings chiming guitars into the front.
At fourteen-plus minutes, Glowing/Colorful runs the gamut of what you've heard on the CD. It starts out as an ambient piece full of beautiful guitars and keyboards. Later, those guitars get distorted and begin droning. Again, you need to have a taste for that sort of stuff in the first place in order to appreciate it, but it's good stuff. Through the Portal ends the CD with a twelve-plus minute ambient exercise in chiming guitars and drawn out keyboards.
Again, in order to "get" Portal you kind of need an appreciation of bands such as Stars of the Lid or Flying Saucer Attack. A love of droning guitars and keyboards would help, too. If you don't like these things, then Portal isn't for you. But if you do like these things, or if you are looking for something to play in the background as you go about your day, then you might want to give this a listen. Get yourself down to your locally owned and operated, independent record store, and see if you can find a copy.
Recommended:
Yes
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teamfreak16
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Member: Scott G
Location: Colorado Springs, CO/Sheridan, WY
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I am a Two-Legged Groove Machine.
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