REVIEWS reviews...... sounds...... pictures...... words...... links...... info from Hans Stoeve, Power Spot (a weekly program on Eastside Radio (89.7) in Sydney, Australia) Visit the Power Spot website for playlists and reviews.   Rhomb - Hidden Topographies (Foundry FOU.4) The Foundry people / person very kindly sent me their releases some time ago for review and air play. I've had time as of late to give them a good listen and now put keyboard to monitor. This cd comes in a cardboard sleeve, like all their other releases. The cover is remniscent of On Land by Brian Eno. I remember the feel of record covers and that glorious perfumed aroma as you opened the cellophane bag that the record came in. Such sensuousness. The cd cover itself is closed with some sort of sticker, which has the track listings, as well as basics ie artist and name of album etc. I agonise as I very carefully cut through this to release the contents. It feels glorious to hold, to touch. God, how I hate plastic covers. In very simple ways this is a very stylish production to start with. Presentation says a lot. Cutting through the barrier, even though it is only paper of sorts, suggests involvement and consideration on the part of the listener. Hidden Topographies is actually my favorite of these four releases that are very similar in presentation. Michael Bentley, which as one of his incarnations is Rhomb, presents a sort of alien soundscape, with an almost zen like minimal serenity about it. It's an organic, textural excursion into the more delicate regions of sound. I like it immediately upon hearing it. It suits my moods. Almost industrial ambience. There are lonely voices and spirits at work here. This is atonal at times, with a hint of decay in its (de)composition and structure. I think Bentley must have a ton of imagination in his head to come up with this, especially when you listen to the other releases on The Foundry label, which are at times similar but more often than not totally diverse. And it has something that I like very much, something that knocked my socks off upon hearing something like the early ECM releases, silence between the notes. How affectively simple. Ambience, as someone rightly pointed out awhile back, was going to be that meeting point where all different musical styles and mystical ideologies would meet and and in ways form something new and exciting. Somewhere along the line it became horribly commercialised and exploited and became somewhat of a joke. Listening to this recording I think back to how electronic was for me in the early 80's,(before commercial realities set in and dictated what the outcome would be) post punk and new wave, when ambient music became a reality of sorts via Eno and Fripp, Kraftwerk and Can, Tomita etc. This kind of reminds me of some of the material that a band like The Residents would have done, or even Eno circa Music For Films, or those dark confusing soundscapes (but not the insanity) of a group like Suicide. Mind you we are not talking Frankie Teardrop here, not in the least. This is almost art music and at times incredibly serene, exotically sensual. I find myself dozing off more often than not. Rhomb crosses into Robert Rich territory from time to time as well, those liquid like glurpy primal sounds that RR is so good at producing. Maybe even a less subtle version of Quiet Music by Steve Roach. It crosses all these boundaries and still manages to retain its own identity. 'Ice Fields' brings back memories of Vangelis, in the early days when he knew how to compose beautiful music eg those quieter moments in China. It's stunningly simple and a beautiful electronic composition at the same time. Bentley keeps it mercifully short so as not to destroy it's emotional content. The last track is timed at 5'17 and then goes off into about four minutes of silence, whereupon a dark ambience descends upon the listener. Quietly demonic in ways. Shades of Tomita when he was attempting to make Holst's The Planets Suite sound interesting. It's a somewhat muffled and compressed sound. At the fourteen minute mark it fades out. I wonder why Rhomb has this hidden track? Hidden Topographies works, and works well, because it is kept simple. It does not pretend to be anything outrageously new; having learned the lessons from previous electronic pioneers Rhomb simply explores our own inner psyche, our own hidden topographies, and allows sound to fill those spaces. Very satisfying.