Cypher 7 – Security

The follow-up to "Decoder" - somewhat more uptempo than the previous release but no less murky and ambient - Laswell's bass is a little more evident. As its predecessor, a perfect night/gray day record. If you want this and more get their 2cd "Nothing Lasts" which includes "Decoder", "Security" and 10 unreleased tracks (one long one, 9 short vignettes). Haas has continued collaborating with Laswell which can be found on his alexhaas bandcamp page but Jeff Bova moved on to California as I understand it.

This is an amazing album that I totally missed out on in 1995. The orchestral segments are perfectly balanced, slowly morphing ambient bits. The compositions are stripped down but not too much, layered just enough, and the moods are slow and subtle changing like the tide one minute, then tearing along sliding through different motifs and moods. Incredibly dynamic, an amazing and singular piece of ambient work -- very rarely do I not only enjoy the moods, the melodies, and underlying sounds, all together. And that's only a part of the album, other parts are brilliant dub techno layered with just the same precision.
It could be loosely compared to Global Underground's ambient albums, a handful of the better Orb tracks if you stripped out alot of the nonsense, or maybe just the exact right era of Tangerine Dream, or the epic 4AD "This Mortal Coil".

I bought this as an inexpensive add-on to a won ebay auction after seeing it was on Subharmonic (an ok/mediocre label in my opinion) and listening to the brief samples on Amazon. I love it when these random-chance purchases surprise to the upside. This is one of those.

Tracks 1 and 5 are the clear winners here. Very mellow ambient dub. None of the tracks really go anywhere, but here that is a positive. Great working or reading music. The subtle melodies of 1 and 5 stuck in my head almost immediately and I've been playing this CD for a few days straight -- not very common for me.

The tidbits of Laswell bass add some interest, and if you don't like Laswell then their brevity should limit their detraction. Also, you can definitely hear the Musso influence. In fact, if you like this CD, you should like Musso's Transonic FAX releases and possibly Namlook/Laswell's Psychonavigation 1 and 2.

Impressive, interesting and original album. "Message Important" samples coded radio messages used by the French resistance in the second world war. "Nothing Lasts" samples the voice of classic French actress Jeanne Moreau (not credited). The last track "Falling Backwards" is a 16 minutes sequence of wind with not much else mixed with it. Cool ambient stuff to fill solitude or rainy days.