Sound Tribe Sector 9
The prolific STS9 comes forward with their next instrumental electronica album. Is it a epic thrill ride or just another ambient snoozer?
1. Phoneme
2. Heavy
3. Looking Back On Earth
4. Oil & Water
5. Crypto City
6. EHM
7. Atlas
8. Ad Explorata
9. Re: Stereo
10. …
Central
11. Lion
12. Echoes
Ad Explorata, seemed like a win-win. The premise couldn’t be more catered to how I envision the perfect album: an instrumental collection of songs that blend together elements of electronica, hip-hop, and jazz. Just describing that alone raises a new level of excitement for this reviewer.
Sadly, despite the winning formula and the unfailing band name, the music commits the ultimate sin: it’s boring. It’s monotonous. The songs blend into each other with very little else to distinguish one from the other. They’re also too long, with the first song, ‘Phoneme,’ clocking in at over seven minutes and the shortest track just slightly under four. I suppose that comes with the territory when you’re talking about surreal ambience, but hey, would it be too much to ask for a little sharpness around the edges?
The album shows off its muscles every now and then, but even so — it’s too few and far in between. ‘Heavy’ delivers on its promise as the track with more bite than others. The loud drumming and guitar-solo-like keyboard keeps the band’s sound fresh and exciting, and will surely make a concert crowd-pleaser. But it overstays its welcome at more than six-minutes, allowing the middle of the song to drag. That ruins the experience.
Taking the crown for best moment is about three minutes in to ‘EHM,’ where an industrial breakdown comes mixed in with bling-bling-bling-bling sounds. (To be onomatopoetically accurate.) Yet again, the whole thing goes on for about 7 That’s fine for ambient music, but when STS9 offers moments this unique and intense, they should trim the fat and run with the hook.
The final song worth mentioning is ‘Oil & Water,’ which put me into a nice calm. It is the jazziest piece on the album, and feels mostly improvised like a Jazz show. It’s all due to the choice of sounds scattered throughout the epic piece; light tapping on the deep drum cymbal, high twilight notes on the keyboard, and unpredictable interludes. I found the whole experience to be pretty dreamy.
Despite the highlights, I can’t say much for the rest. After listening to Ad Explorata four intensive times, wanting for it to grow on me, I can’t remember much else. All the songs begin in an identical fashion, never hit a peak or climax, and then move on. That’s really disappointing, as when STS9 displays moments of brilliance, you expect more from them - and they don’t deliver.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh - I’ve heard their live shows are all kinds of brilliant, with epic LED lights, flowers adorning the stage, and artwork from artists like Alex Grey and Kris Davidson on display. There’s also lots of improvisation and the shows have been known to go on for more than 2 hours, some as long as 3. But the experience of an album and a live show are two polar opposites, and without the extravagance, Ad Explorata plays like a long, chaotic mess with only a few moments that you want to skip around to - and ignore the rest.
The 411: I really wanted to like Ad Explorata . I love instrumental music, from movie scores to classical music and jazz and new age ambient, but STS9 never fully clicked. It’s too long, there are too few memorable moments, and there’s not much to keep you around for repeated listens. Imagine a piece of well-seasoned meat with lots of chewy fat. The few parts are tasty, but there’s too much you end up throwing away. It’s the kind of album that you can put on at a party where everyone’s drinking. No one will really say anything about it. But someone will eventually change it.