Lee DiBane: Falling Upwards Into Sky

Daniel "SyNtHuSeR" Byerly is a man of many talents, one is creating great music and another is re-creating himself via "aka's" ad infinitum. I have a hunch that Mr. DiBane exists only as ink . . . anyway, back to the review.

This latest release is your more sparsely meditative, head-trip using minimalism/ ambient spacescapes/ sequencing to stroll through a wash of synths and warped effects that echo Cluster, Eno-vibed electronix, and that subtle Suzanne Doucet tremolo-warmth. Traces of Robert Scott Thompson's mechanoid-matrix-droids-song shine through in the "alien worlds" moments after possible DiBane's induced psychic levitations begin.

For purest relaxation I am not a big fan of rapidly oscillating and hyperphased, echoey flange-warblings, sequential fade ins and outs that make your inner balance feel as if you're a cartoon character that just hit a giant gong with your head. Vibrations of sound at certain frequencies just do my psyche in — whoa, I am freaking out here. It comes across very trippy, too strongly sonically-psychedelic for this olde reviewer guy's delicate equlibrium and ever-on-the-edge-of-attack vertigo. I thought I was going to have a Monroe-esque O.O.B.E.! (Is that me down there?)

On the other hand or head, if you dig a retro-ride into that analog-rich, effects-laden, ambient synths that is more a psychedelic voyage of the good olde days of channel-to-channel headphone blissdom then this is exactly the good stuff! European, German synth heads take note. I am by no means "slighting" DiBane's art, just being fair and clear about one thing — this is predominately "tripping" music vs. a relaxation/ meditative backdrop. You cannot ignore this stuff, it grabs your brain and warps it. So, good job at creating a definitely weird head-space, Mr. DiBane.