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The Stereo Effect Project "Test Tones"
format: EP, released: 2002
genre: electronic instrumental

review by Karl Mohr


Keith Robert Murray gets darker and more melancholic on this clever little 3"
CD recording which features a sine-wave producing oscilloscope on the cover. His
innovative idea: the first song consists of 23 short tracks that can be randomly
shuffled with your own CD player to create a remix. Whether you consider this
to be Murray's metaphoric statement about digital fragmentation or a great
marketing gag, the fact is "Test Tones" is a marvellous little melancholic bleep
track on its own. Somehow reminding of Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" and
building intense harmonies with simple synth tones, the dark simplicity is
transporting and reflective.

"Snow" will be appreciated by the Boards of Canada crowd. More of Murray's
warm, fuzzy, odd, angular synth arpeggios and flat, dry, lo-fi percussion samples
shoot a faded snapshot of Canadian winter that the Boards have never known. The
on-disc image of two children running away with their plastic sleds into snowy
coniferous fields reinforce this track's powerful sense of a deep childhood
nostalgia for the strange, moody, somewhat depressive thing that is Canadian
winter. With a beautiful, sparse, touching mood, this piece is an effective
communication to someone from another land of what it means to be Canadian
during the cold months.

Rounding off the EP is "Patterns for Further Education" - a bold, sober synthesizer
display with lots of filter noodling. A mood shift from the first two pieces, this
major-key change rounds off the collection nicely. Although not stated, the track
sounds as though it's being conducted by the steady hand of Murray's homemade
analogue sequencer.

This EP seems to have an emotional depth which is absent from the self-titled album.
As an example of minimalist synth music for listening, it shines with its analog
tones and poetic musical moments.