Two guys from Ireland and an extensive journey through all sorts of electronic tinkering, that's basically what the band name Ambulance stands for. Their debut full-length album shows an immense fascination for complex arrangements and advanced rhythms.

First thing I noticed about "The Curse Of Vale Do Lobo" was that 1970ies' style cover artwork with a fake 3-D painting of a multi-coloured and ever changing waveform that seems to go nowhere. Still, no hint at the curse of that infamous Portuguese holiday resort Vale Do Lobo.

Let's have a listen to the music: "Tickle" is the first tune on the CD, and it's a pretty wild ride through polyrhythmic patterns and a whole bunch of small musical ideas phased in and suddenly disappearing again. Witness Ambulance's fascination for unexpectable changes in the arrangement - it's almost a mathematical sense for successfully combining elements that wouldn't normally go together.

"Dead Weight" is next, and this tune has a more straightforward ambient feeling. On to the title track that slowly grows into a simple sequence that is thwarted by surrounding glitches and samples. "Jettii" is another example of an almost ambient tune, built upon a rich bass line and a constantly altered drum beat. "Rodeo" by contrast is a lot more aggressive with its punchy rhythm and humming melody line - it sounds almost like a giant insect in for the attack. Harmony returns with "Hymn" and its slightly Eastern flair that progresses into a forward moving rhythm layered with massive chords in the second part of the song.

Time for a short interlude ("Taxi For John Of God") before the "Antique's Roadshow" comes to your home. This title has been released on a 7-inch single before and makes extensive use of vocal samples played backwards - oh, those hidden messages! "Liam Bugler" starts with a saxophone arrangement underlined by sombre synthesizer sounds and blends into another interlude called "Teen Filler" (mainly a vocal sample), which in turn blends into "Cad Quad Qui", a conversation between two sampled voices, built upon an astonishingly minimal beat and spheric melody lines.

Now follows "The Best Ever", again an interlude based on a vocal sample, paving the way for the very calm tune "The Tams", placing a fragile and ethereal melody that would make a good soundtrack for a beautiful sunset amidst a thicket of nasty hisses - ouch! "Kurant" starts with the hard beats back in place, but later turns out to have a very ambient vibe, complete with wobbly and voice-like sounds from the synthesizer. "Eight Cakes B.C." - yes, another interlude, before "It's Curtains For You" enters the stage: a driving beat, surrounded by all sorts of sounds, both friendly and fierce, before dissolving into a sequence that sounds like a dying robot. Oh well, and listen to the talking horse on the hidden track before summing up your impressions.

"The Curse Of Vale Do Lobo" is a highly intellectualized album, full of advanced rhythms and complex arrangements - this is certainly not music you would feel you had to dance to. If all of that reminds a bit of Autechre, well, that's pretty close. But then again, this is by no means a bad thing.

(rh 08/MMIII)

Label: Planet Mu Records

>> Planet Mu Website