Short cassette of analogue synth drone by Synth Pit, who are two Australians Grant Warner and Dimitri Kapetas. Their Asteria (TANUKI RECORDS #18) contains three short ambient electronic pieces on the A side, each of which remain in one fairly pleasant place without really going anywhere, content to explore the cosy delights to be found contained in two major chords and simple experiments with oscillator effects. The 15-minute B side may have more ambitious aspirations to present itself as a “cosmic voyage” of some sort, but only succeeds in this by dint of being longer, and slightly more abstract and diffuse in tone. Not at all an unpleasant listen, but not especially inventive, neither on a musical level, nor in terms of understanding and using the potential of the synthesiser.
The front cover collage is entertaining, depicting a muscle-bound beach bum and his petite amie about to embark on a trip across a deep blue Mediterranean ocean in order to reach a nebula in outer space. I can’t help feeling the profound implications of this imminent journey are wasted on this pair of bimbos, though; just through their body language, you can tell they’re almost blind to what they’re seeing. The label blurb for this damp squib is cringeworthy; the writer compares this lightweight electronica material to true innovators Delia Derbyshire and to music from the kosmische genre, even implying that it improves on the former in some way. What gall! From January 2016; not really recommended.