Psychomuzak - The Exstasie

Cat No: DELEC CD 018

Track Listing

1. The Exstasie - 10:01 (D. Carter)
2. Diamond Zombie - 19:48 (D. Carter)
3. Far In - 12:12 (D. Carter)
4. Concentrate (Over Concentration) - 20:50 (D. Carter)
5. Concentration (excerpt) - 11:59 (D. Carter)

Liner Notes

Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A Pregnant banke swel'd up, to rest
The violets reclining head,
Sat we two, one anothers best.
Our hands were firmely cimented
With a fast balme, which thence did spring,
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thred
Our eyes, upon one double string;
So to'entergraft our hands, as yet
Was all the meanes to make us one,
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propogation.
As 'twixt two equal Armies, Fate
Suspends uncertaine victorie,
Our soules, (which to advance their state,
Were gone out,) hung 'twixt her, and mee.
And whil'st our soules negotiate there,
Wee like sepulchrall statues lay;
All day, the same our postures were,
And wee said nothing, all the day.
If any, so by love refin'd,
That he soules language understood,
And by good love were growen all minde,
Within convenient distance stood,
He (though he knew not which soule spake,
Because both meant, both spake the same)
Might thence a new concoction take,
And part farre purer then he came.
This Extasie both unperplex
(We said) and tell us what we love,
Wee see by this, it was not ses.
Wee see, we saw not what did move;
But as all severall soules containe
Mixture of things, they know not what,
Love, these mixt soules doth mixe againe,
And makes both one, each this and that.
A single violent transplant,
The strength, the colour, and the size,
(All which before was poore, and scant.)
Redoubles still, and multiples.
When love, with one another so
Interinanimates two soules,
That abler soule, which thence doth flow,
Defects of lonlinesse controules.
Wee then, who are this new soule, know.
Of what we are compos'd, and made.
For, th'Atomies of which we grow,
Are soules, whom no change can invade.
But O alas, so long, so farre
Our bodies why doe wee forbeare?
They'are ours, though they'are not wee, Wee are
The intelligences, they the spheare.
We owe them thanks, because they thus,
Did us, to us, at first convay,
Yeelded their forces, sense, to us,
Not are drosse to us, but allay.
On man heavens influence workes not so,
But that if first influence workes not so,
But that it first imprints the ayre,
See soule into the soule may flow,
Though it to body first repaire.
As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like soules as it can,
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtile knot, which makes us man:
So must pure lovers soules descend
T'affections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great Prince in prison lies.
To'our bodies turne wee then, that so
Weake men on love reveal'd may looke;
Loves mysteries in soules doe grow
But yet the body is his booke.
And if some lover, such as wee,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still marke us, he shall see
Small change, when we'are to bodies gone.
John Donne
17th Century

Credits

Psychomuzak is: Dean Carter - Electric guitar + effects, Keyboards + Keyboard bass on "The Exstasie", Keyboards on "Far In", basson "Concentrate"; with Cliff Stapleton - Electric hurdy gurdy on "Far In".

All tracks published by Delerium Music.
Production, programming (on "The Exstasie") & treatments by Steven Wilson,
Recorded in No Man's Land, Jan 29-31, Feb 28-29 1994.

Front Cover - an original batik by Sarah Julia Vaughan,
Photo's of Dean by Claudine Schafer,
Photo's of Cliff by Stephen Lorence.

Press Reviews

• En-Trance April 1995.
• Rock 'n' Reel April 1995.
• I/E September 1995.
• Millennium May 1995.
• Rockerilla February 1995.

En-Trance

Normally the Briton Dean Carter is known as singer/songwriter. Yet he shows himself as Psychomusak from a completely different side. His voice is hardly audible on "Ekstasie" and the tune is not much to write about either. It is a driving tune, dominated by the guitar. This pulsating, guitars point to German 70s EM like Neu, Schulze, TD or Ashra/Ash Ra Tempel. Okay, one can argue about the worthiness, the fact is, however, that he does understand his trade and also has an identity. The five tracks present rather long epics in full 75 minutes, satuated with suggestive guitar sequences and analog sound play plus 90s technic and elements such as ambient/trance/chill. Alltogether Psychomusak has produced a good debut which will the Rezi will take notice of. Let us hope that this CD is not all of Carters Psychomuzak-side.

Rock 'n' Reel

Guitarist Dean Carter (aka Psychomuzak) improvises wildly on a heavily FX'd instrument (nothing new: see Mazlyn Jones), and with the help of Cliff Stapleton (ex-Blowzabella) on hurdy gurdy, a drum machine and some nifty twiddling from Steven Wilson at the desk comes up with an album of ambient psychedelia. Light the incense, dim the lights and alter your consciousness and this probably seems a good idea, but in the cold light of another winter's day and given the nature of improvisation, it comes across as somewhat self-indulgent and repetitive. Good ideas struggle to escape and a more structured approach might have resulted in a very good album. An interesting experiment. Watch this space. (Dave Haslam)

I/E

Guitarist/keyboardist Dan Carter is something of a whiz kid. One listen to The Extasie and its evident he's worshipped at the door of the Ash Ra Tempel, with an extra-curricular foray into 90's trance 'n' dance territory. But what's gripping is the way he's absorbed those influences and turned them into something wholly his own; five lengthy tracks of contemporary electro-hypnotism. From the reichman guitar arpeggios of "Far In" to the far out reaches of the mammoth "Concentrate" (twenty minutes of sheer acrobatic atmospheres and infinite, spatial regions), Carter's taken all of the German nuances of the past and whipped them into post-Eno systems music of considerable breadth and substance. Not quite ambient, 'cause it's got teeth.

Millennium

Psychomusak, essentially, is one man - Dean Carter. Previously Dean was notorious for his lyrical style. Psychomusak sees him venturing into semi-ambient territory. The first tracks of this LP deludes you into thinking you're about to hear a progressive rock album or something like the Ozric's maybe. The Extasie as a single track is an electronic guitar workout using a number of delay and loop FX. The album as whole OK stuff, but not particularly outstanding. Then comes the remainder of the album, an altogether different kettle of fish. Production is by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and you really notice his input. Keyboard swirls and looping guitar that fades in and out of the mix, work hard to trance you out but in actual fact it is the more simplistic sections of the arrangements hat work best. Each track takes a lengthy time to build which most listeners will find annoying, but this does allow for some interesting new ideas on guitar sounds. "Far IN" is definitely the highlight of the album although again very Ozrics like. An electric hurdy gurdy is played on "Far In". Excellent idea, just don't ask me to point it out in the music. The Extasie leans heavily towards a rock consuming audience looking for something to impress their open-minded friends with. Almost as if to state that "rockers chill too". Psychomusak provides a change to a lot of the bland computer driven ambience that narrowly negotiates distribution but definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea. For myself, it was a refreshing brew but one that could have used another teaspoon of sugar.

Rockerilla

In the game of possibilities, Dean Carter chooses the option 'infinite' and gets on a rocket to flash beyond the former co-ordinates of his guitar strings; the Psychomuzak carrier, originally the title of a tape album turns now into a sort of parallel identity designed to explore new territories in the ambient music field. This may not be such a surprise in itself, in a moment when the the ambient sounds are probed under the most different conditions by many of the most creative talents around; what amazes us is the richness of expression and the variety of the sonic landscapes, painted by means of very simple materials, just a tangerine guitar with some basic effects and a drum machine as the only indispensable tools, with the keyboards confined to an almost decorative function, and with minimal thematic units, yet rich enough to be folded in a thousand different shapes. The title track sounds, as its name suggests, like a research of a profane ecstasy, reached at last through a shining eurythmia decorated by a guitar embroidery, oriental dance of the 1001th night among countless stars, on this startling sequence, the contribution of S.Wilson (Porcupine Tree), in charge of the production and effect manipulation, emerges with clear evidence. "Diamond Zombie" is rather an obsessive solo guitar mantra, a chain of arabesques being born then melted one in each other, summing up or reciprocally annihilating with Fripp-esque precision, changing the light emission from pale alabaster reflections to dripping spectral beats in a dark tunnel. This is the real demonstration of D.C.'s instrumental ability, if you consider that he's able to reproduce these things in front of a live audience without any apparent difficulty. "Far In" is the softer side of the album, decorated by nimble P.Thornton-like keyboards, and blessed with a curious electric hurdy gurdy, contribution of the guest C.Stapleton. "Concentrate", by contrast, is the place where the sound becomes static and metaphysical, where every rhythm struggling to float is pushed back in an all encompassing haze; we end up with "Concentration", almost an etude on a fragment of the previous track, the staticity turns to absolute stillness, the rarefaction turns to cosmic vacuum; the CD player turns off, but our ears still retain the illusion of perceiving far off vibrations.

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