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6LA8 - Minimal Wanderings - An Improvisation Session ( w/MMI) CD (album) cover

MINIMAL WANDERINGS - AN IMPROVISATION SESSION ( W/MMI)

6LA8

 

Progressive Electronic

3.50 | 2 ratings

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colorofmoney91
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Does anyone else study too much and develop various psychosomatic illnesses from the constant stress? Then this album is for you.

I've mentioned before that 6LA8 are very good at creating beautiful and dreamy epic length ambient monoliths, such as the last track on This is Not a Conceptual Album, and I knew upon hearing that one track that this group absolutely needed to release more ambient material. Well, this first collaboration with MMI, Minimal Wanderings (An Improvisation Session) is exactly what I hoped for and runs just under 2 hours and 10 minutes in length - yes, this is an ambient monster.

If you're someone who is being forced to study for the majority of each day, constantly pressured by your abnormally anxious conscience to receive good marks and well- deserved recognition for your hard work, you're probably quite stressed. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to lay back and take a deep diaphragmatic breath and let "Time Progressions" lull your mind. The pace of this hour-long track never exceeds a steady crawl, but the ambient style is engaging enough to keep the song from being boring but is also open and airy enough to let your mind wander in the blank space if necessary. The sound is very reminiscent of Ashra's New Age of Earth but with the spacey hyperactivity pacified almost entirely.

"Mistakenly Exotic" is another monster at over 45 minutes, and is considerably less optimistic sounding than the previous track, but makes maintains a relaxing atmosphere with exotic (maybe mistakenly) tropical rain forest esque elements that make this track sound very organic.

"Coffee Break" is a short interlude that is very empty and sparse, resulting in a deep dreaminess before the beginning distant, bassy drumroll of "The Yelling Man" pours its drones out of the speakers and into your mind. The latter track is a very slow but consistently building canvas of expanding layers of deep rumbling percussion rolling, nocturnal ethereal drones, and distant and sharp psychedelic guitar noodling.

Although I think this album is truly enjoyable, it may not be suitable for people that are not fans of ambient music, but this could relaxing atmosphere I'm sure is universal. Over 2 hours might seem a bit overlong for some people, even ambient electronic fans, but the runtime flows through in no time at all if you allow this album to drift throughout the background as you carry on with your daily stressors or simply use Minimal Wanderings as a sleeping aid. 6LA8 and MMI really did a great job of crafting this beautiful experience, and I highly recommend this album to anyone in need of some serious relaxation.

colorofmoney91 | 4/5 |

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