RAINBOW DOME MUSICK

A beautiful, pastoral, electronic ambient recording. Now 33 years old, it hasn't dated much at all. Vocal free and quite unlike anything else in Steve Hillage's catalogue, 'Rainbow Dome Music' is a beatless journey through sunny countryside where you might want to stop, have a cup of tea, eat some sandwiches and swat a few flies off your pork pies before dozing off in the late afternoon sunshine. That's what goes through my mind anyway...

Unobtrusive synths and proto sequencers are used liberally on the opener which lasts a whopping 23 minutes. Very similar to modern day equivalents Steve Roach and Robert Rich, you can see where those artists got some of their inspiration from.

'Rainbow Dome Music' is a slowly evolving, laid back, peaceful affair and is one of the best renditions of 'ambient' that I've heard. Some really nice high pitched electric guitars weave their way gradually into the album but are sensibly kept in the background and used frugally.

One good thing about this album is that it's not cheesy at all. It sounds almost timeless. The second and last track 'Four ever rainbow' continues where the last one finished. Walls of keyboards dominate as a few bloops and bleeps emerge here and there. Guitars are so effected that they no longer sound like guitars and appear as washes of keyboards.

Dreamy.