Here’s one from out in left field- Celadon’s "Post Industrial Delicacies", proving that anyone with some digital equipment and a little moxy can throw something together that people might listen to. Celadon’s promo says " Post-Industrial Delicacies' uniquely textural sound results from its mixture of found sounds and electronics. Samples of trains, birds, machinery, and people are selected, warped, manipulated, and layered into detailed compositions. The result is unlike the typical sterile, synthetic sound of most electronic music." I can’t agree with the last line of the statement; I’ve heard a lot of electronic music that doesn’t sound sterile. As for "synthetic", hey, it’s electronic music, OF COURSE IT’S SYNTHETIC!

Anyway, let’s dig a little deeper into "Post Industrial Delicacies", Track the first, "Earth Abides" begins with a nice primitive percussion groove overlaid with a SYNTHESIZED guitar in a slow minimal groove plunking out the lead line. There are birds chirping in the background and a bunch of stray strange noises. Very lo-fi on the recording, so I knew already what I was in for. The track lacked development and a quality lead sound. Not nearly menacing enough to really grab your attention. Track two – "Curiouser" was a bit curiouser, with odd non-sequetous dialogue samples, a laugh track from a funhouse fat lady (remember them?), and a clatter-beat percussion barrage that at times had a groove turnaround not unlike a lawn sprinkler. Little bells seemed to be improvising a totally different song giving the effect of a demented carnival. Sounds like they put everything including the kitchen sink in this one. But as in cooking, just because you add a lot of ingredients to the stew doesn’t mean it will taste good.

Track 3, "Lie With Me" has spoken vocals that are just outright embarrassing. This is beginning to border on pathetic. The real shame of it is, that there is talent here buried beneath the cacophony. Moving on, "Nothing To Say" is just that-a morass of sound with processed dialog that really doesn’t have anything to say. A few interesting sounds, but nothing I haven’t heard before. "Sisyphus Laid Down His Stone" moves more into the experimental illbient category and would have been alright if it wasn’t for the "sounds like I’m just learning to play this thing" guitar plunks. "Good Ole Boy" takes a bunch of redneck, skinhead, neo-nazi, KKK, etc. dialog samples, and puts them in a sonic blender on the frappe setting. The result is something no contestant on Fear Factor would want to consume. Last two tracks, "Whisper In My Ear" and "In My Winter" feign a sinister motif, but by this time I’ve already lost interest, which is too bad because there’s an interesting element or three happening now and then. Too much too little, too late. Maybe given time, "Post Industrial Delicacies" could grow on you... probably like a fungus. I’d see a doctor for that.