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Booth and the Bad Angel / Tim Booth

Booth and the Bad Angel

August 7, 1996

Adult Alternative Pop/Rock

In honor of the recent passing of Twin Peaks/Blue Velvet composer Angelo Badalamenti, it is worth unearthing his collaboration with James vocalist Tim Booth recording as Booth and the Bad Angel. The songs are lush and baroque with broad and brooding orchestration, and Tim Booth's soaring and sneering vocal dancing over top. Engineered by Nigel Godrich with Bernard Butler on guitar and Brian Eno providing backing vocals(!), this is an album that could only have happened in 1996 and I am thankful for it.

- Zac Johnson

Jürgen Müller

Science of the Sea

April 1, 2011

Ambient

When Jürgen Müller's Science of the Sea was released in 2011, it was credited as a reissue of an obscure private press LP from the early 1980s by a self-taught German composer who studied oceanic science. The music's bubbling synths and ambient washes perfectly illustrate scenes of vivid underwater life. Soon after a certain major music website proclaimed the album a "Best New Reissue," it was revealed to be a contemporary work by prolific electronic artist Panabrite (aka the recently passed Norm Chambers). Regardless of its origin, this is up there with Mort Garson's Plantasia in how it evocatively uses synthesizers to explore a particular theme.

- Paul Simpson