Ambient Meditations, Vol. 3

In Return to the Sources' third ambient compilation, Youth once again proved he had not only a good instinct for high-caliber, emotionally deep downbeat tracks, but a digestible and interesting pace all his own. Ignoring Padmasana's contribution, a train wreck of astronaut-sampling clichés, there was a legitimately high ratio of good moments, like Cat Vontrap's subtle and climatic "Stars of Babylon in Her Eyes," Dead Can Dance's inordinately Baroque "Indus," and across-the-board gems from Makyo, Transglobal Underground, and Zodiac Youth Experience, all of which was driven to a specific, dramatic finish.