Boyd Rice / NON - Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 - Present

by Anthony Strutt

published: 26 / 9 / 2004

Boyd Rice / NON - Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 - Present

Label: Mute Records
Format: CD

Ambient compilation from long-serving electronica artist, Boyd Rice, which combines trippy, chill-out music with occasional horror movie soundtrack effects

Review

Boyd Rice, who mainly records under the name of Non, is, according to his press release, a bit of a bad boy who has the habit of getting under peoples’ noses by making weird music. He started off back in the 70’s and his music has been compared to Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’ and that of John Lennon’s arty Plastic Ono Band. ‘Terra Incognita' is compiled by Boyd himself, and, never having heard of him, as a result of his reputation as a bad boy, I was expecting some Sonic Youth style noise, but, no, it's nothing of the sort. What we have on the whole here is some quite pleasant, trancey, trippy, chill-out music with some odd horror movie soundtrack noises thrown in for good measure. It opens up with the repetitive-sounding ‘99’s Solitude’, which experiments with some clangy keyboards. ‘Extract 4’ has a Jamacian drum feel to it and some feedback at the end, while ‘Father’s Day’ uses a trancey loop, which is broken up with some basically-played guitar. ‘Sunset’ is very dark. It is reminiscent of the witch-like chant in Dario Argento’s 1977 movie, ‘Suspiria’. ‘Arka’, which is one of the more recent tracks, and which was originally released in 2002, starts with some spoken word in English and French and then has some strings that recall the soundtrack to the film ‘Alien’ before the horror starts. ‘Creunta Voluptas’ again is reminiscent of ‘Suspiria’ and is once more dark and haunting. ‘Untitled 1’ is quiet and ambient, but far too repetitive, while the brooding ‘A Taste of Blood’ would again sound perfect on a horror film soundtrack. ‘Extract 2’ is repetitive in the same way as'Untitled 1’, while ‘Extract 5’ sounds like running water with noises on the top. The jarring ‘Extract 12’ meanwhile sounds like something which could have been taken from the soundtrack to one of Roger Corman’s low budget early 60’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptions and which would appear at the point in the film in which the dying man is dragged to a ghastly death. ‘Ambient Works’ ends quite pleasantly with ‘The Fountain of Fortune’, again from 2002, which sounds like the soundtrack at the end of the 1965 Hammer film ‘She’ in which the fountain of youth runs, angels are humming, a flame burns and waves crash in the distance.

Track Listing:-

1 NON- Solitude
2 Boyd Rice / Frank Tovey- Extract 4
3 Boyd Rice- Father's Day
4 NON- Immolation Of Man
5 NON- Sunset
6 NON- Arka
7 NON- Cruenta Voluptas
8 Boyd Rice- Untitled 1
9 NON- A Taste Of Blood
10 Boyd Rice- Untitled 2
11 Boyd Rice / Frank Tovey- Extract 5
12 Boyd Rice / Frank Tovey- Extract 12
13 NON- The Fountain Of Fortune