Yellow6 - The Beautiful Season Has Past

  by Sarah Rowland

published: 16 / 7 / 2006

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Review

This three disc collection from Yellow6 spans eight years of work and includes just about every rare and unreleased track from a highly prolific and ongoing career. A must for any current fans and a great introduction for anyone who likes their instrumental music ambient and sweeping, this 40 song epic really gives the listener a feel for Yellow6. The solo project of Jon Attwood, Yellow6 has become a strong underground presence and has released material on over 20 international labels and produced five full-length albums. What also makes this collective stand out is the detailed sleeve notes which give a brief history of each song, explaining where it is from and showing the original art work. The opening tracks on the first CD, 'Series 1' and 'Series 2' both originated from the same song but broke in to two they started heading in different directions. Both songs set the scene for the CD which although consistent, has moments of subtlety and others of crescendo. Disc two takes six tracks from a 1999 mini-LP, 'Icanhearallthemusicaroundme' and six from an unreleased album which had been planned with Enraptured records. The songs carry on the themes of the first disc but are more emotionally charged and a little more unpolished than some of the later tracks. There is a definite hint towards Attwood’s eclectic music roots in his earlier recordings; he started out in early 80’s punk bands, and the song 'Cale', for example, uses a dance influenced drum machine beat behind a distorted guitar riff. The second half of the second disc is even more raw with rock, punk and ambience cutting against each other and explaining why Attwood gained the attention of international indie labels as well as fans of the more clean cut ambient sound. The final disc again follows the sound structure of the first and throws together a selection of rare tracks from various compilations and singles. There is still some strong guitar work on these tracks but his later work is much smoother than the gritty electric riffs of the second disc. 'Object #1' and 'Perception Received', which are both earlier recordings, have more of an improvised feel, however, and do well to break the surface of the still water that surrounds the later tracks. This is a strong compilation of work and although the earlier work of Yellow6 has a more experimental and original feel to it, the later tracks fit well in to a genre that Yellow6 has played a part in shaping through his vast and monumental works

Track Listing:-

1 Series1
2 Hold:Up
3 Series2
4 Summersend
5 Leaving Time
6 Unknowing A
7 Unknowing B
8 Onecertain#4
9 The Room
10 Improvisation#1
11 One
12 Rain (Again)
13 Depth
14 Normalize
15 N.Y.E.
16 Even
17 Cale
18 Self Distract
19 Light Dome II
20 Icanhear...
21 Color
22 Delivery
23 Part1
24 Sodium
25 Taught
26 Red Velvet Box
27 Final Piece A
28 Final Piece B
29 Naming Stars
30 Object #1
31 Perception Received
32 Milestone
33 Machine
34 La Cave
35 Amber
36 (The First) Of Winter
37 Grey#1
38 Grey#5
39 Redlightcamera
40 Expressway427