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Music

Peaceful, musical tidings

Tim Macgregor was unknown to me before last week. His label, Shady Ridge Records, sent me a copy of this album to be considered for airplay on my radio show. The album really hit me in a subtle way.

Ambient – that’s the best way to describe Catamaran Selections. Not ambient in the way of minimal sound textures and drone music, but true ambient music – like Future Sound Of London used to make.

The album opens with a button being clicked on a tape machine and the tape rewinding. This made me nostalgic for the days when physical formats of musical releases ruled everyone. Most of the tracks on Catamaran Selections have a strong melodic sense and heavily reverbed synth pads. This creates a dreamy, atmospheric, almost heavenly canvas on to which Tim paints mid-paced drum machine patterns and repeating melodies. The whole album reminds me of Monet‘s paintings.

Stand out tracks for me include Quadrilateral Ocean Habitat that opens with the sound of the sea, and Searching For Alfred, which is less ambient and a little more upbeat than the other selections.

This is a very enjoyable and mesmerising album. I will be listening to more of Mr Macgregor‘s music from now on. If you want some background music to chill out to, this is your album!

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