Music: The Smiling Buddhas: Lo

Our Take

Austria’s The Smiling Buddhas have been around for over a decade now, but didn’t release their first album until late last year. Part of the reason for this is that co-founder John Fitzpatrick moved back to Hong Kong, and despite the fact that he and Nepal Hun tried to continue as a mail art project he ended up quitting. But Nepal Hun went off on his own, and as a result the group now has its debut album Lo. Offering a mix of ambient and experimental electronica, this is a release that really has a sound of its own and is very atmospheric.

When Lo first begins, it sounds as though it is going to end up being an ambient release but it doesn’t take long before listeners will realize that The Smiling Buddhas is much more than that. A particular track might start off with atmospheric ambient material and end with some techno sounding beats that are broken up by occasional bursts of ambience. It’s as though the group has attempted to capture organic sounds but at the same time throw some electronic influences in as well. This may sound like a bit of an odd mix, but the way in which the electronica/techno oriented material is handled on Lo makes it have plenty of atmosphere as well. The group also manages to keep things interesting by being very spontaneous, as they might keep an electronic group going for an extended period of time and then suddenly fade it out and return to more minimalist material.

The Smiling Buddhas have really crafted something unique with their debut full length, as they have merged together two very distinctive styles into such a way that they complement each other. I could try to dub Lo as ambient techno of sorts, but that wouldn’t fully do the release justice. This is certainly the kind of music that one could listen to with headphones on and be taken away by, as its minimalist arrangements and more upbeat electronica segments are fully absorbing and are sure to give one a vision of some sort of adventure. You’ve heard music like it, but nothing that matches it exactly and because of that this group stands on its own.

http://www.base.at

Chris Dahlberg
July 15, 2009