Glass Out - Never Force a Left Handed Child to Use Their Right Hand

Glass Out is the pseudonym of one man; Andrew Dewar Ainslie if you believe the record sleeve, Andrew Ainslee Dewar if you believe the press release. This LP comprises three tracks of glacial ambient music with a minimal techno kind of edge to them. Interestingly enough, the opening track 'Manifesto' is based around vocal samples of Coil's late, great Jhonn Balance, reading the Coil manifesto on Dutch radio. I wish it was a little bit higher in the mix because sometimes it's hard to make out what he's saying, but the overall effect of the track is really good. It's really slow paced and minimal but there's definitely melody and rhythm here, it's not just the stream-of-consciousness tones and swooshes that a lot of modern ambient provides. It's a little bit soundtracky in the way it builds tension. If it was in a film it'd be used in some totally nail-biting scene where our hero was being hunted in some abandoned factory full of rusted machines that are bigger than houses. The same glacially melodic, vocal-sample-led style is evident in the other track on the first side. Flip to side B, however, and we've got the side-long title track, which is far more obtuse than the other side's offering. It opens up with a weird metallic drone which whooshes and quavers around the top end while a more regular bass drone throbs slowly in the background. This is occasionally interrupted by noisy interference which is quite jarring. Eventually some high end groans start coming in, but there's no sense of melody or structure on this one, just an enveloping sense of darkness. I swear at one point it fades out and then fades back in again. A bit hard work for me, to be honest, but the potentially classic late night listening offered on the A side more than makes up for it. Plus there's a really great painting of a rabbit on the cover.