Of the many remarkable ambient albums released by the Frankfurt, Germany-based label Mille Plateaux, the works of Gas always seems to stand out above the rest. With Pop, the man behind the Gas moniker, Wolfgang Voigt, brings some light to the haunting haziness of his previous album, Königsforst.... [+] Expand

Of the many remarkable ambient albums released by the Frankfurt, Germany-based label Mille Plateaux, the works of Gas always seems to stand out above the rest. With Pop, the man behind the Gas moniker, Wolfgang Voigt, brings some light to the haunting haziness of his previous album, Königsforst. Rather than reveling entirely in the dark passageways of eerie droning strings, Voigt integrates terrestrial sounds such as trickling streams of water and wind to his surreal soundscapes on the beginning half of the album. Yet even though the prolific German artist attempts to bring a sense of humanity to his austere music, Pop still immerses the listener into a alien domain of unearthly sound more dynamic that his previous musical journeys. The epic songs loop endlessly in hypnotizing repetition as tiny alterations in the resonance and tone function as a means of increasingly disorientating the listener. The farther one ventures into this album, the farther one ventures away from the secular world of human voices, passing cars, and chirping birds. In the word of Gas, one loses touch with humanity as droning strings of various feels swirl endlessly in orbiting intervals of rising and fading salience. The secular traces of water and wind that open Pop fade quickly, pulling the listener further and further away from any sense of reality. By the thumping conclusion of the album, even the tranquil sense of hallucination becomes eclipsed by the album's intense peak, where the music speeds up until one feels as though they are either unwillingly falling down a drain into the farthest depths of the album or frantically racing to an eventual escape from Voigt's all-encompassing world of Gas. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide [-] Collapse

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