On his first Hausu Mountain release, M. Geddes Gengras builds a synthetic audio world to soundtrack the lonely deserted island paradise of your dreams. This is the most organic-sounding drone work he's recorded yet, with distant percussion throbbing away inside the lush, drifting synth textures, and little discernable difference between electronic and acoustic elements. Opening piece "Zoltan" faintly resembles a more new age version of some of Gengras' earlier work as part of the band Pocahaunted, and then "The Pump at the Way Station" is closer to Projekt-style ethereal space music, with dark, resounding echo chords and splashes of electro-acoustic ripples. Things start to get a bit more broken and prickly around "Cellar / Oracle," where crusty glitches and a fluttering Casio bossa nova-style beat wash over each other. "Passage Under the Mountains" evolves from the previous piece into a sort of backwards techno vortex. Much of the album achieves a strange balance between tranquility and intensity; it can seem relaxed and unhurried, but there are always strange noises dripping or scratching away, and there's no complete assurance that everything is safe. This keeps the album exciting and unpredictable, and sets it apart from most music categorized as ambient. ~ Paul Simpson|

Rovi