Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough＜Neon Vinyl＞

After a long spell working as a producer and collaborator, Sonic Boom released his first album of new music in 2020. All Things Being Equal is a synthetic, psychedelic dream built on whooshing, squelching, whining, and echoing old synths, many of them the kind of EMS units Brian Eno and the BBC used in the 70s to create otherworldly sounds. The songs alternate between warm whooshes of sunny delight and vaguely menacing and unsettled meditations on modern life, all delivered with deadpan vocal sincerity. Its a glorious return that melts the years between releases and sees Sonic Boom in peak form. Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough is a companion album that houses remixes of six of the songs from the record plus remixes of two songs that were only previously available in Japan (Tick Tock and the title track). They arent dramatic reworks of the originals; instead, Sonic Boom adds more synths, more dynamics, and more sound to each track. He stretches the run times, gives the synths more time and space to play off of each other, and generally makes the most out of his vast array of keyboards and effects. The opening Just Imagine sets the scene as it slowly unspools over 11 minutes, and the synths ping-pong across the arrangement, gathering in volume and intensity as they go. Its a stretch to even call these remixes; its more like hes painting a second layer of sound over the existing songs. For example, comparing the two versions of Things Like This (A Little Bit Deeper) shows that he is working on minute shades of color and mood, tweaking the mix instead of revamping it totally. Fans of drastic remodels might be a little bummed by how similar these tracks are to the originals, but anyone who was fond of the original album should find this set to be quite enjoyable as well. Especially those who are looking to get 200 percent of their daily dosage of vintage synthesizers. ~ Tim Sendra