vitalweekly.net // could have been created for Brian Eno’s ambient opus Apollo … an album of shining beauty
igloo mag // Top 10 album of 2007
ruckusruckusruckus.blogspot.com // the cover artwork is photos taken by Kevin Martin, they’re all haunting shots of the Lebanese state railway that’s fallen into disuse, to the extent that entire trees grow between the tracks. The first impression of the pictures are of charming light, only a second glance reveals the turmoil… there’s loads going on in the interior, unlike some of his contemporaries. They bear repeated listening exceptionally well - the music doesn’t give up its secrets, or become transparent or formulaic with familiarity. I read some reviews which drew comparisons between ‘Lost Tracks’ and Ulrich Schnauss’s shoegazing styles… They both take warm, melancholy tinged motifs and wrap themselves up in sustained sounds that embrace and decay. But while Schnauss is into an MBV ‘Loveless’ wall/sound, Spectre works out at a purer, clearer pitch.
tokafi.com // Some will not be able to fathom how Aaron Spectre could come up with an album like “Lost Tracks”. Didn’t this man just unleash “Grist”, a brutal Metal onslaught under his alter ego Drumcorps? … Only two months later, he is back with a work of sweetness, optimism and hundreds of melodies from a place where there is always music in the air. This contradiction, however, is easy to dispel…. There is always a sense of longing and unfulfillment lingering in the spacey robotic electronica, which keeps one’s attention focused - you never know whether all of the happiness was just an illusion. Which only goes to strenghten the impression of Spectre as a man with a romantic inclination. If you think about it, there were similar moments with Drumcorps as well, when the guitar madness and the percussion frenzy stopped and made way for short atmospheric interludes, which took listeners out of time and away from a one-sided perspective. It is not such a long way from “Grist” to “Lost Tracks” as some may think.
igloo mag // one of today’s new breed of hybridizing electronic sound practitioners… a proficiently wrought album of slightly doleful downtempo and faintly shadowy atmospheres
