What We Know Now by Cats With Hats
CWH take a deep dive into the tradition of the great electronic pioneers in this magnum opus release. WWKN has much more in common with Schaeffer and Stockhausen than Basinski and Hecker. The album can be divided into two parts: the first sixteen tracks and then the final nine named for nine of the twelve zodiac signs. Besides a guitar solo and a brief drumbeat the record is entirely made up traditional electroacoustic sounds. Besides the composers already mentioned fans of early Pink Floyd age Tangerine Dream will likely go in for at least parts of the first sixteen. The tracks primarily direct the listeners emotions in intentional ways. The track
Infinite Time is distinctly sorrowful, for example. Otherwise the feelings evoked are dread, despair, and the awesome lonely vastness of space. On the longer tracks they generally take a short repetitive theme and use the simple but effective technique of slowly swelling the volume. If the theme hits the spot, and they always do, you basically have an abstract electronic
Bolero. The Zodiac tracks are more emotionally ambiguous making them directly in tune with the sounds created by composers one hundred to eighty years ago.
I give this 5/5 stars and my highest recommendations.