somuno | sound - noise - music /review/+thisismyampbuzz/

Listen to 'This Is My Ampbuzz' in its entirety. The adjectives that spring to mind, such as "cosmic", "astral" and "otherworldly", as the first track unfolds with a crunching explosion like that of a lifting rocket will not be the same ones that remain at the end of the experience. Rather than dwelling in the cold confines of space, the debut release from Kinski guitarist Chris Martin is more closely related to the first minutes after astronauts return to Earth, their capsule smashing into the briny ocean and then peacefully bobbing like lazy flotsam until rescued.

On a superficial level, Martin promotes a connection between water and his music through most of the titles of the songs: 'Bubbles,' 'Underwater Bomb', 'Welcome to the Ocean Floor' and 'Diving Instructions'. However, the association goes beyond track names. His palette of guitar loops, disgorged waves of sonic refuse and fractured ambient drones gel together into something warm and serous, like an aural amniotic fluid or Nyquil.

'Center for Clouds' is Martin's most playful track. It too opens with short blasts of rocket exhaust, but the smoke and flares quickly disperse before a cartoonish bouncing rhythm and far-off watery chimes - imagine being caught inside a lava lamp with cherry-red globules burping you to a state of relaxed buoyancy. 'Soft Currency' then dispenses with the frivolity, opting instead for a more angular sound. Looped slicing - like that of scraping guitar strings or the cry of a marine mammal cut short - remains at the forefront of the song. A somnolent cascade of plucked guitar notes shimmer and bead behind this jutting screech until the whole degenerates into a soupy mess, reminiscent an old cassette being garbled in a tape deck.

'Welcome to the Ocean Floor' is the only song in which the darkness of the sea pours in. Low tones shift and moan through the expanse of the ocean like ghostly whale calls rippling over the remnants of submerged civilizations. But even at these depths, a calm and comfort prevail. There is no hidden, alien evil or frozen isolation at the bottom of Ampbuzz's ocean - only nature thriving and dying. So what words describe 'This Is My Ampbuzz'? Humid and mysterious. Leviathan.