Ashbed - If We Should Part

Ashbed is the musical creation of David Tatlock, hailing from New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Canada. Ashbed's music has been featured on the compilations entitled 'Nightwaves Volume 2 and Volume 3', released by the Nightwaves webzine/website.

Ashbed's latest 2012 release, 'If We Should Part' is a 15 track journey into some of the darkest corners of our mind. Each track on this album combines an older Industrial sound with elements of Experimental and Dark Ambient music. While some of the tracks have an elemental Industrial beat to them, these songs can be followed by a period of ambient droning effects that conjure up dark images of fear, loathing, disgust and angst while featuring foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones.

With influences such as Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding, Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten, Ashbed's ambient pieces provide a feeling of solitude, melancholy, confinement and isolation, while the Industrial pieces provide more rhythm and also feature some sequences from time to time.

I had a difficult time comparing Ashbed's music to any of the artists listed on Brutal Resonance. Upon listening to the album, I was instantly reminded of Industrial music from the late 90's to around 2003. One artist that instantly stuck out in my head was the American Industrial/Ambient group Xorcist. Many of the tracks contain sound elements from older Haujobb tracks and possibly from Gridlock's Industrial days. I can recognize various synths used by each of these artists.

The music can be abstract at times and a few tracks are quite drawn out, but flow nicely into one another. A few times, I hadn't realized that another song had started. A few parts of this album can be a tad intense, and not all the songs are as strong as they could be, but all in all it's more of a chilling journey to experience.

This is a great album to listen to as background music. I would much rather prefer to hear this artist perform live, as I am sure that many of the songs would envelop everybody in the room and give the feeling of an out of body experience. I believe that this artist has nowhere to go but up from here and has the potential to be signed to a reputable ambient/noise label. I look forward to hearing future releases from Ashbed.

I'd recommend this album for anyone who is looking to hear newer music that sounds like older music and wants to get away from the stomp-stomp oontz-oontz of Aggrotech. It's nice to hear some music being released by someone who understands quality music and quality mastering. This album will definitely bring you back to the early 00's and late 90's. Enjoy! Dec 03 2012