Horchata - Acytota [Afe - 2010]Horchata is Michael Palace, an electronics artist who usually does dance music (from what I can tell from his label's website.) This is supposed to be a "Dark Ambient" work but this release strikes me as merely Ambient to the point of being New Age. The titles of every track allude to biology (as far as I know), but you wouldn't be able to catch that theme hearing this. The whole CD seems to be of varying quality, ranging from what could be creepy soundtrack music to typical pastel-colored New Age fluff. Sure there's lots of low-end rumbling (when you turn the bass up), but I wouldn't call it "Dark Ambient" -- it's a bit too clean and antiseptic for that. I'm trying to find a highlight on this but I come up nearly empty. Maybe "RNA" because it did seem to have some nifty piano at first listen, but for the second time it still reminds me too much of late-period Tangerine Dream or Popol Vuh until it gets dissonant midway. The rest pretty much is either watered-down Lustmord or it's the same old aural wallpaper. So don't expect much "Dark Ambient" from Horchata. There's better Ambient around that isn't as cheesy as this    Lawrence J. Patti
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