ILLUSION CIRCLES

James R. Moore aka "Black Mountain Transmitter", "Lysergic Earwax" or the pertinent to PA "Cloudland Ballroom", has been recently added in this electronic sub-genre.

Cloudland Ballroom's "Illusion Circle", 2011, one of his 2 same year full releases, turns out to be true to any of the protocols this prog electronic category demands. This Ballroom project is less obscure than his Mountain one, its subtle approach plays along the lines of both the Berlin school and the LA one. An encounter between old and new, translated into short electronic compositions perfectly crafted to each one's own different possibilities.

Its unobtrusive, well thought, better disposed, creative electronic Cosmic nature adds up in the briefness of its 11 compositions compressed into a -40 minutes length album.

Best attributes> Its unpretentious yet enticing and unique songwriting, its variety in environments and its distance from artificially friendly melodies and from anyone of this genre's colleagues musical idiom.

The not so good being that between the 11 compositions there are small masterpieces sharing space with fairly good or only flat good ones.

This guy is going places and refinement and a flawless release will eventually surface along the way. As for now, I am keeping it to start my Cloudland Ballroom collection , as for you PA readers in general I will rate it ***3.9 PA stars.