IN SEARCH OF CASTAWAYS

Couple of years ago I have reviewed another album, Solar Moon, by this German electronic band. As I promised there, now I have finally come across this one - still unrated! - , towards which I had somewhat proggier exceptations, due to the band info text. Well, I can say there isn't really much more Prog nature in here. Also, in relistening to Solar Moon I came to a conclusion that it wasn't as "trippy" or joyously up-beat album as my review said. Both albums fall quite harmlessly into the mainstream of contemporary New Age/ Electronic music, or more precisely, into that department of the genre where music has recognizable rhythm structure and melodies, in opposition to the more ethearal New Age wing.

That said, both of the albums are very nice in their genre. Maybe this one being slightly better. It has an underwater/ diving theme, which reflects in music, keeping it mostly calm and atmospheric. Of course the underwater theme has always been very popular in Electronic or 'space' music, for example TANGERINE DREAM's Underwater Sunlight, BJÖRN J:SON LINDH's Atlantis - Bilder från en Ö, and Diving Dreams by G.E.N.E. (the latter artist not in PA), all of which actually have impressed me more in bygone years (when I was more into Electronic than nowadays, though).

To some degree Nautilus' music suffers from the lack of fresh ideas and surprises, ie. the album is indeed pleasant but quite samey on the long run, especially if compared to TD's aforementioned album. Nautilus is more clearly New Age music, even though electric guitars are part of the relatively rich sound palette. 67 minutes is a challenge to keep the music exciting within an underwater theme, but still there could have been some more adventure-like twists in this album. One must mention the 22-minute title track: it flows nicely from start to end and in the end you wonder if it really was that long, but do not expect very progressive journey from it. Some shorter tracks don't add anything notable to the whole but not exactly bad eggs in the basket either. If you like New Age/ Electronic and have enjoyed for example the output of the German label Innovative Communication ( -IC- in short), why not check this one out.