Pitchfork

And sometimes, everything just beeps. Sometimes, everything clicks for a few seconds, pans to the left speaker, beeps, fades into a pattern of static, beeps, and then clicks for a while longer. Sometimes, everything clicks, then hisses, whizzes, beeps, drones, gives way to a muddled bassline, morphs into a complex ambient soundscape, percolates like an overclocked coffee machine, builds to a subtle crescendo, and fades out.

Untitles, a 21-minute EP by Soul Static Sound label owner Darryl Moore, falls into that last category. Its five tracks all walk the line between subtle melodicism and ambient noise. Now, one thing that's always struck me as great about ambient electronic music is that, although the genre is considered by many to be fairly intellectual-- to be enjoyed only by chain smokers named Klaus dressed in black turtlenecks-- so much of the experience of listening to it depends on intuition rather than intellectualization. To attempt to pick apart a piece of music like Untitles while listening to it is immensely detrimental to the listening experience as a whole. To really enjoy this kind of stuff, all you can do is sit back and take it in.

Untitles is remarkably well-suited for this kind of listening. While many minute sonic elements can be picked out, it's the sum of these elements that transforms the record from a composite of beeps and clicks into a vast, panoramic aural landscape. At a pleasant 21 minutes, Untitles draws you into this landscape, gives you enough time to take a little peek around, and then sends you back home interested, but not all that different from how you came into it.

While Untitles may be a fascinating ambient listen, it offers very little that other ambient music can't. The sonic elements incorporated here are nothing new-- mostly static-laden, hissing, ambiguous electronic noise, and faintly melodic synthesizers. It's one of those records that reaps the benefits of its genre magnificently, but does nothing to expand upon or further it in any way. If you're a big fan of ambient music, or if you're yearning for a brief, listenable foray into the world of experimental ambient, Untitles is probably worth a shot. Otherwise, it may be a pleasant ear-tickler, but there are other clicks and beeps more deserving of your cash.