When your editor asked me if I wanted to receive the new Zelienople album for review I have to admit that I first hesitated a bit. Not because I don?t enjoy what they?re doing, but rather that I thought that I already might have said what there is to say about a band exploring the most fascinating parts of the drone/minimalism/slowcore map. I am happy that Brad didn?t listen to my lame objections since Zelienople?s new one really marks a step sideward from their previous outings. What at times seemed taken to perfection on previous drone affairs somehow seems more rough and direct here. Without knowing if that?s actually the case this feels like an aural document that has been recorded in a short period of time. Some people will surely have objections when it comes to such recording techniques but they?re certainly not valid here, and if you ask me it might even be the other way around.

It?s really not much sense in singling out any specific tracks, since it all flows together into one continuous sound bath that?s very easy to submerge one?s self under for a day or so.

At its most static, these washes of flowing ambience recalls folks like Stars of the Lid and The Dead Texan but the blurry snapshot of the styles mentioned above that Zelienople displays is more often than not one of a kind. If you like me love exploratory and glacial, but ever-changing, soundscapes move like dark cosmic clouds across a dense galactic plane you?ll find this cosmic whirlpool sucking you in before you know it. 8/10 -- Mats Gustafsson (25 May, 2005)