Lovely Thunder
On first inspection it might appear that nothing so plosive as thunder threatens the peacefulness that comprises this album. But as early as the second cut, "Sandtreader," remote booms impose the corporeal on the ethereal. This tension typifies the nexus of new age, ambient, and avant garde synonymous with Harold Budd. He recorded Thunder at the studio of the Cocteau Twins, the mid-'80s band whose foreboding atmospherics anticipated trends in "shoegazing" pop and ambient electronica; the record benefits from the Twins' palette of shimmering yet Gothic textures. Released prior to the CD's advent, the album is best heard as two halves: a handful of aural soundscapes and a 20-minute-long mélange of synthetic chorus, B-movie modulations, and gaseous sonics, wrapped up in the evocative title "Gypsy Violin."--Marc Weidenbaum