Here are some of the liner notes:
Picking up a thread left behind by the band's earlier effort A Soft Liquid Joy (especially that of The Lonely Magnetic Balloon), this album is a dream-like exploration of the dark, the subtle, the fantastic, the grotesque, the nocturnal, the erotic and the ephemerality of all things. Drawing inspiration from collage techniques, pantonal improvisation, impressionism, gagaku and the way that sound and light behave in the fourth spatial dimension -- particularly as they relate to the differing flows of time in such a space -- the sonic creation is now a thin and sparse shimmering now a thick, rich tapestry of sound. Mainly but not completely foregoing traditional concepts of melody and of standard chord progressions one finds that in this record the limits of patience and of good taste are often tested. But not for any self-indulgent reasons: the entire piece is an opportunity for meditation, for reflection, for a good time in general.
The debt to the past is immense, and as has been detailed elsewhere, the “influences” on this work are much more than simply what we like (in fact the awful and horrible have impacted us more): it is the totality of the past that is flowering here. But in any list of specific artists/works we have to make mention of Louis and Bebe Barron, particularly their score for the 1956 sci-fi film Forbidden Planet.
On this recording the New York City Pop Band is Charles Ramsey. The material was built up out using guitars triggering a Roland VG-8 and a Roland GR-1, the classic Alpha Juno 2, a Casio CZ-101, a Boss DR-770 and various software synths.
Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing...
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