Caural / Stars on My Ceiling
Album: Stars on My Ceiling   Collection:General
Artist:Caural   Added:Jan 2003
Label:Chocolate Industries  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2003-03-10 Pull Date: 2003-05-12 Charts: Electronic
Week Ending: Apr 13 Apr 6 Mar 30 Mar 23 Mar 16
Airplays: 3 1 3 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. Apr 14, 2005: One Tall Canadian, One Short American
Red Sunshine
4. Jul 31, 2003: Trip Over Zero
Retrospect
2. Jun 02, 2004: mild sedatives
Red Sunshine
5. Jul 24, 2003: Trip Over Zero
Red Sunshine, Retrospect, Sipping Snake Blood Wine
3. Apr 21, 2004: The Dumbarton Auroras
Untitled
6. Jul 17, 2003: Trip Over Zero
Mint & a Hospital

Album Review
Frederic Laruelle
Reviewed 2003-02-23
INSTRUMENTAL SAMPLE TEXTURES WITH HIP-HOP BEATS
(kind of like DJ Shadow)

Tintin love factor: 7/10
Tintin Favorites: 3, 5, 9*, 11

In this genre of multi-layered sample textures with beats, not many succeed in making it truly sound "organic" and structured/intuitive in a very uncalculated way (if you see what i mean ;-). Examples of success in this category include DJ Shadow and The Orb.
Caural succeeds and lands not far from DJ Shadow, but maybe more layered and experimental, and less "danceable".
What's interesting about borrowing old music samples, and layering them with all kinds of contemporary sounds, is that it sounds old, warm and cozy, but also new and cool.
Maybe this is where this "organic" feel comes from: the old samples with vinyl LP scratches make you somehow feel at home. But, yet, all this old stuff would sound so boring today, and this doesn't... Pfft ;-)

01 - 04:05 - midspeed, repetitive trip-beat reminding reggae dub, with a contemporary classical background
02 - 03:13 - midspeed, layering hip-hop beats with dj-shadow like atmosphere
03 - 04:25 - midspeed, jazz piano samples with (at times) heavy bass and beats
04 - 01:17 - segway including a reversed echoed beat
05 - 04:17 - midspeed, really cool double bass sample with an interesting droning bell sound and a hip-hop beat.
06 - 04:31 - slow(er) and introspective piece with beat.
07 - 03:32 - midspeed, snare beat with sampled voices and movie sounds, intrigue builds up with a sampled double bass
08 -03:01 - midspeed, more experimental, starts with balinese gamelan sample, then moves on to jazzy piano, funny wood percussions make it sound like a cartoon
09 - 06:58 - midspeed, various accoustic guitar samples meet Steve reich piano with a DJ shadow-type funky beat, beautiful.
10 - 00:42 - segway including sampled singing cuts
11 - 03:24 - midspeed, Atmospheric beats that almost sound funky, positive feeling. This one sounds more like LTJ Bukem.
12 - 04:57 - jazzy rhodes, cymbals, midspeed beat
13 - 05:23 - slow guitars on a rainy day
14 - 01:03 - end credits, the boat is leaving, get on board, fast! See you next time...

Band tidbits: from Chicago, Caural is a one-man band: Zachary Mastoon.

Track Listing
1. All These Todays Just   8. Lilac
2. Stick to Modeling   9. Red Sunshine
3. Camphor   10. 99 Cent Garden
4. Retrospect   11. Crush
5. Sipping Snake Blood Wine   12. Ultra Vivid
6. Mint & a Hospital   13. Untitled
7. For Earsnot (Nyc)   14. The Shadow of Someone