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KEYBOARD MAGAZINE
Killl Switch...Klick
Almost Ambient Collection Vol. One
The accent in the title is on "almost." Though much of the music is warm and gauzy, there's generally a beat prowling around. The sound effects, while subdued, are sometimes disturbing- love the squidgy filter stuff. The cluster-chord piano solo in "Feeding the Machine (Day to Day)" is downright rude, and "A/B Continuity (Resurgence)" is a full-on industrial/techno song. For my money, mastermind D.A. Sebasstian finds a good balance between energetic and mellow. Eleven of the tracks are previously unreleased, eight are reissues. Jim Aikin
ISSUE #18
Kill Switch... Klick - Almost Ambient Collection Vol. 1
[Go-Kustom/ Invisible]
SOUNDTRACK INSPIRED AMBIENT MUSIC: With their seventh release, Almost Ambient Collection Vol. 1, Kill Switch...Klick's past and present come together to give listeners a peek into the band's future. Comprised of older material as well as a few new tracks, Almost Ambient Collection, shows a more subtle side in Kill Switch...Klick's music. Songs such as "Copper Penny In My Hand" and "Eventually (Forever)" are filled with warm synth washes and mellow rhythms almost lulling the listener into numbness. The best selections on the release, however, end up being the moments where they abandon the driving beats of their previous work and instead opt for a smoother, deliberate sound as heard in the spooky, ethereal musings of guest vocalist Jennifer Hope on "lost Like Innocence." Also, the revamped version of "Her Trembling Hands" sheds the melodramatic male vocals of the original in favor of the icy delivery of Courtney Hudak giving the song a very chilling aspect. Kill Switch...Klick does manage to sneak in a few more energetic numbers such as heard on the brooding "A/B Continuity" or the drum & bass tinkerings of "Cincher," each giving the album more depth. With this very evolved release, Kill Switch...Klick sacrifice their more industrial leanings while retaining a dark edge to excellent results. ~Brian Lumauig
METAUPONMETA.COM
METRONOME: the music reviews
Kill Switch... Klick - Almost Ambient Collection Volume One
[Invisible]
Well, I was wrong- Organica wasn't Kill Switch Klick's final album. Good thing, too, since I confess I have always had a special place in my heart for them, and was already missing them in the years since that album in 1999. Almost Ambient Collection Volume One, which is anywhere from their 4th to their 7th album, depending on how you count things, is a compendium of ambient music. Well, almost ambient. (Sorry couldn't resist the obvious punchline there.)
Of the nineteen tracks, eight are totally new, three are previously unreleased re-workings of previously released songs, and eight have already appeared somewhere else. This makes Almost Ambient the latest in a long line of KsK releases to feature some form of rehashed older material. In this case, the album either reinterprets or just reuses songs from, I believe, every single Kill Switch Klick album in existence, unless you count last year's best-of album on Cleopatra. Whatever.
The album as a whole is quite good, with the new material meshing with the older stuff very well. The overall mood of the album is a bit of a departure for Kill Switch Klick, sticking to moody, electro-ambient music not far removed from, say, Future Sound of London or Witchcraft. Kill Switch Klick has always flirted with this type of music, interspersing it with their more familiar industrial/coldwave/rock/whatever sound, and in fact a good portion of the older material came from such flirtations, but this is the first time the stuff has been used to create an entire album. Considering the "Volume One" tag on the title, it may not be the last, or at least hopefully not.
I have to confess to having quite a bit of respect for d.A. Sebasstian, who has now for two albums in a row tossed Kill Switch Klick's tried-and-true formula of techno-industrial goth-punk out the window in favor of experimentation and growth. Organica's acoustic sets were a great success, and I am happy to report that Almost Ambient Collection Volume One is equally successful.
© Noel Rogers 2002. All rights reserved.
Kill Switch ... Klick
Almost Ambient Collection Vol. 1
Invisible
By David A. Kulczyk
Kill Switch ... Klick, basically d.A. Sebasstian and friends, has been knocking around the corners of industrial music since 1990. Always the outsider, especially since it got its start at the height of Seattle grunge, the band nevertheless sought out its own vision of music and how it should be played. KS ... K's seventh CD is a low-key mix of soft synthesizers reminiscent of Kraftwerk, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno and Bill Nelson. Like Nelson, Sebasstian is an audio sculptor with more ideas than can be recorded in three lifetimes, and he gets it all down in the mix. Part soundtrack for films that will never be made, part remixes of such group high points as "Feeding the Machine (Day to Day)" and "Lost Like Innocence," this is a smooth and beautiful release. With the help of Faith & Disease, Jennifer Hope and Rosie Huntress, Kill Switch ... Klick shows that it's more than just industrial-strength clang rock.
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