Celtic Cross - Hicksville (Liquid Sound Design 1998)

[abasio]

Celtic Cross
Hicksville
Liquid Sound Design
1998

Track List

1 Hicksville (7:35)
2 Stargate Avalon (1:32)
3 Jade Garden (7:38 )
4 Shwazz (8:59)
5 Fifth Level (4:36)
6 Khatmandu (7:43)
7 Mundis Imaginalus (7:50)
8 Louden (3:22)
9 Darshannon (6:10)

Simon Posford & Youth. Sounds like shpongle might have sounded if there was no Raja Ram. I actually prefer this to Shpongle, it has more staying power.

1 Hicksville
Like psychedelic hick music it really is. Country bumpkin guitar & all those country elements I usually hate but masterfully produced into a great psychedelic track.

2 Stargate Avalon
This track is noisy. No tune, no beat just lots of noises. It's short it's filler.

3 Jade Garden
I stumbled upon the philosopher's stone. I had the veil of illusion pulled back & was confronted by the many levels of energy & many realms of consciousness which are available to men. I opened a pandora's box of multiple realities.
The intro sets a trippy atmosphere continued by the music. It reminds me of a UFO sighting, Roswell or something.

4 Shwazz
A very soft 'background if you let it' track. This is one of those tracks which can be amazing if you focus on it but if your attention is diverted then it hardly registers. It has very slow beats, cool background noises & some really nice soft guitars.

5 Fifth Level
Another very soft trippy track. A lack of beats & strong slow synths give a very wide open space feeling. Towards the end it reminds me of an Indian reservation mixed with x-file sci fi.

6 Khatmandu
I really like the guitar in this track, a nice melody. This starts beatless but a slow lethargic beat comes in during the 2nd half of the track.

7 Mundis Imaginalus
Sounds like a hick sat on the front porch looking out at his enchanted swamp & playing a song on his guitar as a tribute to his lost youth. Quite a melancholic melody, some beats come in, very big but very soft. Magic.

8 Louden
Another very nice guitar melody but the track is far too short. It could be much longer, excellent music. Some violin comes in towards the end teasing you but the track then just stops.

9 Darshannon
I like this track. It is quite good but I just don't know what it's doing on this album. It's a fast dancefloor track, not chilled at all like the rest of the album. Can be quite shock if you are in a nicely chilled out mind set & this suddenly comes on :shock:


So all in all there is great great music here. I think though that track 2 should be omitted completely & the last track should have been released on an up tempo celtic cross album (which could have been quite cool) & they should have been replaced by tracks more in line with the feeling of the other tracks.

Favourites #1,3,5,6,7,8

[darkgnome]

I do enjoy some of the tracks here. Brings back alot of memories for sure

[abasio]

for me this was never simon posford's best work but for sure it is the longest lasting. I got bored of Hallucinogen & Shpongle over time but I still brain cum when I hear this album

[darkgnome]

Yeah, I kinda have to agree with you. I never "overlistened" this album like I did with Are You Shpongled? though so might be that

And oh, I can't stand the last track

[abasio]

Definitely shouldn't be on the album! Shocks me each time  :shock:

[darkgnome]

There's a couple of times when I've passed out at a friends place with this album playing. You wake up every time when that track hits the speakers

[Yard Hippie]

I listened to this album partway through on the way to work this morning (only takes me just over thirty five mins or so) and I liked it. Can certainly hear the Shpongle sound that later developed with the help of RR and the second actual track, 'Jade Garden' was incredibly visual for me. Stupidly so in fact, as I generally don't 'see' things without really trying to whilst listening to music. The image it provoked was of a guy in thick black rimmed spectacles sat on an old sofa in a cold blue light (motel room?) fiddling with something in his hands. There's a television on behind him (baseball game?) which seemed to be the only source of light and that sample you hear was him talking straight at me. When the sample ended and the track really started moving weird whispy trails began expanding from between his hands that just took over the battered image of the hick room and it suddenly became very apparent he had been experimenting secretly with the dark chaotic magic that binds our reality together... Or something like that

Honestly it was sortof scary just how vivid this mental picture was. I'd only had a mug of tea and a bowl of frosties... perhaps I used the wrong sugarcubes in the tea

[abasio]

It's great when music does that

[Untitled]

I don't mind Darshannon all that much. What makes it so disagreeable with the rest of the album?

[abasio]

I don't mind Darshannon all that much. What makes it so disagreeable with the rest of the album?

It's a good track, I like it and all but it just comes as a shock. The rest of the album sets you in a nice relaxed mood, you are there all chilled and then BOOM Darshannon comes on a jolts you out of it. Nice track but I don't like it on this album.

[Untitled]

I guess I see what you're talking about. I listened to it like yesterday and I'm pretty sure Darshannon kind of gradually fades in from Louden.

What I really feel about it the most, though, is that it kinda comes full circle in away because I feel it's similar to Hicksville. I don't know, it's still all good shit and I just eat it up like a fucking fat kid on some McDonald's french fries.

[p(sy)ayam]

lol
i just saw this. so i'm not the only one who doesn't like that track. what the fuck is that anyways!? some folk irish dance music ?!?!!? UGH!!!!!!!!
i've deleted it from my ipod and now this album is a solid ACE!!!

[Untitled]

lol
i just saw this. so i'm not the only one who doesn't like that track. what the fuck is that anyways!? some folk irish dance music ?!?!!? UGH!!!!!!!!
i've deleted it from my ipod and now this album is a solid ACE!!!

Thank you for insulting my heritage.

[p(sy)ayam]

lol
i can handle irish music in a pub seeping on guinness. but here, no thnx

[Untitled]

lol
i can handle irish music in a pub seeping on guinness. but here, no thnx

I'm just messin with ya man.

---