It has almost been eight years since the third volume of Waveform's A.D. series dropped, and in that time, the bin for downtempo compilations at your local shop has likely doubled. Painted in shades of cool gray and shimmering green, emblazoned with typical buzzwords (chill, lounge, afterparty), and featuring ultramodern yet oddly sterile computer-generated artwork, the comps are often difficult to tell apart. Unfortunately, the same commonalities can exist musically, as well. While Waveform has issued its share of filler over the years, it has longevity and dedication on its side. Since its early '90s origin in the Arizona desert, the label has stuck mightily to its astral hippie aesthetic and continued with the downtempo sounds even as the tentacles of electronica slithered off in wildly different directions. For
Four A.D., Waveform burrows underneath the relatively upbeat
Three A.D., and settles in the cool, fertile ambient dub loam. There is an air of predictability to the ten-song set. The Rasta man samples of Ganja Beats' "The Herb Is Good" are clunky and obvious, and when
Razoof returns to this tempting yet impossibly clichéd device for "Montego Bay," it is still a problem. But a remix of the vintage
Rockers Hi Fi cut "Push Push" tingles with energy, and
G.O.L.'s eight-minute-plus "Angelica in Delerium" unfurls weird gothic vocals over dubby bass, touches of Indian rhythm, and a full two minutes of church bells. It approaches the shadowy tones of
Coil or
Current 93 while somehow staying groovy. Elsewhere,
Soma Sonic turns in the 1999 nugget "Crazy Moon," and Solaroid's deliberately paced "Travelinside" is a successful mixture of dub with psychedelic meandering. Overall, Waveform's return to the A.D. series is quite successful and should certainly appease fans of the label. It might not have the biggest names in the genre and does fall prey to predictability here and there, but
Four A.D. never loses sight of its stated ambient goal and deserves credit for its charming space-cadet vibe. ~ Johnny Loftus