a zero 1 media device - horchata, mike palace, paintings.

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Review from Oblivion Zine Horchata comes from a world where the beats are slow, the melodies alien, and searching, and things are not quite the way we expect them. But in a less cryptic fashion, this is what you get when the Warp, Skam and Cold meat industry record labels get together and fashion offspring! The drum loops are always slowed down, and sound like the heartbeats of a human body at rest or in a dream like state. Sombre melodies play over the beats, like a soothing bubble bath easing the tension in the bones, and filtered stabs of noise and genetic whirrs remind us that outside from the dream all is not well and calm is only a temporal harmony. On 'Wind' however, the structure of rhythm is lost, in favour of breathing synths and the atmosphere of barren isolation in a lonely far off place. A pretty melody emerges from the synths, indicating that all is not lost, and life is not far away. However the search goes on, but the signal begins to break up and distort, evident by the passages of clicks and noise. At the end the signal has almost entirely broken up, and perhaps an unwelcome intruder is afoot. Surprisingly things are not all doom and gloom. On 'Molt' a jovial and groovy little bassline can be heard below the murk of grinding whirrs and noise bursts. The melody wins through though, and it just about makes it to the toe tapper status! The drums are processed and distorted out with recognition, and an edgy human breathing sound helps to create a feeling of uneasiness. From the description of the last two tracks, it should be obvious that there is a fair bit of variation involved. However the overall sound stays close to one, and the tracks flow coherently. Even although a lot of the tracks have a quite similar drum pattern, repetition and boredom never seems to enter the equation. Possibly the mind habituates and the underlying sound comes through. I don't know but maybe the musicologists out there can tell us! Fans of the labels i mentioned before will no doubt love this as i did. Lovers of dark or film style music will also feel at home with it, and im sure this cd can charm many people. Great thoughtful listening material, and well worth looking out for. Review from Nephilius Zine This is truely wonderful material. Strange voice collages, tape loops, twisted beats and some very delightful noise pieces. Play it loud and get prepared for a solid introspection. This gets you higher and higher, never reaching a anti-climax. Dark ambient like it should be played. You feel you are on the run.... .....Do yourself a favour and check out this cd! Review from AmbiEntrance Grittily pumped-up electronic encapsulations form this dark, electroactive ten-pack of lovely industrio-decadence. The faintly grinding organ haze of ash is enmeshed in slow clattery beats and a bio-mechanical purr, all combining into an oozing groove (or would it be a grooving ooze?). Eerie tar is swathed in spookshow drifts and clatters backed by rhythmic bursts and e-drumming. Mechsplosive eruptions and coarsely screeching feedback scrapes the growling synth groove in the darkly noisy, yet spirited molt. Expect a sprinkling of melancholia as rain is misted in moody soundwaves which evolve into the softly resonant hum of electrons, all to a rather lovely sense of desolation. The radiant drift of soil is accented by bell-like tones and clanky metallic sounds which prettily evolve into a nice little semi-atonal melody. Definitely recommended; contact zero 1 media to bring this most listenable chaos into your home. I look forward to hearing what Michael Palace creates next. Review from UJAMAA'S Ambient Experience Horchata is the recording pseudonym of Michael Palace, one of the members of the Zero 1 Media collective that releases the music of Horchata and several other electronic-based artists. On Integral, Palace mixes experimental textures, dark ambient sounds and halting beats to create a bewildering collage of sound. The ten tracks of Integral embrace a wide variety of styles. "Wind," the longest track on the album, is also the most distinctly ambient, with swirling, distant sounds and no discernable rhythms until later in the piece. "Link," on the other hand, resembles a video game soundtrack more than anything else, with its steady, prominent beats and playful sounds. "Root" is one of the more contemplative tracks, with its more subtle beat and slow synthesizer meditations. "Molt" and "Branch" explore the more chaotic side of things, while the album-closing "Soil" is a soft, gentle ending to an interesting journey. Bringing together many different influences and styles, Horchata brings a unique approach to his music. Fans of ambient and experimental musics will appreciate his willingness to tweak the conventions of the genres in which he works Review from EEEI Datasmasher Normally I am a big fan of unease, aggression and contempt in my music. I listen to almost as much death metal as I do industrial music and although I do have a lot of varied material in my collection, I gravitate towards the cold and hard side of things 95% of the time. Horchata was a another unexepected surpise (like Vox Barbara) and approaches similar territory but from a far less organic point of view. Another element that unlike most efforts, does not detract from the experience is that Horchata always seems to find its way out of the clouds and mire and arrives at an almost uplifting destination. It is not something I would ever normally look for in music myself but Michael Palace (aka Horchata) actually achieves this feeling without, well, utterly sucking. On board are a wide pallate of distorted tones, distant wildlife samples, electronic beats deep in tasteful reverb and listless echos. The collage syndrome only just slightly leaks in from time to time and whenever I was just about to rethink my take on the uplifting undertones, Horchata threw a new curve making sense of the previous direction. There are even some more driving 'Electric Ladyland' style beats on board that definitely make this more than just an ambient release, pushing into drum and bass and techno realms. I may not listen to this a lot but I will certainly enjoy it whenever I do throw it on (most likely when I feel the need to slide into unconciousness without dragging along the tensions of the day). Well above par and I look forward to future releases from Horchata. Review from Godsendonline horchata-"Integral" CD-Instrumental electronic work from Mike Palace that swings with a downtempo groove and dives in for some rather rough and noise-based compositions, all the while maintaining structure and coherence. horchata's music takes chunks of digital noise and filters them through some dark low-end dub/beat structures. "Integral"'s lethargic grooves recall SCORN a little, but are more melodic than anything M.J. Harris has done of late. An interesting and well-done release that shines with an experimental flair. (zero 1 media)
etrojnar@enteract.com from Chicago, IL , March 10, 1999 "Integral" is an ambient masterpiece. Horchata's "Integral" is proof-positive that technology has democratized the creative process. Artists regularly spend tens of thousands of dollars on studio time in an attempt to capture the kind of fractured post-industrial minimalism that Horchata's one-man sound collective pumps out from his home studio. More a series of mechanized tone poems or interlocking vignettes than traditional songs, the 10 compositions on "Integral" provide an expansive, expressive, and slightly disturbing soundtrack for the digital age.
A music fan from Arlington, VA , April 12, 1999 Music for Airplane Factories Taking John Cage's statement that music is all around us to its post-post-industrial logical conclusion, horchata has created a series of soundscapes / aural collages using and abusing found sounds. "wind" is at times reminiscent of the interludes on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless (but it otherwise nothing like it), and "leaf" recalls some of the more recent NIN remixes (the ones where you can't recognize the original song). integral ranks up there with Scorn's Gyral, Oval's Dok, and Main's Hz in the Ambient/Isolationist/Industrial Ballet ("Dance of the Rolling Mill Fairy") genre.