"The Lunar Collection" release date 09 March, 2013
Mark Whitby of Dandelion Radio (UK) said about "The Lunar Collection,"
As will be clear from anyone who's either read this blog or heard my Dandelion Radio shows in the last couple of years, I can't get enough of Lee Negin. There are some electronic artists who dabble in a form that, if you're not absolutely aware to its vicissitudes , will quickly swallow you up and drain very quickly any creative energy you once had so that you, very quickly, become stale and predictable. Lee Negin is not one of those artists.
Negin expertly controls his sounds, never a slave to a rhythm or a preconceived idea. Here, he moves dextrously between the sparse and atmospheric, as in the nine minutes plus of opening track 'Commute', to the rumbling intensity of 'Cosmic Ooze' while still able to step into the sub-tribal beats of 'Cheeze Sticks' when the mood takes him. Throughout, snatched voice excerpts play around the beats like enigmatic satellites of sound with no pre-ordained orbit. In Lunar Collection, even more than in other recent releases from this remarkable artist, you're never allowed to dwell in familiar surroundings for long. The atmosphere around Lunar Collection is light, the hold of gravitational laws tenuous. It makes for a listening experience that's as stimulating and challenging as it is enjoyable.
I've chosen the masterfully ironic 'Spare The Rod' to play in my Dandelion Radio show in April, which will begin streaming on Easter Monday. The track winds loosely structured beats and sound patterns around snatched soundbites dictating moral strictures and battered American conservative mores, pummelling them purely with the weapon of expertly deployed sound structures. In the universe inhabited by this album, no such simple-minded rhetoric can hope to survive: easy concepts are warped and mangled into obtuse shapes, and quite right too.
You've got to be an artist extremely confident in your abilities as well as highly proficient to put together an album this diverse and yet make it hold together as such a sublime whole. Lesser artists would opt for a single style and hide behind its unifying mass, claiming thematic consistency as the greater good. Lee Negin, as we've observed, is not such an artist. (Link)
"Views from the Outer Rim" Released September, 2012. Selected by Dandelion Radio (UK) as the #22 best album of 2012.
Negin expertly controls his sounds, never a slave to a rhythm or a preconceived idea. Here, he moves dextrously between the sparse and atmospheric, as in the nine minutes plus of opening track 'Commute', to the rumbling intensity of 'Cosmic Ooze' while still able to step into the sub-tribal beats of 'Cheeze Sticks' when the mood takes him. Throughout, snatched voice excerpts play around the beats like enigmatic satellites of sound with no pre-ordained orbit. In Lunar Collection, even more than in other recent releases from this remarkable artist, you're never allowed to dwell in familiar surroundings for long. The atmosphere around Lunar Collection is light, the hold of gravitational laws tenuous. It makes for a listening experience that's as stimulating and challenging as it is enjoyable.
I've chosen the masterfully ironic 'Spare The Rod' to play in my Dandelion Radio show in April, which will begin streaming on Easter Monday. The track winds loosely structured beats and sound patterns around snatched soundbites dictating moral strictures and battered American conservative mores, pummelling them purely with the weapon of expertly deployed sound structures. In the universe inhabited by this album, no such simple-minded rhetoric can hope to survive: easy concepts are warped and mangled into obtuse shapes, and quite right too.
You've got to be an artist extremely confident in your abilities as well as highly proficient to put together an album this diverse and yet make it hold together as such a sublime whole. Lesser artists would opt for a single style and hide behind its unifying mass, claiming thematic consistency as the greater good. Lee Negin, as we've observed, is not such an artist. (Link)
"Views from the Outer Rim" Released September, 2012. Selected by Dandelion Radio (UK) as the #22 best album of 2012.
Dandelion Radio (UK) Speaks
(03 November, 2012)
"Lee Negin has blessed us with that all two rare thing, a second album in a calendar year. Not only that, but this is that even rarer beast, a second album in a year that manages to be even better than the first. Views From The Outer Rim has been assaulted me through my headphones for some weeks now with unabashed technodelic splendour, its electronic washes and experimental sideways leaps representing nothing less than some of Lee's best ever work.
The titles give you some idea of what to expect. The promised spacey bombardment of 'Decaying Orbit' spreads itself over eight minutes plus of expansive mind-splurge. 'Virtual Reality' combines hypnotic rhythms with worldy beats and sonic flourishes, forcing themselves into your brain and then subsiding to be replaced with something else just as evocative. In my November show, which will be streaming from next Thursday at Dandelion Radio, you'll hear my personal favourite 'Beyond The Planes', an insistently swarming piece of electro-amazement that starts as a swirling, woozy glimpse at another realm only to rise on the back of fleshy beats and swooning vocals as the second half of its four minutes kick in.
Don't be fooled. Early listens to Views From The Outer Rim may suggest a lightness of touch where, after several listens, you find instead the seductive grip of blank icy space clasping your consciousness into a submission whose origins are entirely brutal. It's this harsh seduction that lies in the best of Lee's work. I'll take the opportunity to say that you'll find it in Technodelic Transmissions too, but here, in this most recent 2012 release, is Negin at his mind-bludgeoning atmospheric best.
Go to http://leenegin.com, grab a copy of both of these releases and find out for yourself."
- Posted by Mark Whitby at 09:55
The titles give you some idea of what to expect. The promised spacey bombardment of 'Decaying Orbit' spreads itself over eight minutes plus of expansive mind-splurge. 'Virtual Reality' combines hypnotic rhythms with worldy beats and sonic flourishes, forcing themselves into your brain and then subsiding to be replaced with something else just as evocative. In my November show, which will be streaming from next Thursday at Dandelion Radio, you'll hear my personal favourite 'Beyond The Planes', an insistently swarming piece of electro-amazement that starts as a swirling, woozy glimpse at another realm only to rise on the back of fleshy beats and swooning vocals as the second half of its four minutes kick in.
Don't be fooled. Early listens to Views From The Outer Rim may suggest a lightness of touch where, after several listens, you find instead the seductive grip of blank icy space clasping your consciousness into a submission whose origins are entirely brutal. It's this harsh seduction that lies in the best of Lee's work. I'll take the opportunity to say that you'll find it in Technodelic Transmissions too, but here, in this most recent 2012 release, is Negin at his mind-bludgeoning atmospheric best.
Go to http://leenegin.com, grab a copy of both of these releases and find out for yourself."
- Posted by Mark Whitby at 09:55
"Technodelic Transmissions"
Released May, 2012
"Technodelic Transmissions" Reviews
"It's a fantastic album." - Mark Whitby, Dandelion Radio (UK)
"Lee Negin's new CD "Technodelic Transmissions" is one of his finest yet. With so much music coming from the man these last few years, I wondered what more could he do... and he shows it right here. There's just one thing... I want more Cheeze."
- Jason Peverett, 'The Peverett Phile' Blog
"Damn. It kills me that Negin did all this himself-- composed, played, produced, engineered, mixed and mastered. He even created and designed the cover! There is some crushingly beautiful work ('Yin Yang Yo Yo,' 'Just So,' 'Ripples, Waves') and also this amazing, driving, intense, crazy stuff that comes out of nowhere (check "Yankee Goes to Bollywood"). Honestly great work, again! Outstanding. Crushingly beautiful meets devastatingly brilliant!"
- Chris Costantino, Musician Founder, SonicTribe.com
"More colours and sounds for the voices to speak to in your head."
Dj Readman - Music Revolution Promotion, Music World Radio
CD Release December 2011. "Reflections of Waking Dreams"
Wu Wei
International Release 26 September, 2011
Quotable Quotes
"No Western musician has found so much of the formless energy at the core of Eastern music as Lee Negin has with his new CD, Wu Wei!
How long has it been since you've been somewhere in electronica that seemed like somewhere to be? Lee Negin's Wu Wei has an organic feeling seldom found from plugged in music. His music can make you dance from ear to ear in subconscious sing along communal ecstatic campfire circles. There's nothing new in this. I believe I heard this music last year in a dream. I'll grant I've never heard it awake until now. This is a comfortable and familiar, natural world where spirits play Frisbee and all the barbecues seem to be burning Nag Champa. Same as it ever was, but never quite like this on my earthly hifi. Great work!"
- Billy Sheppard, Music Critic and Sheep Counter, Billy's Bunker Music Reviews (link)
"Negin effortlessly forges through the uncharted waters of musical Zen and cleverly orchestrates sound into a vibrant, visceral experience.
LEE NEGIN brilliantly defines a musical realm that is his alone. He effortlessly forges through the uncharted waters of musical Zen and cleverly orchestrates sound into a vibrant, visceral experience. Mr. Negin is a savvy magician welding a maestro's baton, a mystical boatman guiding the listener on an epic journey through undiscovered sonic terrain. His latest work, Wu Wei, is a quixotic adventure where East meets West in a whimsical - yet relevant - spectrum of sound. We are grateful to play the music of LEE NEGIN on our commercial free radio stream at Pluto Radio."
- Lee Crisman@PlutoRadio.com (link)
"Wu Wei is a deeply textured, melodic exposition of contemporary electronic music.
This week SonicTribe.com had the distinct pleasure of receiving a prerelease CD entitled Wu Wei by musician/composer extraordinaire Lee Negin. Mr. Negin is an exceptional artist possessing an eclectic knowledge base that is deftly woven into his works. In this regard, his soon to be released Wu Wei provides the listener a further extension of Mr. Negin’s substantial abilities.
What is most impressive about Wu Wei is not only that it steps well outside the constraints of any single genre but that it so fluidly combines lounge and minimal and psychill into a beautifully cogent and moving collection of songs. Wu Wei is a deeply textured, melodic exposition of contemporary electronic music.
In an era where the CD is falling out of favor Wu Wei gives ample proof that exceptional songs can be composed and then combined yielding something much greater than the whole. Wu Wei is a mellow burn, head high pushing the listener to relax and find the subtleties among the notes. It is a rare find for those of us who envision long winding drives down the coast to nowhere specific."
- Chris Costantino, Musician/Founder, SonicTribe (link)
"(Lee Negin has) composed and created 21st century classical music here. Very cool.
I love the way the tracks deliver gentle jolts, then soothe you, lull you, and dispense a bit of bliss just before the layered voices catch your ear to usher in a feeling of alarm, kind of like a kid at his first Halloween party. Perhaps a better analogy is this: the "Wu Wei" tracks place the listener at the foundation of an edifice while it suddenly is undergoing a metamorphosis (like in a Harry Potter movie, or -- better example -- "Inception"). You feel out-of-control for a moment before the ethereal elements come back into play. Very mysterious and awe-inspiring, if a bit eerie at times. The sonic quality of the work is superb, allowing you to just sort of fall into the middle of, or perhaps float above, the very moderne electro/acoustic orchestra that has been assembled for your listening pleasure."
- John Scott G, noted Los Angeles publisher, author and publicist (link)
"Lee Negin has returned, like a long lost treasure of the ambient arts.
Lower the lights, turn on the surround sound and escape for an hour. The music will stay in your mind for a lot longer than that. This is full on Ambient experience. Lee Negin has returned, like a long lost treasure of the ambient arts. From forest walks to automated train speech, all mixed in together. A soundscape artist at work, you will know when it hits your senses. 'Tranquil Abiding' is the opening epic track, followed by 'Mind... the Gap,' the most well known soundscapes that open you up to the world that the albums creates. Just sit back, relax and really although they are on the packet, you have no need to look at the titles, you will be somewhere else in time."
- DJ Readman - Music Revolution Promotion, DJ on Music World Radio (UK) (link) (link)
Excellent Review (link)
Interview on 26/09/2011, Music World Radio (UK) (link)
Vintage King Audio, "Producers Corner" (link)
How long has it been since you've been somewhere in electronica that seemed like somewhere to be? Lee Negin's Wu Wei has an organic feeling seldom found from plugged in music. His music can make you dance from ear to ear in subconscious sing along communal ecstatic campfire circles. There's nothing new in this. I believe I heard this music last year in a dream. I'll grant I've never heard it awake until now. This is a comfortable and familiar, natural world where spirits play Frisbee and all the barbecues seem to be burning Nag Champa. Same as it ever was, but never quite like this on my earthly hifi. Great work!"
- Billy Sheppard, Music Critic and Sheep Counter, Billy's Bunker Music Reviews (link)
"Negin effortlessly forges through the uncharted waters of musical Zen and cleverly orchestrates sound into a vibrant, visceral experience.
LEE NEGIN brilliantly defines a musical realm that is his alone. He effortlessly forges through the uncharted waters of musical Zen and cleverly orchestrates sound into a vibrant, visceral experience. Mr. Negin is a savvy magician welding a maestro's baton, a mystical boatman guiding the listener on an epic journey through undiscovered sonic terrain. His latest work, Wu Wei, is a quixotic adventure where East meets West in a whimsical - yet relevant - spectrum of sound. We are grateful to play the music of LEE NEGIN on our commercial free radio stream at Pluto Radio."
- Lee Crisman@PlutoRadio.com (link)
"Wu Wei is a deeply textured, melodic exposition of contemporary electronic music.
This week SonicTribe.com had the distinct pleasure of receiving a prerelease CD entitled Wu Wei by musician/composer extraordinaire Lee Negin. Mr. Negin is an exceptional artist possessing an eclectic knowledge base that is deftly woven into his works. In this regard, his soon to be released Wu Wei provides the listener a further extension of Mr. Negin’s substantial abilities.
What is most impressive about Wu Wei is not only that it steps well outside the constraints of any single genre but that it so fluidly combines lounge and minimal and psychill into a beautifully cogent and moving collection of songs. Wu Wei is a deeply textured, melodic exposition of contemporary electronic music.
In an era where the CD is falling out of favor Wu Wei gives ample proof that exceptional songs can be composed and then combined yielding something much greater than the whole. Wu Wei is a mellow burn, head high pushing the listener to relax and find the subtleties among the notes. It is a rare find for those of us who envision long winding drives down the coast to nowhere specific."
- Chris Costantino, Musician/Founder, SonicTribe (link)
"(Lee Negin has) composed and created 21st century classical music here. Very cool.
I love the way the tracks deliver gentle jolts, then soothe you, lull you, and dispense a bit of bliss just before the layered voices catch your ear to usher in a feeling of alarm, kind of like a kid at his first Halloween party. Perhaps a better analogy is this: the "Wu Wei" tracks place the listener at the foundation of an edifice while it suddenly is undergoing a metamorphosis (like in a Harry Potter movie, or -- better example -- "Inception"). You feel out-of-control for a moment before the ethereal elements come back into play. Very mysterious and awe-inspiring, if a bit eerie at times. The sonic quality of the work is superb, allowing you to just sort of fall into the middle of, or perhaps float above, the very moderne electro/acoustic orchestra that has been assembled for your listening pleasure."
- John Scott G, noted Los Angeles publisher, author and publicist (link)
"Lee Negin has returned, like a long lost treasure of the ambient arts.
Lower the lights, turn on the surround sound and escape for an hour. The music will stay in your mind for a lot longer than that. This is full on Ambient experience. Lee Negin has returned, like a long lost treasure of the ambient arts. From forest walks to automated train speech, all mixed in together. A soundscape artist at work, you will know when it hits your senses. 'Tranquil Abiding' is the opening epic track, followed by 'Mind... the Gap,' the most well known soundscapes that open you up to the world that the albums creates. Just sit back, relax and really although they are on the packet, you have no need to look at the titles, you will be somewhere else in time."
- DJ Readman - Music Revolution Promotion, DJ on Music World Radio (UK) (link) (link)
Excellent Review (link)
Interview on 26/09/2011, Music World Radio (UK) (link)
Vintage King Audio, "Producers Corner" (link)