THE YOUNG GODS MUSIC FOR ARTIFICIAL CLOUDS ALBUM INTOXYGENE RELEASE: MARCH 16, 2004 REVIEW: AUGUST 26, 2004

So, you wait for almost four years for new material to emerge by one of the most unique, impressive acts on the planet and what do you get? An album lacking pretty much everything that made you fall for them in the first place. That’s not to say that I don’t admire The Young Gods for taking new creative routes, because I do. It’s got more to do with my own craving for that kick their old albums gave me (and still do); that crystal clear high that’s equal parts poetic beauty and strangely refined adrenalin rushes – chance meetings of flowers and chainsaws on throbbing mixing desks.
And there’s none of that on “Music for Artificial Clouds”. This is minimal ambient, the music stripped down to the sort of sounds you could possibly glimpse somewhere beneath the shifting, fluid sonic surfaces of albums like “Only Heaven” and “Second Nature”. There’s no doubt that this is a fine ambient album. There are even moments of creeping intensity that sneak up over your shoulder when you least expect it, and at least give a hint of who’s actually behind the music. But no matter how hard I try, and how unfair it may be, I can’t see this in any other way than as a huge anticlimax.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN