second thought

press

review of 'rooftops' at splendid e-zine
Rooftops seems like an exercise in overkill -- six tracks, all of them different versions of the same song, which is the first song Second Thought (aka Ross Baker) ever wrote that he truly loved. As a general rule, any time an artist truly loves a song, he also tends to be unwilling to change any aspect of it, regardless of its faults. Thus, to endure six versions of a song often means sitting through the original six times, with minimal cosmetic changes at best ("If you'll listen closely, here I say 'Yeah, baby' rather than 'Oh yeah, baby.'").

Luckily, Baker doesn't suffer from such a narrow viewpoint. In fact, judging by Rooftops, he seems to take great pleasure in twisting his beloved creation beyond all recognition. "Rooftops Part Two", for example, and adds a wide range of burbles, glitches and beats to the ambient original, extending and compressing segments from "Part One" until the song is turned into a skittering, moody piece of glacial chill-out music. In "Part Three", the song is turned into a glo-stick anthem, while "Part Four" shows that Baker has no problems giving the tune an electro-acoustic makeover. The EP's longest bit of experimentation, "Part Five", first re-invents the song IDM-style, then transforms into a much noisier, more industrial-flavored proposition. Finally, "Part Six"'s droning, repetitive beats gradually give way to the soft ambience that started "Part One"; if the CD were put on repeat, it would sound like it was stuck in an endless (and flowing) cycle.

This, perhaps, is Baker's greatest achievement with Rooftops. Each of the six interpretations has a distinctly different sound, but the differences between the remixes aren't so pronounced as to make the album jarring. There's a definite flow here; it makes you wonder what Baker could do with a second song.
-- Matthew Pollesel, Splendid Ezine

review of 'purlieu' at aiding & abetting
It's a little strange that a record label is named after an act, but when Second Thought the band is Ross Baker and Second Thought the label is run by the same Ross Baker, well, I suppose you're entitled. Even stranger, though, is that Baker used to record under his own name before adopting the Second Thought moniker back around 2000. Anything might seem strange, however, until you hear the music. Then reality takes its leave completely.

I've always used the term "soundscape" to indicate that than artist has created his or her or its own rules and then made music that fits those rules rather than the humdrum Newtonian physics and Einsteinian special relativity under which we exist. Baker changes the rules on just about every piece, lending to an intensifying sense of unease as the electronic journey of this album rumbles on.

This stuff is experimental, but each piece does adhere to one or two central tenets. Taken individually, each makes sense in some warped way. Taken as a whole, I'm not sure what to make of it. And that's cool. A sense of mystery is always appreciated in these here parts.

Often enthralling and always intriguing, Purlieu ducks its head into some of the darker corners of modern electronic music. Baker refuses to stick to any particular style or feel, and that impresses me all the more. Quite the ride.
aiding & abetting

review of 'purlieu' in the wire
Second Thought: Purlieu (Second Thought; CD)
'Taking its title from the term for a stretch of land bordering the edge of a royal forest, Ross Baker's latest release shows the same conceptual boldness as his Rooftops project in which he recorded six different version of his favourite song. A 16 page booklet, containing overcast rural images of hedgerows and churches plus an existentially displaced first person narrative, accompanies this cycle of wistful instrumental sketches. Evoking the moist contours of a desolate nonexistent terrain, Purlieu does a thorough job of pacing out its boundaries and limitations. Birds sing, thunder rumbles and Baker's keyboards chime pleasantly in the distance, recalling memories of a time when all of this was just fields."
ken hollings, the wire issue 246 (august 2004)

review of 'purlieu' at splendid ezine
Second Thought's electronica is of a rhythm-free, room-filling, other-place-evoking, vaguely spooky, sorta-menacing-around-the-edges variety. Purlieu's dominant modes include slow progressions of various tones, periodically rent by grindings, birdsongs, recognizable instrumentation (a piano breaks through at the oddest times), weather, and other sounds too numerous to categorize.

But there are a lot of these albums (those of you new to the site might not think so, but trust me: there are). Assuming that your record collection includes one or two other discs that bear some thematic similarity to this one, should you go ahead and pick up Purlieu as well?

Yes. This is perhaps the most intriguing album of its vaguely defined type that I've heard since Tyondai Braxton's History That Has No Effect. While this disc certainly doesn't have that album's almost revolutionary aliveness and intriguingly improvisatory nature, the ways in which Second Thought's auteur combines, reimagines, and constantly innovates with his self-limited palette of sounds means that he is in Braxton's league: this vocal-less album is easily identifiable as the work of a singular and distinct artistic intellect.

Purlieu's effect is not dependent on individual sounds or themes broken down to the level of single tracks. It's the sort of album you should listen to in one long session. After a few such sessions, the sonic vistas and subtle variations form a world that is always a pleasure to visit.
-- Brett McCallon, Splendid Ezine

review of 'purlieu' at igloo magazine
(03.01.05) If time and space weren't enough to consume in a philosophical inquiry, it's easy to note that Ross Baker (a.k.a. Second Thought) not only envisions those primary aspects of life but also reaches through finite depths of atmospheric bewilderment in his music. Being inside the landscapes featured in this sixteen page full-color booklet of Purlieu is just the beginning.
Purlieu might have been released about a year ago, but it will certainly take even more time to unravel its hidden mysteries buried within the contents of electrically sculptured, microscopic sound. With whimsical appeal, Second Thought opts for riveting ambient fluctuations as he unfolds layers upon layers of magnetic ambiences in about an hours worth of delicately weaving frequencies. As suggested by the liner notes, the intentions of Purlieu were to make the listener feel lost and confused in a strange, cold and desolate countryside --a statement that holds true from start to end, no doubt. As if imagined in a distant dream, the contents of Purlieu conjures the soundscapes of a flourishing green world, church bells ringing in the background, crumbling leaves scattered on a dirt path, twigs brushing against the wind, fog drifting between the hillsides, overcast skies blanketing an open field and multiple spheres of organic shuffling --these are only some of the images that become vivid documents during the listening experience on this surreal disc by Second Thought.
Welcome to a place that does not exist --a place that can only really exist if you allow the subtlety of every sound to cultivate and infectiously trickle into your imagination. Purlieu would fit comfortably with (early) Future Sound of London, Tear Ceremony and Roderick Julian Modell quite easily. Inspiring to say the least.

Purlieu is out now on Second Thought.
Pietrobot, Igloo Magazine

review of 'awakenings 2005' at electronicmusicworld
After doing the AmbientLive events for a while, a new series of events is lined up for this year called AmbientLive Awakenings. In fact, the first event just took place this weekend. To accompany this chain of events, AmbientLive Records has released a 3-cdr set with music from the artists performing on this years AmbientLive Awakenings festivals. This set of cdr's comes in a DVD case with a beautiful countryside picture on the front.
The music on this set is a combination of unreleased music with previously released music. With a lot of different styles of music, it is a collection to introduce you into the different styles of music one could expect during the AmbientLive Awakenings events.
Since there's a total of 24 tracks on the 3 cd's, I'll single out a few tracks that really stood out to me.
The opening track by Binar is some epic downtempo music. A great way to open such a compilation set. A truely epic feeling to the track, making way for everyone who follows.
Radio Massacre International has composed a special track for AmbientLive initiator John Sherwood. Sherwood's Special is a beautiful experimental ambient track that truely is a special.
Mission 11 is the contribution of The Omega Syndicate. It is nearly 15 minutes long, beautiful electronic ambient. Beautiful synthmelodies over a very nice looping bassline. And with the good old NASA sounds of the moonlanding. Maybe a bit cheesy, but it works for me in this track.
707 by The Glimmer Room is very melodic electronic music, quite laidback with some ethnic vocal influences.
Second Thought takes a completely different musical direction than the other artists with a more IDM-ish approach. Machine is a very nice track that is laidback despite some frantic rhythm work.
Ganzfeld has contributed with two tracks. Test Object brings that typical downtempo Ganzfeld sound to your ears. Beautiful melodies and a great bassline. Definately the stuff I'd expect to get from Ganzfeld.
Concluding, I must say that this set is a very interesting item to have. It gives you the opportunity to listen to music from several different genres. And even though I'm not a big fan of compilations anymore, this one is definately a useful way of getting to know new music.
The set can be bought at the several Awakenings events throughout the year, or through the Awakenings website.

Released on AmbientLive

Stefan Koopmanschap, Electronicmusicworld