Audio Drudge # 7, Issue 7

With this 34-minute-maxi-CD and 92-page book, Sam Rosenthal simultaneously reveals the roots of Black Tape for A Blue Girl’s last album This Lush Garden Within, and brings this period of his art to a close. The book tells the story of how Sam opened himself to loving Susan, who inspired This Lush Garden Within. Consisting of seven tracks, two previously unreleased and five from various compilations, the disc is a nice introduction for those unfamiliar with BTFBG, and a must for die-hard fans. All the tracks occupy the warm ethereal ambient realm Projekt has almost single-handedly defined; synth washes and gently strummed guitars combine with floating female vocals to produce a sensation of being suspended in a nurturing ocean of sound. I was especially charmed by the shiny, ringing wine-glass like synth and guitar of “the glass is shattered,” in whose somberly contemplative tone I saw portrayed a man sitting alone at a kitchen table bathed in afternoon sunlight, staring at a broken glass occupying an empty place at the table, wondering: “the glass is shattered / is that what makes it beautiful?” The ebbing and flowing guitar (guested by Ryan Lum of Love Spirals Downwards) and dancing lights in fog evoked by the keyboards made “overwhelmed, beneath me” a standout track as well. And the menacing synth foundations of the closing, unnamed track support glittering undersea castles of sound, which build, shimmer, then swirl away in the dark currents. Although I enjoyed almost all of the tracks, I found the lack of continuity between them disturbing, even though I knew this was a compilation LP and I shouldn’t expect continuity. Still, this is a good place to start for those curious about BTFBG, and a welcome appetizer for their next full length album, due out in May.