Disquiet

Each of the six tracks on Gate Zero‘s 6 Rooms is intended to suggest a different space, among them a living room, a kitchen and an illusory locale on the Star Trek holodek. The experiment is an interesting idea, though no one would cry foul if all the tracks on 6 Rooms had simply been labeled “lounge.” They all have a steady beat (one occasionally reminiscent of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”), a pricey-casual feel and a moody flavor. The standout, inevitably, is the one intended to serve as a cellar — inevitably because the close confines seem to have restricted Gate Zero’s palette, and less is almost always more. The “cellar” track (MP3) is less frilly, less lush than the album’s other five. There’s more space between the beats, space that allows the background sounds, light puffs of circulating white noise, to make themselves heard. In the album’s liner notes we’re reminded, “A cellar is intended to remain at a constant cool (not freezing) temperature all year round.” And, true to form, the six-minute track is constantly cool. More on Gate Zero (aka Stefan Biermann) at his homepage, gatezero-music.de, and at the netlabel that released 6 Rooms, stadtgruenlabel.net.

By Marc Weidenbaum