Spacetime Continuum – Sea Biscuit

I feel like I must be the only person who hated this album since the day it came out. It's pure ear candy, almost a parody of what '90s ambient techno had been building up to at the time. Everything is mixed up-front and loud, crystal clear with no subtlety, no depth, no spaciness or spaciousness. Drugs don't even help. Every song is pointless other than to say "hey! listen to this!"—no mood, no atmosphere, no journey for your mind, no sense of importance or emotion...just spacey synthesizer noodling. That's great for some people, but to me it just sounds like it belongs on a New Age label. Not surprisingly, it was wildly popular in coastal California. Back in the Midwest, we reacted somewhere between, "oh, that's nice, I guess" and "what is this shit?"

Anyway, if you like this album, you probably also like the Higher Intelligence Agency Colourform and the Future Sound of London Lifeforms albums. Beep boop beep beoop swoosh whoosh *reverb cranked up to 11*.

I penned a similar review in January 1995, when I was a bit more opinionated (yet still trying hard to identify an audience who should buy this album immediately):

Summary: West Coast style ambient techno for fans of that sort of thing.

*RETCH* This is my first exposure to Jonah Sharp's overhyped music and I think it is the worst piece of crap I've ever had in my CD player. If anyone is wondering what I mean when I say "West Coast ambient", this is it right here. I didn't even know anything about him when I got the CD; I didn't know where he was from, but as soon as I heard the first track, I knew he was on the West Coast. By track 3 I had him pinned to San Francisco. By track 6 I shut off the CD player because my Midwestern ears couldn't take it anymore. Gawd, it's like Mixmaster Morris with a lobotomy, and on Prozac.

Sharp makes squeaky clean noodlings that are devoid of depth and amount to little more than elevator music for teenagers on E. Every sound is crystalline and right up front. Effects are used but in predictable ways, their apparent purpose simply to increase the sugar coating on the overflow of ear candy. Emotions? None. Imagery? None. Perhaps the rave kids new to the ambient scene and electronic music in general get something out of it, and if they do, that's great; they can have my CD, no charge.

Oh, now, it isn't all bad. "Subway" has more good elements than bad, if a little drawn out. "Floatilla" is more listenable than the rest. And a few of the tracks have some nice sounds buried underneath the filler.

But I still have to say this kind of music gives ambient a bad name. That's great that they've got a healthy scene out there that is developing its own sound, but it's just not for everyone. Who should buy this CD? If you know you already like the West Coast ambient sound, you should love it. If you want to get a taste of what it's all about, and you think maybe I'm being a bit biased (which I freely it I am), take the plunge. You could always trade it in for lunch money. I know I will.

Highly recommended if you're into 90's ambient stuff.
Favorite track : Voice of the Earth.

one of my favorites.
highly recommended.

An incredible album that perfectly captures the essence of what made early-90s ambient so transcendent. Everything is here – long, effortlessly complex structures; floating, gorgeous synths of all shapes and sizes; effective and carefully used rhythms (never intrusive); and melodies/motifs that stay with you long after the album is done.

There were many producers operating in this ambient or intelligent techno style around this time, but few managed to create an album that stands so strongly as a whole. Highly, highly recommended to anyone interested in exploring ambient music circa 1994.

SEA BISCUIT, Spacetime Continuum's first solo album (if you ignore ALIEN DREAMTIME), is one of the albums that brought ambient music to the public consciousness. "Pressure" tinkles its way into your mind via some jazzy keyboard work before the beat comes thudding in with added acid to bring you back down to earth. But "Subway" is more breathy and airy, and "Ping Pong" twinkles with its metallic tones, whereas "Voice of the Earth" is all about the drift. Both "Q 11" and "A Low Frequency Inversion Field" drift too, the latter with plenty of submerged bubbles, but the jewel in this ambient crown is "Floatilla," which is carried along into outer space on its long, low tones, and the moment when it pitch-shifts seems almost heavenly.

This is a real must in the ambient music collection, it's a delight from start to finish. Much more laid back than later Space time continuum stuff. Long sweeping melodies, and soundscapes drift and meander seemlessley and without any sudden tempo changes or the breakbeats of his later stuff, making it a wonderful album for moving in an out of dream like states. It will end almost without you noticing, dissappearing as unobtrusively as it arrives. My mood is always lifted and i never get bored by it. This is a great chill out album.

An untouchable Ambient classic.

Endless layers and spheres of sonic beauty.
Uncountable variations, shapes and forms of sound from all kinds of sources.
All falling into place within one solid body of music and art.

Incredibly complex, yet weightlessly floating ear candy.
Right up there with FSOL's "Lifeforms".

Mixed together as a single experience, Sharp manages to create a work of art through very few sources, though at very audible levels. Ping pong contains the most substance, but everything is deftly crafted and receives my utmost respect. No other artist has put up an effort in between Jean Michel Jarre and weeny ambient artists. This one eludes all negative criticism.