Various Artists: Air Texture Volume II

Here’s the electronic label Air Texture’s second sampler. Some will say it’s a dozer, but I say it’s a doozy. I almost envy the people who think that ambient music is its own dead end, leaving plenty of room in one’s mind to have that notion blown away completely. Here lies over two hours of music that plunges into the deep end of the pool and swims past the airports, past the furniture and arrives at a place where the path remains outstretched. First you need to overlook the fact that producers/compilers Loscil and Rafael Anton Irisarri give themselves one shoutout apiece. Then prepare yourself for a long haul where electronic pulses are obscured in glow and any track’s overall plot melts apart.

The label’s roster is crammed with these abstract tinkerers, some working under their own names for a change like Simon Scott of Slowdive and Brian McBride of Stars of the Lid. Zeroing in on one or two tracks for a highlight is possible, but pointless. Even if Loscil and Irisarri compiled their respective discs with great care, Air Texture Volume II is just as superb on shuffle.