Description

David Newlyn's debut release on Boltfish is an album with strong elements of idm and electro-acoustic influences.

Preview this album on Last.FM:
http://www.last.fm/music/david+newlyn/Ancient+Lights

THIS RELEASE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FROM THE BOLTFISH CATALOGUE ON CD. HOWEVER, YOU CAN STILL PURCHASE IT VIA DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FROM A RANGE OF ONLINE RETAILERS.

Tracklisting:

1. Never Remember
2. Memento
3. Another Place
4. Coordinates
5. Rain on Snow
6. Train to York
7. So Far Away
8. Friday Night (Light Blue)
9. OD3
10. Sector
11. Transition
12. Field Drift
13. Curve

All tracks © David Newlyn/Boltfish Recordings 2006/7

Reviews

Electronic Desert - April 2007
"After his delightful "I Didn’t Know Where I Was" EP on his very own October Man Recordings the time has now come for his solo debut on label friends Boltfish. It’s a label that both have a clear vision and the capacity to keep the releases coming. David Newlyn’s debut album "Ancient Lights" counts in at 36. It’s 13 tracks of well-produced friendliness and well put together tracks. The call sign guitar is present, but not dominating. David Newlyn’s debut album release on Boltfish is sounding as good as you would expect a Boltfish release to do."

Leonard's Lair - 23/03/07
4 out of 5
"Newlyn achieves the difficult task of conveying emotion via digital means."
READ THE WHOLE REVIEW

Etherreal - 14/03/07
"Deux mois après son long EP MP3 sorti sur Drift Records, c'est sur Boltfish Recordings, maison de qualité en ce qui concerne l'electronica mélodique, que David Newlyn nous propose son premier véritable album (en CD-R cette fois-ci).

Musicalement, peu de surprises ici compte tenu de ce qu'on connaît aussi bien de l'artiste que du label, à savoir une musique sachant distiller de gracieuses mélodies, soutenues par de fines rythmiques, le tout nimbé dans une atmosphère plutôt mélancolique. Au sortir de Wait Here With Me, on avait souligné les qualités de l'Anglais, tout en reconnaissant que sa musique n'était probablement pas encore suffisamment personnalisée. Puisqu'il n'y a pas grand-chose de nouveau à dire sur le plan strictement musical avec Ancient Lights par rapport à cet EP (on retrouve par endroits la guitare acoustique - Another Place, Friday Night (Light Blue) - ou le piano digital - Trains to York -), reste donc à s'intéresser à cette fameuse touche personnelle : Newlyn est-t-il parvenu à la développer ?

Assez rapidement, on est plutôt rassuré car un son assez identifiable se forme dès le début du disque. Ainsi, la tessiture de la mélodie de Memento charme par sa rondeur ou celle de Transition par sa délicatesse. De même, le Britannique mêle harmonieusement electronica mélodique et sonorités un peu « old-school » (Rain on Snow) et se distingue, plus généralement, par une science de la construction instrumentale tout à fait exacte. Bref, un très bon disque de genre même s'il faut que David Newlyn passe encore un cap pour atteindre le rang des excellents artistes. "

Smallfish Records - 05/02/07
"David Newlyn's full-length CD for Boltfish is a splendid adventure through the sound of melodic Electronica. There's not a moment here that doesn't capture a superbly melancholic feeling of genuine blissfulness. Sunny afternoons and warm, hazy days spent with friends spring to mind and the mellow, downbeat flavour of the beats perfectly compliments the sparkling showers of melodic sound. There's something honest about this CD and that's one of the reasons I like it. It simply is what it is and never, ever pretends to be anything else. And that really comes across in the sounds. Lush, beautiful and a thoroughly excellent way to start the week. Bravo!"

Gridface - January 07
"Confident, subdued IDM."

Angry Ape - 25/01/07
"David Newlyn creates light airy electronics, focused around soporific manipulations of synth-melody. He utilises a classic structure of ambient electronica, opening up melodic sections before slowly releasing programmed glitches and muted beats.

The melodic programming is lovely, the slow morphing electronic sounds slowly and softly drifting around the beats, but the beats themselves are at times rather mediocre. Muted glitches and langurous clicks and cuts dominate, but stick to the ambience like chewing-gum. They sit as necessity, and lack flare or creativity, with little depth to the majority.

Ancient Lights is archetypal ambient electronica. Newlyn deconstructs the early releases of Warp and brings in the melodics of more recent Morr Music artists. There's nothing new here, but neither is their anything disagreeable. So long as there are labels willing to release albums like this there'll be artists making music like this, gentle ambient tracts of electronica to lull you into a beautiful sleep."

Vital Weekly - Number 557 - 28/12/06
"The English Boltfish label keeps pushing electronic musicians of whom I never heard, such as David Newlyn, but in his case it's not a strange thing: 'Ancient Lights' is his debut release for Boltfish and his previous releases never reached me. He hails from Durham, and one half of October Man, and also running his own October Man Recordings. and by hearing his music, I assume he is quite a mellow guy. His music is largely mellow, based around the simple ticking of a drumcomputer, a likewise mellow keyboard line or two, some guitar tinkling and as an ornament some bell like sounds out of synth. Rather pleasant music without any serious danger or treat. Maybe you can wonder if thirteen of these tracks aren't a bit too much as he could have done with eight and still leave a solid impression. But as I was carried away doing some other stuff around the house, and walked about, this was a most comfortable trip. Very nice, very relaxing. Think ambient house but with some serious beats going on."

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