Biosphere – Patashnik

Mine plays perfect. But I do wash all my records in my ultrasone Audiodesk Vinyl Cleaner Pro X machine. Sounds fantastic. No clicks or pops at all. Must certainly be factory debris.

Pressing on A side are awful... Continuisly clicking in left channel ... I'm very disappointed. B side much better than A. Unfortunately...

Classic ambient-techno release of the early 1990's.
But I never could, and still can not stomach "Novelty Waves" It is just a gimmick track (and that is what Levis picked for a commercial).
For listening, rather replace it with Cloud X-3 from the SETI Project EP

About the clicks - my medicine was demineralized water and everythings plays deep and clean.
One of the greatest ambient records of our times. Thank you Geir!

Just a few quick words about the 2016 reissue. Clearly falling for this when it came out back in 1994 on R&S subsidiary Apollo. But now, I found it overwhelmingly underwhelming, even though it features his biggest hit (‘Novelty Waves’). Also really needed the original (brilliant) Designers Republic artwork.

Patashnik is Origo Sound's biggest commercial success ever, with sales of over 100,000 copies. The CD was Geir Jenssen's second under the Biosphere banner, and like the debut Microgravity is seen as an absolute ambient classic.





After a careful and minimalist start with Phantasm, the album continues with Startoucher, a touching and soaring ambient melody with a magical sample, and where in a typical Biosphere way you get the ultimate calm through the headphones. Decryption is somewhere between calm and uptempo, before entering track 4, Novelty Waves. This song was used as music for a Levi's commercial, and was in that connection released on CD single with remixes by, among others, Aedena Cycle. The scenario from the commercial was taken from the 30's, and was called DRUGSTORE. The launch of Novelty Waves was ed by a completely professional music video produced by Lysverket in Oslo.





Mir gives the listener pictures on the retina of the Russian space station, while The Shield, which was written for the multimedia project Work In Progress, opens calmly before a "tough" rhythm enters and takes with it almost commercial features throughout the 9 minutes the song lasts. Seti Project has an insanely intense rhythm and a super-energetic soundscape, while Mestigoth is short, soaring and almost a bit Deep Forest-like with its calm and harmony. Botanical Dimensions contains samples and sound images from Karsten Brustad's Intarsia album, arranged and remixed by Biosphere. An interesting meeting between Brustad's synth sound and Jenssen's rhythm programming. The penultimate cut is Caboose, before the last song En-trance starts with its acoustic guitar sample which goes brilliantly with the "weightless" sound.





Patashnik was the last album (with the exception of the soundtrack Insomnia) where Geir Jenssen explored the rhythmic electronic music. Biosphere's albums from Substrata onwards has to a greater extent been based on ambient and rhythmless music. Therefore, Patashnik is an important document in the history of both Biosphere and Origo Sound.





-Jon Aanensen, 2004

Im sure its common knowledge but The Shield has a sample from the movie 2010 where the newer Hal 9000 says 'will I dream'?
Also Patashnik has another 2010 sample where the Russian man takes the probe to the monolith

This must be one of the noisiest new black LPs I ever got! I have so many clicks, pops that it's not a real pleasure to listen to this record and it was fully new, sealed. Had it washed but it didn't help. You can see the imperfections on the grooves with the bare eye! It's like little pinches across the whole record, as if there was some dirt on the negative plates when pressing.

My stylus (if you have a manual tt) at end of sides on this edition, ran through the dead wax and on to the label, beware.

I love this album however to me it does sound like was mastered from an 8 bit recording off a 30 year old TDK D type 1 cassette. Don't get me wrong thats not a straight diss, there is a big part of me that really likes the slightly muffled raw sound of this period from Gier in a nostalgic romantic way.
Anyway great album.