One unfortunate thing about Wendy Carlos' albums is their tendency to date faster than prepackaged sushi. Ironically, her obsession with technology is probably the culprit-- when you're one of the first to create a solo environment for a new piece of music hardware (as Carlos was with the Moog in the late '60s), you're cursed to be locked into the sound of a very specific time and place. Because of this, her million- selling classic Switched On Bach is interesting now only as a history lesson. The tone of the keyboards on that seminal album bring to mind the grotesque burnt orange and brown dentist offices of my youth-- a truly frightening image.

Speaking of frightening, Carlos' latest album attempts to be just that. The compositions are meant to evoke that fun kind of scary that people associate with good horror movies (whatever those may be). The pieces are primarily performed by Carlos on various keyboards, with a few live instruments and occasional chorus accompaniment to spice things up. But as a thrill ride, Tales of Heaven and Hell fails. One of the problems is a familiar one-- this album just came out and it already sounds ten years old. I don't know the specs on those synths she's using, but they sure ain't cutting edge. Incredibly, this still sounds like a "Can you believe they did this all on keyboards?" kind of gimmick.

The music brings to mind the soundtracks Mark Knopfler was doing in the late '80s. And that's the other problem: this definitely feels like mediocre film music to a movie that was never made. It's true, Carlos has scored some good ones, like the truly spooky "A Clockwork Orange" and Disney's glowy, futuristic five- star "Tron." But without any images to buoy these so-so melodies, they sink from consciousness as soon as each track ends. And so, despite a few inspired passages, this is certainly one for tomorrow's cut-out bin.

-Mark Richard-San

"Clockwork Black"

[Real Audio Stream]