Pure Tone Audiometry reviews :
- Action Man Magazine
- Almost Cool
- Autres Directions
- Babysue
- Brainwashed
- Delusions Of Adequacy
- Erasing Clouds
- Fakejazz
- New Music Box
- New York Times
- Opus Zine
- Pitchfork Media
- Pop Matters
- Shredding Paper
- Splendid
- Stylus

From Action Man Magazine:

Pure Tone Audiometry refers to the series of tests to determine hearing sensitivity which Jon DeRosa, aka Aarktica, went through after permanently losing the ability to hear on his right side. This as a rule of thumb wouldn’t be enough to base an album on, but this is not just a concept album. Instead of using his hearing loss as an excuse to descend even farther into the land of drones, DeRosa has surprisingly chosen to include a less languid style than helped to define his albums such as Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life And Be Happy Anyway..., part of Darla’s “Bliss Out” series, and Morning One on the excellent Ochre label. On the menu are such instruments as drum, vocal, and guitar – rather pedestrian choices for a graduate student in Music Technology. Where DeRosa shows his teeth is when he puts his own slant on integrating these with modern recording techniques, in a way that fits well in the Darla-structured world where shoegazer rock meets melodic electronic music.

While his indie rock style du jour doesn’t nearly approach the peaks of joy and frustration imposed by Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai, it’s a little more sensitive and, to a point, chill. “Ocean” is verging on folk with its simple mournful vocals and solo guitar, until it switches halfway through with strings and vocal overdubs to maximum effect. DeRosa’s songs float from note to note, and it’s easy to discern his attempts to re-evaluate how sound still functions for him. In this regard, DeRosa has a great debt to artists such as Labradford or Jessamine, though his avowed influence of John Cage comes through strongly via his working solely with processed organic sounds instead of synthesized ones.

The centerpiece of the album is the last song, “Williamsburg Counterpoint”, a reference to his Brooklyn residence. Starting off seamlessly from the previous song’s fade out into delicate sine waves, the two act as a 17-minute gesture of patience, two sides of the same commentary which goes a long way to giving hope to both possibilities for cross-pollination of genres and DeRosa’s continued musical evolution. – Andrew Schrock

From Almost Cool:

Although I missed out on his debut album under the name Aarktica, Jon DeRosa charmed me with his contribution to Darla's Bliss Out series with the excellent ...Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life And Be Happy Anyway. That CD was just over 40 minutes of dreamy, electronic pop songs, and it definitely put more of a pulse into the music of Aarktica, which started out as more of a drone outfit on the debut No Solace In Sleep. The slight style change didn't seem to affect DeRosa one bit, as the release shifted gears ever so slightly into new ground, and made that entry one of my favorites of any Bliss Out recording I'd heard to date.

Pure Tone Audiometry is the third album by DeRosa as Aarktica (he also plays in a country band called Pale Horse And Rider), and it takes nearly equal parts from both of his first two releases, blending drone with slight touches of electronic rock into another excellent album. Once again, there seems to be sort of an obsession with large bodies of water in regards to the lyrics that are on the album, but given the nature of the songs, it works quite well. The album opens with "Out To Sea," and it's one of the more song-based tracks on the entire release. The 'rhythm' part of the track (if it can be called that) is build around an ebbing backwards guitar loop, and DeRosa shares vocal duties with Lorraine Lelis, creating beautiful multi-part harmonies until they become nothing more than undulating tones by the end of the track. It's part drone, part shoegazer, and all quite lovely. "The Mimicry All Women Use" lopes along with hollow percussion and reverberating sheets of guitar as DeRosa adds his warm baritone to the mix. "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday" takes things in a completely different direction, shearing things off into pure ripples of guitar feedback and noise, feeling like a slightly more dynamic Stars Of The Lid while "Water Wakes Dead Cells" drops a drone into a grain silo, echoing out loops of low-end and pulsing sound.

The centerpiece of the album couldn't be much better a track than "Ocean." Again encorporating the male/female vocals, the track builds on a quiet guitar melody and simply gains in beauty as it builds along, even adding a cello and quiet murmur of a beat. It's one of the shortest tracks on the album, yet it's the one that could have gone on even longer and I wouldn't tire of it. "Williamsburg Counterpoint" closes the album with 12 minutes of slowly-tightening tension, starting out with quiet waves of guitar and reaching a logical crescendo with controlled guitar squalls and some live drumming before it all drifts off into the fog again. Whether or not you enjoy the album will probably depend on how much drone you can stand, as the album is just about split in half in regards to tracks that follow more of a typical structure versus washed-out dronescapes. Fortunately, both are done well, and the disc easily contains several of the best tracks that DeRosa has ever done. (Rating: 8/10)

From Autres Directions:

Aarktica s'était révélé à nos yeux l'an passé lors de sa collaboration aux Bliss Out Series de chez Darla. Révélation, c'est exactement le mot. Conjointement à la parution du premier disque de son autre projet Pale Horse And Rider, Jon DeRosa revient déjà avec un troisième album d'Aarktica en à peine deux ans. Effectivement le jeune homme, également aux commandes de The Dead Leaves Rising (nouvelle incarnation de Flare), est extrêmement productif. Et Pure Tone Audiometry est sans doute le disque le plus abouti d'Aarktica. Ayant encore fait appel aux apports du Claireaudience Collective (les voix et violoncelle de Mahogany notamment), DeRosa a su englober ici ses galaxies favorites : le post-shoegazing de Flying Saucer Attack, le post-rock atmosphérique de Mogwai et autres Below The Sea, le slowcore à fleur de peau de Low ou Bedhead, ainsi que les rythmiques sombres et les drones de cette nu-indie à la Signer. Entre le neurasthénie ambiante et la dreampop évanescente qui caractérisent respectivement les productions Kranky et celles de Drive In, Aarktica s'est trouvé sans doute la place la plus spectaculaire, capable de faire se rejoindre Chris Isaak et My Bloody Valentine dans la nef d'une église (The Mimicry All Women Use). Pure Tone Audiometry est un disque fantastique et habité, celui de la synthèse magistrale.

From Babysue:

Raleigh's Silber label is a like a fine jewel that one finds at the bottom of the ocean. This small, eclectic label continues to release extraordinarily high quality releases that are unique, experimental, and thoroughly entertaining. Aarktica is Jon DeRosa. DeRosa's music is difficult to categorize. The man delves into wide variety of styles and sounds to create his own unique mindspace. Pure Tone Audiometry contains soft pop, ambient, electronic drone, and more. Beginning with the soft, soothing, and eerie sounds of "Out To Sea" and "The Mimicry All Women Use"...DeRosa then goes on to explore less obvious territory. The electronics on this album are a far cry from the generic sounds created by most modern electronic artists. DeRosa uses sounds to evoke moods...and the results are most effective. The music is sometimes unusual...sometimes strangely odd...and sometimes strikingly beautiful. A well-crafted and ultimately satisfying trip into one man's world of imagination. Totally hypnotic. (Rating: 5++)

From Brainwashed:

The many styles of Jon DeRosa are on full display these days, with new albums from Pale Horse and Rider and this project being released so close to each other. Where DeRosa is getting a lot of press these days for PHR, it is Aarktica that started his journey into somber melodies, though for his latest, it seems the more song-like structure of the former informs the latter. Pure Tone Audiometry refers to a hearing test that DeRosa had when he lost the hearing in his right ear several years ago. It is also the most rock-oriented of DeRosa's releases. Where previous Aarktica recordings were primarily drone and buzz, and PHR very acoustic and downbeat, this music is full-sounding, almost playful in places, and very mapped-out. Sounds appear and disappear, spliced in and out with the skill of a surgeon, and everything dances around your ears like it was born to be there. The chilling vocals on the opening track almost drown out the science film wild track, and all together it sounds like a chorus of t echnology, humanity, and the otherworldly. Elsewhere, the electro-pop returns, with electric guitar, programmed beats, and the sullen but liquid voice of DeRosa gracing the other tones. Then, real drums snap into focus, and the sound of a full band, something unheard of on Aarktica releases, fills the speakers and pulses with raw energy. The harmony chorus vocals all over the record breathe real life into this material, so much so that it alone almost eclipses all his other work. This is not to say that DeRosa has left behind his old devices, as "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday" and "Water Wakes Dead Cells" clearly display. He has, however, found a growth, a leap forward, that was not expected, but certainly most welcome. - Rob Devlin

From Delusions of Adequacy:

After releasing an album on the decidedly more indie-pop Darla Records and one on the more experimental and drone-focused Silber Records, Pure Tone Audiometry is perhaps the perfect combination of pop and drone. Jon DeRosa, the mastermind behind Aarktica, has perhaps crafted the most accessible and intimate Aarktica album yet. As with his previous works under the Aarktica name, DeRosa layers his guitars and manipulates them into washes of noise and sonic beauty, never using a synthesizer despite falling under the drone category. Yet on Pure Tone Audiometry, he's joined by members of Escapade, Mahogany, and Plexus on assorted strings and other instruments, and with more emphasis on vocals, many of these songs drift seductively into the realm of indie-pop.

Named after a behavioral test measure used to determine hearing sensitivity, which DeRosa underwent some years ago after losing hearing in his right ear, Pure Tone Audiometry's songs often refer to that theme, such as the recorded samples on "Out to Sea," which discuss the difficulty of remembering sound. This is the perfect album for those early morning wake-ups and late-night drifts to sleep. There are the longer, more experimental drone tracks that use washes of noise and intricately crafted guitar experimentation, and there are more intricate pop tunes. Yet all drift on a sea of spacey, dreamy, layered sound and a kind of hushed beauty that makes many of these songs shining masterpieces. The sense of being adrift is also a common theme throughout this release, as demonstrated early on the hauntingly beautiful "Out to Sea." Male and female vocals sing together, deep and stark over a looped background. My favorite track, "Ocean," features gorgeous vocals and simple yet soft guitar. The song starts quiet but picks up with bass and strings. On "The Mimicry All Women Use," light drumming and shimmering guitar give the song a quieter pop feel, as DeRosa sings in his deep, conspirational voice. The more drone-based, experimental side to Aarktica shines through on some of these tracks as well. On "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday," the drifting soundscapes are mesmorizing, yet they're not subtle or sleep-inducing, as great washes of looped guitars ebb and flow. Vocals fill out the subtle "Big Year," while "Water Wakes Dead Cells" is much more a traditional drone affair with a pulse, throbbing almost relentlessly in a mildly disturbing manner. It recedes into the 12-minute closer, "Williamsburg Counterpoint," a more traditional drone piece, more dreamy and atmospheric with light guitars and more depth to contrast its predecessor.

DeRosa seems to appreciate dichotomy. While Aarktica has always been his more experimental project, he has a new album due out this spring on Darla under his Pale Horse and Rider moniker that will show his more country-rock side. Even Pure Tone Audiometry shows his love of contrasts, as sweet pop structures are mixed with studio manipulation, creating songs that are equal parts pop tunes and experimental soundscapes. It results in a fantastic listen, clearly the most accessible and lovely album DeRosa has recorded to date. – Jeff Marsh, 3/3/03

From Erasing Clouds:

Am I out to sea/farther than I need to be to find my way home?/I don't know," sing Aarkatica mainman Jon DeRosa and guest Lorraine Lelis of Mahogany at the start of Aarktica's new album, Pure Tone Audiometry. As they sing, waves of synth gently break over the landscape of our aural imaginations, evoking a vast space that is comforting yet isolating. Pure Tone Audiometry is a trip into a sonic plane that soothes while revealing feelings of loneliness and emptiness. We are out to sea, perhaps farther than we should be, and out here life is still, in a way that's eerie yet embodies a certain basic state of grace. Pure Tone Audiometry is filled with gorgeous sad music. Aarktica takes new wave ballads of despair (a la Depeche Mode's loneliest moments) and stretches them out, accentuating both the beauty and the sadness through atmosphere and a slow pace. DeRosa's guitar and vocals (his voice is the epitome of yearning) under your skin while loops and programming offer textures that relax and intoxicate. More meditative and exploratory than even Aarktica's superb entry in Darla's Bliss Out Seris (2002's Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway, Pure Tone Audiometry does have a purity to it that is centering, that makes you think less about the frills of life. — Dave Heaton

From Fakejazz:

Backward tape loops, an ethereal wordless vocal duet with Lorraine Lelis reminiscent of His Name is Alive's Livonia, and rhyming "pure tone audiometry" with "oceanography" are some of the highlights of "Out To Sea," the leadoff track on Jon DeRosa's third full-length under the name Aarktica. "The Mimicry All Women Use" adds a normal vocal track that will be more familiar to DeRosa's [former] project, Dead Leaves Rising. His relaxed, late-night, sexy vocals reminded me of Richard Baskin's soundtrack for "Welcome To L.A." (well worth seeking out, by the way). A lengthy, full-band jam, "Mimicry...," will also be a surprise to fans of Jon's debut, No Solace in Sleep (also on Silber), which was a completely ambient, guitar-based solo effort. "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday" is closer to those ambient effects and is an excellent example of "glass music"— the sound made by running the index finger around the rims of glasses filled to various levels. The harmonics thus created are determined by the amount of air displaced by the liquid in each glass. Now I'm almost positive this is not how DeRosa created these sounds (almost all of his music is guitar-based and the by-now familiar "absolutely no synthesizers were used in the recording of this release" parental advisory applies), but you get the idea of what to expect. It's a relaxing technique that warms the blood and the heart, although I don't think there's been any tests on any correlation between the brand (and proof!) of liquid used and the resulting harmonics!

A more traditional song structure suits DeRosa well on "Ocean," a gently whispered love song that will appeal to fans of Bill Callahan/Smog. An interesting arrangement/production decision is made halfway through. Up to this point, it sounds like the song is emerging from a radio-then we edit to the "studio version," thus enhancing the song's immediacy. I also applaud Molly Sheridan's mournful violin playing.

The title of the album refers to the audio test administered to measure one's hearing sensitivity (DeRosa is deaf in one ear), and it comes into play frequently throughout the recording with very quiet spoken-word segments in the background of both "Out To Sea" and "Big Year." It also results in a hearing test of your own, crossed with one of those subliminal recordings you would listen to help you calm down or improve your driving techniques, etc. Since the tests are administered with headphones, this is best appreciated thusly and is one of the best "headphone albums" in recent memory. This allows the listener to pick up sounds and nuances that might have otherwise been missed. And knowing what DeRosa is doing, I began to question my own hearing abilities: Am I hearing things that aren't really there and vice versa? Am I missing things that are there? That challenge of hearing things that aren't there vs. not hearing things that are makes it a very educational experience which questions the entire concept of "listening" and "hearing." But that's not to suggest this is a clinical, antiseptic recording. On the contrary, it's very warm and tender, with strong melody lines, particularly the lengthy "Ocean" and "Big Year." The source of the sounds you listen to on a record is also examined on "Water Wakes Dead Cells." Could that be a heartbeat... a vibrating eardrum... or the industrial machinations that went into creating those sound effects in the warehouse scenes of David Lynch's "Eraserhead" where our hero makes the erasers? Or, just as easily, is it none of these? I don't think identifying the actual source is as important as the fact that it could be any, none, or all of these. In keeping with the analysis of the perception of sound and the experience of listening and hearing, the fact that a single sound could be produced from a myriad of natural causes, or created or manipulated in the recording studio in the mixing/engineering/production process is key to what's going on here.

At 12 1/2 minutes, the finale, "Williamsburg Counterpoint" (DeRosa lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in NYC) goes on twice as long as necessary, but the first half is a lovely, ambient guitar piece worth hearing at least a few times. In closing, let me just suggest you rush out and pick this up and decide for yourself: is it live or is it DeRosa's studio-enhanced vision of what "sound" sounds like. In light of his expertise at recreating the limited "sounds" that he can pick up, this truly is the sound of one ear hearing. For students of the act of creating sound and lovers of those creations alike, Pure Tone Audiometry is an essential listening experience. (11/12) – Jeff Penczak, 3/21/03

From New Music Box:

Texture seems to be the focus of this pseudo-ambient chillout album by avant-pop outfit Aarktica. While processed and looped electric guitars provide the timbral cantus firmus, the disembodied vibe is aptly laced with violin, cello, and harmonium, consequently grounding the hovering sound in the corporeal. Jon DeRosa, the mastermind behind Aarktica, delivers a boyish, whispery vocal style similar to bands like Her Space Holiday or the languid yearnings of Sigur Rós. Pure Tone Audiometry offers ready for airplay tracks like "Ocean" and the electronica-infused "Out To Sea," to more abstruse endeavors such as "Williamsburg Counterpoint," assumingly a nod Steve Reich. – Randy Nordschow

From New York Times:

Aarktica's songs are extended reveries, built on loops of guitars and drums and occasional voices. The musical elements hover and circle, float by or bristle with distortion as the songs drift through serenity and trouble. - Jon Pareles

From Opus Zine:

When I learned that Aarktica would be recording an album for Darla's "Bliss Out" series, I was pretty overjoyed. In my mind, it seemed like a match made in heaven. Darla's series was designed to let the more ambient-minded musicians in the indie realm strut their stuff, and brought together such artists as Amp, Windy and Carl, and Piano Magic. Coming off the heels of No Solace in Sleep, one of my favorite drone albums of time, Aarktica seemed like the ideal artist for the series. That's why I was so disappointed when I finally heard Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life And Be Happy Anyway.... Perhaps it was just a case of outrageous expectations, but I went in expecting more harrowing atmospheres and deep guitar ambience and was, well, shocked to hear actual songs. It just seemed way too incongruous for me, and it felt like DeRosa was ignoring his music's key strengths. I realize I could very well be in the minority here; when a friend of mine heard the CD, he couldn't believe my reaction. But then again, he has yet to hear No Solace In Sleep.

When I heard about Aarktica's new album, I'll admit to some slight trepidation. Part of me was excited to see what DeRosa would do next, but I didn't want to arrive at the same conclusion as I did with Or You Could.... However, my anxiety was completely unfounded as I found Pure Tone Audiometry to be a thoroughly absorbing and captivating experience. DeRosa does delve into more song-like structures, but the atmospherics that dominated No Solace In Sleep are still there, haunting the album's 7 songs.

A fluctuating, backwards-running loop opens the album on a hallucinatory note, while DeRosa's vocals are joined by those of Lorraine Lelis (Mahogany). As the track continues, it blossoms into the first unexpected delight of the album, and sign of good things to come. The line between the DeRosa and Lelis' voices begins to blur until you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. All that's left is a delicate veil of sound that drifts across the song's surface like a gentle ocean breeze.

Shifting guitar layers open "The Mimicry All Woman Use", and if you're listening on headphones, you'll immediately notice your sense of depth being toyed with. Each strum of the guitar jockeys for position, as those in the background come rushing to the forefront, only to fade away just as quickly. There's a constant sense that the song is in freefall, barely held together by the stark drum programming. Meanwhile, DeRosa's tired vocals sleepwalk through the mix, like Mark Eitzel backed by Insides. As the guitar constantly brushes by and collapses in on itself, it creates a fair amount of tension. One wonders if the song's structure can continue on this way, which is why it's a relief when DeRosa finally launches into a bit of noisy rock in the song's final moments.

Now, forget everything I've written up to this point that could possibly be seen as criticizing DeRosa for pursuing a more song-oriented direction. Forget all of it simply for the sake of one track. "Ocean" is the most song-oriented title on the album, and it also happens to be one of the most beautiful and affecting. The song achieves a crystalline symmetry between the delicately plucked guitar and DeRosa and Lelis' vocals, but the real clincher is Andrew Prinz' sad cello. His instrument beautifully echoes the song's poignant lyrics ("Tonight there's no prayer I can really think of/To keep you young just as I remember you"). How affecting is this song? There have been times when I've been tempted to skip this track while at work lest I break down right there at my desk.

If "Ocean" is the album's most affecting piece, "Big Year" is the most haunting. DeRosa's guitar takes on an endless sound, creating ghostly, bell-like tones that seem to hang suspended in the dark ocean depths. DeRosa's tired vocals have a sinking quality, as if lyrics like "Today I learned to tie my shoes/I can feed myself again/It's gonna be a big year/I think I'll even start to talk" are a weight dragging him down into the depths plumbed by his guitar. Far above, Prinz' cello can be glimpsed, filtering through the murky surface like dim rays of sunlight, forever out of reach.

As "Pure Tone Audiometry" closes, DeRosa sheds all structure and pop leanings and dives headfirst into the drone. "Water Wakes Dead Cells" opens on a violent note, but the churning, rumbling feedback eventually gives way to the slow, fluctuating tones of "Williamsburg Counterpoint". Chiming guitar notes and percussion gradually fade in, adding a sense of direction to the shapeless tones. Meanwhile, Prinz' cello sweeps in and graces the listener with another haunting arrangement. Just when the piece finally seems to coalesce, DeRosa rips into it with well-placed stabs of noise and feedback, as if he intends to tear it apart one broken guitar string at a time. Finally, the piece collapses in a hail of noise and feedback, until all that's left is the delicate guitar progression DeRosa initially used to shape the song.

There's a quality to "Pure Tone Audiometry" that plays with your perception of the sounds therein. When a person loses one sense, the other senses become more acute, so as to compensate. And I wonder if that isn't what's going on with Aarktica's music, in a fashion. I wonder if DeRosa's partial deafness isn't somehow responsible for the hallucinatory feel his music often possesses. I suspect that somehow, his hearing loss allows him to hear and construct sounds in ways us "normal" people don't or simply can't.

For example, I can watch the display count down the time remaining on "Out To Sea", but when DeRosa and Lelis' vocals blend together, the song seems to stretch out, each second turning into 10 or 15. Meanwhile, "Big Year" lasts nearly 9 minutes, but it draws you in so completely that it's over before you know it. And that's doubly so for "Ocean", which could take up half the album as far as I'm concerned and yet it's gentle, comforting tone still seems to exist outside of time. – Jason Morehead, 3/8/03

From Pitchfork Media:

Rating: 7.4
Can there be any purpose behind a master's degree in the Psychology of Music other than inevitably attempting to rule the minds of men through the manipulative powers of sound? I submit that there can not; the job prospects from a degree like that are, like, what? Music therapist? I don't think so. The only career I can imagine it successfully leading to is Supervillian.

It doesn't take a superhuman intellect to see through the aims of Jon DeRosa's education -- he's the arch-mastermind behind the warm, homey folk of Pale Horse and Rider, and has guested on several other records, including Debridement, a recent Chairkickers' release by Rivulets. But none of his various projects are more dangerous, more insidious, than the icy calm of Aarktica's dreamy ambiance. In fact, his nefarious desire to lull listeners into a pliant, peaceful daydream (and then rob them, no doubt -- or worse!) could easily have succeeded with last year's Or You Could Just Go Through Your Whole Life and Be Happy Anyway if it weren't for the heroic actions of Pitchfo... hey, wait. That got a really positive review... uuuhhhh.... now... that... I think about it, Pure Tone Audiometry is really... pretty... oh, god, no... if I don't come back, tell Kathleen Hanna... I... love... her...

Wow... where was I?

I always get distracted by the lush, diffuse tones at the conclusion of "Out to Sea." The track opens Pure Tone Audiometry with a delicate, Magnetic Fields-ish male/female vocal dynamic between DeRosa and Lorraine Lelis, as they sweetly harmonize over the romantic notions of being lost at sea and never again seeing home. Before long, the voices become lost in the hazy ambiance completely, and the experimental pop is vaporized; only Lelis' seraphic call remains to try and navigate the listener through the droning fog. Eventually, even the music itself vanishes.

DeRosa's arrangements are intensely careful and subdued, and never once does he allow his deliberately constructed tranquility to be disturbed. The few real swells of emotion are thrilling, but momentary; such an austere, clinical tone is produced that it sometimes becomes stultifying, although I'm not sure emotive response is the aim here. Aarktica is cold, pure, and almost inescapably tranquil.

"Snowstorm Ruins Birthday" revisits the vapor that lingers from "Out to Sea." There was music here, but now only traces remain, surrounding the listener in a wintry mist of component sounds, atomic gray noise, a touching (but still distant) pop melody dissolved into its basic elements. Slowly, song structures reform; DeRosa's wispy vocals return alongside Lelis' stunning accompaniment, triumphantly welling up from miles beneath the faintly reverberating electric and simple acoustic plucking in "Ocean"'s beautiful climax. "Big Year" explores the darker regions of Aarktica's ethereal shoegazing like a slightly cheerier version of Projekt-based ambient artists Lycia; the listener is inexorably pulled deeper into the track's echoing maze of acoustics, subtly ominous drones, and trembling strings.

Until... total silence?

No, wait. Not total. DeRosa slipped up; "Water Wakes Dead Cells" is a five-minute foray into ultra-minimalist drone, just a rhythmic pulse wrapped in a barely audible hum, before eventually bowing out completely. The sheer vacancy of what amounts to little more than empty space is pretty unnecessary, and though it's anything but jarring, it still stands out as a glaring hole in an otherwise pristine calm. As a breather before "Williamsburg Counterpoint", Pure Tone Audiometry's twelve-minute centerpiece, "Water Wakes Dead Cells" is briefly very effective. By the halfway point, though, the album's hypnotic spell has been broken -- it served as an anticlimactic pause, but after a few minutes, it just seems like a good time to get a drink, to make my escape.

Ah, who am I kidding? Aarktica's attempt to pacify and control his audience into a narcotized lull is good but not perfect. Of course, it's too late for me, but at least you've been warned. Jon DeRosa is a madman! He wants to control the world with his beautiful, antiseptic melodies! He's nearly succeeded yet again! Tell the world before it's too late! - Eric Carr, Pitchfork Media

From Popmatters:

Chances are, you have probably taken a pure tone audiometry test as a child. You know, the one where you sit with the big fat headphones over your ears, your palm on a table, listening to myriad, random bloops and bleeps, first in one ear, then the other, and raising your index finger whenever you heard something, the doctors trying to determine your threshold of hearing, the softest sounds which your ears can detect. But you never cared why they were doing the test; it was incredibly easy, and you probably got to miss a bit of school as a bonus, and that's all that mattered.

You can't blame musician Jon DeRosa for being just a trifle obsessed with pure tone audiometry. One of the more fascinating composers on the post-rock landscape, DeRosa, who works under the name Aarktica, has quickly made a name for himself in recent years thanks to his first two albums, 2000's No Solace in Sleep and 2002's Or You Could Just Go through Your Whole Life..., which combined ambient sounds with more experimental, shoegazer style drones. The thing is, DeRosa, who is a graduate music technology student as well as a student of North Indian classical music, is deaf in his right ear. Complete hearing loss in one ear has to be especially devastating to a musician, but DeRosa found a way to work with it. His life is heard now in mono, and using that as inspiration, he has been able to create some fascinating new sounds as a result.

Pure Tone Audiometry is Aarktica's latest piece of work, and it continues to make that gradual crossover from experimental soundscapes to highly accessible, almost pop compositions. What is always surprising about Aarktica's albums is that the sounds you hear are totally, one hundred percent organic; no synthesizers are used whatsoever, with DeRosa deftly manipulating his guitar playing, as well as various guest musicians' instruments, such as drums, cello, upright bass, violin, and harmonium. The result this time around is an album that sounds as experimental as releases by laptop performers such as Four Tet, yet sounds as intensely emotional as Sigur Ros.

The album feels like DeRosa's own version of a hearing test, and is a marvel to hear with headphones. "Am I out to sea / Farther than I need to be / To find my way home, I don't know," sings De Rosa and guest vocalist Lorraine Lelis on "Out to Sea", DeRosa's smooth voice meshing with Lelis's heavenly tones, the pair sounding like they're singing an oblique, surrealist version of a lullaby, as a single loop of guitar drones plays over and over. Their voices harmonize, more overdubbed voices float in and out, creating a heavenly feeling, as a spoken word sample starts to fade in and out. "The Mimicry All Women Use" is a more straightforward, post rock guitar composition, as little effects are used, DeRosa gently strumming chords over a languid beat. On its own, DeRosa's voice is gorgeous, sounding like a more tenor-voiced version of the late Morphine crooner Mark Sandman, as the song launches into a stirring coda of live drums and layers of distorted guitars. "Ocean" continues in the same vein, a plaintive ballad comprised of some more spare, chiming guitar, and some beautifully desperate lyrics ("Tonight there's not enough water in the ocean / To keep me under long enough to see you"), not to mention that magical voice of Lelis again, making the song become a duet between star-crossed indie rock lovers.

The album's two lengthier songs sound more like a real group effort, as the maudlin "Big Year" and the 12-minute closer "Williamsburg Counterpart" feature not only DeRosa, but also guests on cello, bass, and drums. Both songs go for the big, grand, ambient pop sound, but although the ambition is admirable and there's more of a live feel to the songs, they wind up going for too long, paling in comparison to the album's more understated tracks. DeRosa proves he's a stellar studio whiz on the instrumentals "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday", which features an aural tornado of guitar noise, and "Water Wakes Dead Cells", a hypnotic pastiche of feedback noises. With his truly unique ear for enthralling musical sounds, DeRosa continues to show us that he's on the verge of something great. Despite its few moments of tedium, Pure Tone Audiometry is heavenly. He might hear in mono only, but Jon DeRosa knows the rest of us don't have to, and with his third album, he's given us a real feast for our ears. – Adrien Begrand, 28 July 2003

From Shredding Paper:

I'm tempted to think of Aarktica as Magnetic Fields' younger cousin on Prozac. It's partly because lead singer/programmer Jon DeRosa reminds me of a more blissfully melodic Stephin Merritt, and partly because the invariably synth-based underpinning of these songs alludes to myriad other genres and moods. But that wouldn't explain the slow guitar orgy of "The Mimicry All Women Use" or the experimental noisefuck of "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday," which is incidentally one of the best song titles I've ever heard, or the gorgeous echo and vocal party that is "Big Year." The ratio of slow-build-ups to orgasmic satisfaction to high enough on "Pure Tone Audiometry" to keep me coming back for more well into the future.

From Splendid eZine:

For its first 90 seconds, opener "Out To Sea" sounds a little like a psychedelic Magnetic Fields: a simple melody with quirky lyrics about being lost at sea, sung by a male-female duo over a pulsing loop of backwards guitar. After that, what seems to be a skewed pop tune drifts into a fog of wordless vocals, harmonic overtones and a cut-up sample reminding us that "it is difficult to remember sound."

Jon DeRosa's third album as Aarktica is a difficult thing to pin down, and for the first few listens it can seem a little opaque. For every relatively straightforward song like "The Mimicry All Women Use" -- a stately indie-rock elegy that builds to a majestic crescendo reminiscent of Slowdive -- there's a pleasant but indistinct ambient mass like "Snowstorm Ruins Birthday." But there's a cumulative power to this album, an overarching shape that reveals itself after five or six listens, when your back is turned and you're paying attention to something else. On first listen, "Ocean" is a gorgeously sad melody that's almost too straightforward in this context, "Big Year" is eight minutes of wobbly, defocused repetition, and "Water Wakes Dead Cells" sounds like a TR-505 drum machine doing a load of permanent press; after a few listens, a unity of atmosphere emerges and all these disparate pieces begin to suggest a hazy, evanescent whole.

In its careful blend of electronics, guitars and chamber music, it's reminiscent of This Mortal Coil at their most elusive and introverted. It's not going to reach out and grab you by the lapels, and it moves at its own deliberate pace: twelve minute closer "Williamsburg Counterpoint" is nearly static for its opening minutes, with gradual layers of guitar, drums and strings applied and then immersed in guitar feedback. It's not a novel formula, but there's a wealth of sonic detail that unfolds languorously.

At times a listener may wish there were a little more substance beneath the album's lovely filigree, and the oceanic imagery of the titles sometimes seems like a description of the intended sound rather than an actual focus. But at its best, Pure Tone Audiometry weaves a slow spell that's no less beguiling for its lack of solidity. - Sean Thomas, Splendid eZine

From Stylus Magazine:

Rating: 8.9
Thank you Sam Rosenthal. If it weren’t for you and your darkwave Projekt label, we might have just another mediocre punk band instead of one that makes such lullingly beatific experimental-ambient-rock this side of Another Green World. And yes, the comparison to the seminal Brian Eno album is befitting; both albums combine an earnest sensibility for pop melodies, and for smooth (and not so smooth) ambient textures.

The blank inner liner notes of Pure Tone Audiometry are like a forced gesture from Jon DeRosa to the listener/reader, saying “This is what I hear.” DeRosa’s permanent loss of hearing in his right ear (sensorineural deafness) has more or less given us the Aarktica project, and this album. His impairment is our felicity.

“Pure tone audiometry clouds my way home” DeRosa sings on “Out to Sea.” A flittering backwards guitar loop backs DeRosa and Lorraine Lelis’ (of Mahogany) vocals. The loop is slowly overcome by a wash of ambiance and fleeting vocal wisps -- cascading from left to right. “Out to Sea” is a perfect example of DeRosa’s strength: his construction of a melodious ambient song that you can sing-a-long with. “Ocean” is continues in the same manner. It is a truly beautiful song with DeRosa singing by himself this time: “Tonight there’s not enough water in the ocean / To keep me under / Long enough to see you” but soon Lelis joins, the vocals bursting forward in the mix: “Tonight there’s no prayer I can really think of / To keep you young / Just as I remember you.” Molly Sheridan’s violin playing at the end of the song only enhances the already glorious song.

Pleasing his No Solace In Sleep fans, “Snowstorm Ruins Birthday” and “Water Wakes Dead Cells” are drone-like ambient pieces. The former submerges its listener in a flurry of shoegazer-esque static that evokes a Northern blizzard (I should know), while the latter is like its own pure tone audiometry test: its mechanical thumping conjures up myriad mental images as well as forcing yourself to ask “What am I hearing?” “Williamsburg Counterpoint” is deliberately paced, but if you can stick with it -- highly rewarding. A full band track, the ambience builds into Hadley Kahn’s (Escapade) well-defined drumming, then to Molly Sheridan and Andrew Prinz’s (also of Mahogany) weepy string playing. The orchestration then slowly fades out save DeRosa’s gentle guitar picking -- the void enshrouds.

In just seven songs and 45 minutes, DeRosa is able to satisfy those familiar with ambient/experimental music, as well as those not yet ready to take the dive: I like to call this the Early 1970s Eno Syndrome; and what a success it is. - Gentry Boeckel

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