Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Maybe it's because I like Sci-Fi and ghost stories so much, or maybe it's the number of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twilight Zone episodes I watched as a kid, but mysterious, ambient, spooky, celestial and haunting samples are invariably my favorites. Zero-G's Seismic Frequencies goes right for the juju jugular. The sounds on Seismic Frequencies are as appropriate for industrial and drum 'n' bass as for new age and ambient. If you're looking for samples that suggest a kind of ancient-future resonance, you'll find them here, echoing composers as diverse as Harold Budd, Steve Roach, Brian Eno, Jim Plotkin, Bill Laswell, and Tomas Koner.



The first 100-plus samples are ambient textures, loops, pads, and one shots. "Boomerang Swerve" suggests the creature in Alien 3, while "Windpipe" hurtles a notch filer into infinite space. Screeches, scrapes, and sparking pads reside near synthetically percolating, rhythmic ambient loops and huge, reverberant bass drum, instrumental, and even door slam hits. If your taste is less Blade Runner and more Xena, the collection includes a series of ancient drones and archaic loops, as well as some very intense atmospheres that recall the earthy, cinematic work of new age guru Steve Roach. If your taste runs more Jacob's Ladder, you're really in business: atmospheres like "Subway Terror" and "Uranium Train" are downright unsettling. Fans of the ambient subgenre known as isolationism (Swarm of Drones, Final, KK Null) will find plenty of inspiration here.



The discs don't offer a lot of drum loops, but the few featured are appropriately deconstructed and effected (Zero-G calls them "deformed") examples that you're unlikely to hear anyplace else. However, this colletion's real strengths lie elsewhere in the swooshy laser darts of "Sci-Fi Pass and Shots"; the Space Odyssey-like clarion calls of "Steel Pads"; the hyperdrive recoiling of "Stingers"; the psychedelic submerged clock ticks of "Lunar Drones"; and the aggressive, vulcanized dimensions of "Metal Washes". The many short hits include quick glide sounds, breaking noises, shudders, throbs, creaks, and sweeps. You could even consider Seismic Frequencies a self-contained film soundtrack machine-hits, sound effects, music, cues, and all.



Though not necessarily friendly, pristine, or dry, the discs' sounds are all quite hi-fi, allowing plenty of latitude for droppitching, distorting, and effecting. However, many of the sounds have quite a bit of reverb-sometimes gated-on them already. Also keep in mind that you could inadvertently scare the crap out of your neighbors or roommates with these sounds, as many of the samples are custom-built for raising ghosts, conquering space and rumbling earth. Of course, whether or not you care depends on what you think of your neighboors or roomies.