The Ansion - That Is The Way Of Things, A Day Late And A Dollar Short, A Third Of Four Rooms, B-Sides And Rarities

The Ansion is a humble and meek 28 year old hailing from Kilmarnock, Scotland that makes ambient and electronic music using his laptop, numerous keyboards, guitars, and loop pedals. His music is a mixture of programmed beats and live electronic instrumentation, and could be compared to acts like The Album Leaf, The American Dollar, and The Abbasi Brothers. The initial inception of The Ansion was in 2006 and his debut album entitled That Is The Way Of Things was released in 2007 on Ohio's Skean Dhu Recordings. In 2008, That Is The Way Of Things was released by Say Hello To Never Recordings, a Japanese based label. The music on That Is The Way Of Things combines elements of dance-oriented percussion and contemplative atmospheric sounds, which could appeal to fans of all types of music. The album comes with an extra digital download album entitled A Day Late And A Dollar Short, which is composed of outtakes from the That Is The Way Of Things  recording sessions.

To add to the aspect of D.I.Y., The Ansion is a home-based musician and producer, and since his inception as an artist he has recorded in four different rooms in three different houses. This is the concept behind the name of his 2011 EP, entitled A Third Of Four Rooms. The four original songs and a remix by ::thinkstandard:: were recorded in the third of these four rooms, hence the name A Third Of Four Rooms. The songs on A Third Of Four Rooms were recorded throughout 2009 and 2010, and were initially intended to be on a full-length album that is just now starting to come together. The Ansion, however, came to the conclusion that since the tracks intended to be on  the full-length had a completely different sound than the other recordings, he would release the tracks on an EP, which came to be A Third Of Four Rooms. The Ansion was working (and still is) on a full-length album that consisted of binaural guitar loop recordings while recording the tracks that make up A Third Of Four Rooms. The major sound difference in the two is that the tracks on A Third Of Four Rooms rely heavily on ambiance, and less on guitar. The only track on A Third Of Four Rooms that may resemble something up-and-coming from The Ansion is "Will You Shut Up And Get Off The Damn Ground", which relies heavily on guitar loops and is my personal favorite off of the EP.

Aside from these releases, The Ansion has also released individual tracks throughout the years that don't apply to one set album. Overall, The Ansion does a phenomenal job at creating music in this particular genre or style. One will hear elements of dance music, hip-hop, electronic, post-rock, industrial, and ambient music throughout each track, and The Ansion is so skilled at his craft that the mixture of all of these elements works out just right and never wrong. Anyone who enjoys ambient music with a danceable, electronic twist is sure to find something in The Ansion. I have been pleased with everything that he has released to this day and I am looking forward to what he develops next on the up-and-coming full-length album.

Check out the track "The Problem With Destiny" off of The Ansion's A Third Of Four Rooms: