Windy and Carl - We Will Always Be

Ambient music by definition is usually instrumental and used to create an atmosphere of relaxation. When taking in We Will Always Be, the latest effort from Windy & Carl, it becomes apparent that spending money on this record will leave you agitated for having parted so easily with your hard-earned cash.

The Michigan-based duo has been around for quite a while, but based on the sound of We Will Always Be, unless you've had a massage recently or are looking for music to accompany an astronomy documentary, they are fairly anonymous. Eight tracks, devoid of drums and with fewer vocals than Tom Hanks in Castaway, meld into one long exercise in meditation.

Half the time, it sounds like somebody left a heavy book on top of an electric keyboard. "The Frost In Winter" transitions into 12 minutes of "Looking Glass" so seamlessly that it is like the artist broke it up on purpose in order to have more tracks on the album.

The finale, "Fainting In The Prescence Of The Lord," takes almost 19 minutes to complete, and by the time the soaring guitar feedback fades to silence you can only hope that real crossover to death comes with less agony than what was just experienced.

If you've ever stopped to think about the sheer amount of new music that is released on a weekly basis, then you have realized that among the established stars and burgeoning talent lays a veritable shit jambalaya that is destined for future use by military sound cannons to flush out undesirables. Throw this one into the stew.