I was lucky enough to get a pre-release of the new CD "...an ambient extraction", and loved it! With use of spoken word type vocals on a few of the tracks and the more guitar driven core of each song, this CD is even more accessible than his first CD "...an ambient experience". Emotion drips off such songs as Version, Mellows, and Pour Vous Deux, while a distant eeriness transports you through space, time, and the fascinating and often terrifying world of the subconscious on tracks like Pierce Point Stop, South Side Line and My Normal State. I was a big fan of Icecake's first CD, but I love this sophomore release even more. I highly suggest you add "...an ambient extraction" to your collection.

One-man ambient music machine Robert Kaminek is an accomplished film and television scorer
but his passion for evocative music construction is most evident in his work under the Icecake
banner. His latest work, ...An Ambient Extraction, displays plenty of Kaminek's love of all things
Eno, from the master's gentle background ambience ("Version") to a more aggressively forceful
sonic pressence (the buzzy guitar drone of "Dress, Detch, Ivory Train," the galloping shimmer of
"Pierce Point Stop, South Side Line") to found/composed and manipulated sound bites ("A Last
Supper") to all of the above sprinkled with elements of its twisted song craft ("My Normal State").
Although there are moments of avantish dissonance in Kaminek's work, it's never distracting in a
sound-for-sound's-sake kind of way and, like the best of Eno's long and illustrious catalog,
Icecake proves to be both soothing and engaging simultaneously.

Not everyone will accept the opening track A Last Supper with its main reliance on the spoken
word albeit with electronic manipulation. The rest of the tracks by New Yorker Robert J. Kaminek Jr.
are described as a spatial, ambient, space-rock project. The second track seems to be quite
familiar with its beautifully rounded guitar riff. I found myself being strangely drawn to Version.
Following on is Dress, Detach, Ivory Train which is an unusual title but so is the instrumental music,
but I have to admit it's very catchy mainly due to a superb bass line. Pepper Clouds starts as
though its going to be an exceptionally moody piece, but after about a minute, the track suddenly
becomes a lot lighter with plenty of reverb on the guitars and a non standard beat. The most
appealing is the final track My Normal State, with a few spoken phrases and understated guitar
riff on a mellow backdrop provides an infectious instrumental that needs to be repeated. A total
of eight tracks appear on this CD. Although labelled An Ambient Extraction, it contains a lot of
electric guitar work and so its a little different from the norm, but apart from the strangeness of
the opening track, I found the more I played, the more I liked. There is just something that makes
the differences between ordinary and appealing and Icecake definitely fit into the latter category.

After Listening to hours of harsh music its
nice to finally listen to something that is
soft and abstract. Its very soothing and
relaxing music, something you'd want to
listen to while going to bed every night to
lift all the stress and built up emotions and
wisk them away into oblivion. If you enjoy
lullaby soft, ambient style music then you
should really consider checking out ICECAKE.
Truly enjoyable!

Boasting a nice, guitar-based instrumental drone sound somewhat like that
of Landing and Surface of Eceon - minus the layers of fuzz - Icecake has a
style that's hard not to like. The four instruments involved - bass, guitar,
effects, and samples - are all used beautifully, blended together flawlessly.
A track like "Pour Vous" is like a trip on a magic cloud; the chiming,
mystical guitar reverberates against the walls of your room, all the while
floating you off into a world of black and white film noir scenes barely
visible through a dense, purple haze.

"That Train Is So Spacy," meanwhile, has a somewhat energetic, yet still
relaxing sound. "On Soft Ground I Sleep" also seems to relieve stress,
feeling almost as if it's taking a load off your back. This zest for calmness
characterizes much of the album, which can be categorized almost as a
meditative record. It's perfect for cooling down after a long day. It's
amazing that only one guy, Robert J. Kaminek Jr, is responsible for all of
the music, because An Ambient Experience's full, beautiful grandeur has
a very full sound to it...

...One listen and you'll know what I mean.

Behind the quite mysterious patronymic is hiding
Robert J.Kaminek Jr. a New Yorker musician and
songwriter whom, in the image of a great number of
his colleagues, is totally absorbed in his passion to
the point of multiplying the projects and this within
the scope of a more global approach of soothing music.
This point proves to be necessary to get for the best
all the aspects of Icecake's compositions because
Robert, having already written scores for two films and
various cable television programming, has enough
experience to know how to take up perfectly all the
sound space that instrumental music can offer. Such
new horizons are some godsends for all these
avant garde musicians whom are sometimes short of
huge and unexplored stretches.

If the first measures of "... an ambient experience" start
one thinking of an ethereal blend of space rock and
dreamy pop harmonies Robert has made a point of not
guiding the listener too much letting him be the sole
judge of the real nature he wants to grant this mixture.
The listener is quickly wrapped in an aural sweetness
("Vertical Pines", "Fountains", "On soft ground I sleep")
which instantaneously matches with the surreal image
of the infinitely great that flashes before him
("Pour Vous", "That train is so spacy", "Fountains").

But one can consider these seven tracks in an inversely
proportional way to the previous paragraph. Each
number might be a sort of phase of a long process of
introspection including some sessions of meditation
("Reality and You", "Fountains") that Robert surely
wanted to achieve for a long while now. The more the
record progresses the more the listener has it as his
duty to face up to some psychic interactions dithering
between positive cerebral waves ("Vertical Pines",
"That train is so spacy") which are a prelude to a
recovery and morenebulous consonances
("The astral body", "Pour Vous") which are the warning
signs of an irreversible decline towards autism
("Pour Vous", "The astral body") where the robot-like
vocals become the last connections to humanity.
Stressing the fundamentals of life and especially the thin
line between sanity and lunacy, "...an ambient experience"
is the deepest and strongest ambient record I have
listened to this year.