CONTROLLED BLEEDING
BETWEEN TIDES
ALBUM MULTIMOOD RE-RELEASE: SUMMER 1999 REVIEW: JULY 30, 1999

Originally released in 1985, "Between Tides" sees the previously extremely noisy team of Paul Lemos, Joe Papa and Chris Moriarty moving into less aggressive atmospheres. Frankly, for me this is where Controlled Bleeding started to sound interesting.
The album's strength lies in the balance between harsh noise and serene harmonics. These components work together to give the music a greater depth than you usually find in ordinary noise or ambient music. Still, it's mostly an indecisive album, glancing in many directions at the same time. You can hear the band "trying out" different musical styles without lingering very long on any of them. You have tribal style drumming here, pure soft ambience there and electronic body music-type instrumentals somewhere else.
All in all "Between Tides" is something of a transitional record for Controlled Bleeding. It's probably more interesting for it's historic value to a collector, than for somebody who isn't already familiar with the band. For those I would recommend their more recent releases, where they focus even more on ambience. Still, this is a lot more diverse and adventurous than most "dark ambient" records issued nowadays.

MATTIAS HUSS