"The Blue Room" never sat very well with me, though I did love Hotel Y. "Red Letters," on the other hand, is to my ears a cohesive, well structured and thoroughly effective disc. I'm very pleased with Edward's latest work. The whole album has a very slow, somber, moody atmosphere to it, yet "Seeing Red" is a bit faster (though still quite dark). It stirs me, my emotions, my thoughts and has already become one of my all-time favorite Ka-Spel songs. "Belief on a Breeze," "Red Rock," and "Radio 6," are slow peices with plenty of chilling textures circulating around behind the simple melodies, with Edward's emotive voice at the forefront. A question: Is it just me, or does the progression to "Beleif on a Breeze" sound hauntingly like "Lisa's Seperation" ; and does the piano progression in "Red Rock" hint of some song from one of the China Doll releases...? Of course, it wouldn't be the first time Edward has re-circulated musical themes. "The Carrier," "Groovy," "Red Letters," and the latter half of "Beleif on a Breeze" offer the more experimental side of the album -- crunchy sounds, clanging percussion, odd vocal samples and other bits of chaos. In a word, *wonderful*. I really like the way on "The Carrier," Edward's drawled vocals fit perfectly with a very 'non musical' backdrop. "Swamp Thing" differs quite a bit from the rest; it's musically brighter, with peppy keyboard percussion and a catchy chorus of "down boy down boy..." I enjoy the addition of Rachel's voice at the end, too, singing "what you do, you do for love." Nothing on this disc failed to connect with me. Nice work, Edward! - Michael Holloway

Red Letters is good stuff. It´s amazing, but quite typical of a new EKS release. This time it is 99% electronic made. The openeing Radio 6 reminds me of Glasshouse of CP 10 in a keayboard only version. DARK. Sad! Another Expression of EKS thoughts! A combination of Love Puppets with Glasshouse and AAzyd on one keyboard,... haunting music.... a perfect beginning for a perfect album. After that follows the masterpiece of this album, "seeing red" It is a catchy sng, a pop song, if there weren´t those interludes of intensity. It has those catchy (electronc) violins at the end. If it arrived into the hands of a producer it could be a top ten hit, but this is EKS how I like him, dancing through his expressions.....loveable, feelable.......GREAT! This fades into silence.... broken after a few sec´s with a female voice..... start of "Believe of a breeze".... a waltz. This is stolen! Stolen by his own history, at this moment I can´t remember were from,....aaazyd LP? or Cheyekk LP! also could come from a late LPD (any day now, crushed velvet) album. A great song, so dated, so slow, so set up with feelings, so beautiful...... Next we arrive at "Red Rock", another wide scape of sound - I always wonder how he is able to get a sound so fullfilled, so week, so great with such little equiqmant. It is a slow song, that could also be from the Cheyekk album and no-one would be the wiser .......... "Illuminia3/The Carrier" mades it better then Illuminia album at complete running. I never liked Illuminia CD that´much, it was a shot.........not planned but done, badly produced and badly engenneered - this is so much better! Sounds modern. BIG BEAT at EKS: Wow. It makes my feets dance, even if the Tempo only sometimes and suddenly explodes........... "Groovy" starts like those songs I don´t like(or don´t understand?) distorting sounds slowly grow to somewhat like a song! I need a million listens to this to feel good with it. It is sound, it is "Experimantal" it is intresting but it is destroying the compact sound of an album´! This runs in the lost sounding "Child King". This again has this catchy harmony and a chorus that hits. If Ed was a produced Popstar this again would be an overproducfed top ten hit, but cause he´s not, this is another sketch of his soul that leads me in strange dreams..... Track 8 of this CD (Swamp Thing/Simone is/ Red letters/ Katha) why are they thrown in one? I don´t know. Part one is a soul pop , covered under monotone keyboard phrases and sound scratches, just great. I won´t give to much words on this, cause this song changes from soul over experiments to soul choruses to soundscapes and on and on and on.....express it.-.------...... At the end stands a CD, that is a typical EKS CD........it could have been released 20 years ago....it would have been actual, it could been released in 20 years.....it would be actual, but why will no-one listen??????????????? - WK

As far as Red Letters, I was at first disappointed. All of the songs (save two or three) seemed to have the same sound to them, running together and making them harder to name and tell apart. Something like Illumina or The Blue Room bounces here and there with wonderfully careless abandon, while on here things stay around the same. "Radio 6" I must say is deffinatly a classic. I listend to Red Letters again today (enjoying much more than I did at first) and that track gave me the chills. I certainly don't like track 2 as much as you do, but it's nice enough to let play through. Believe on a Breeze is another classic, even if only for the words. "Listen to the hooded man cry destiny!" The waltz fades into one of my favorite instrumental parts on the album, a laid back steady dub-ish tune. I don't remember "seeing red" specifically, another example of how I hear the tracks running together. "illumina 3" did disappoint me. "Scriptures of Illumina" is by far my favorite Ka-Spel CD, it's the CD that first got me into everything LPD-related to begin with. This really doesn't seem to be a continuation of what going on in that album. This tune fades into "The Carrier", a more awkward, experimental departure from the rest of the album. "Groovy" sounds a lot like a remix of "The Carrier", plodding along slowly...nice. "The Child King" is also nice, but nothing that left me in awe. "Swamp Thiing...." is okay, but the other parts of the song besides "Swamp Thing" are what really get me, especially the beautiful ending. All albums need a very good ending, and this one has one. As a whole, I'd give it a positive review. There seems to be much less experiementation going on, and a lot more straight keyboard playing. - J. Roarty