Ron Flores: Press

Reviewer : Prof. Jeffrey Young
I have gotten so much relaxation and enjoyment from "Spacewalk" that
it is high time I wrote you telling the world how excellent this CD is. I have been listening to these soaring sounds since the disc came out, two years ago, and I still get as much pleasure as the day I first popped it in the CD player. Ron, please keep creating your unique music. My wife and I continue to love it!

ronfloresmusic/email

Hi Ron,
This is Francisco. I'm the host and producer of "La Otra Orilla" at Radio Despi 107.2 FM, in Barcelona, Spain. I was on a buisiness trip in Florence, Italy, When I heard "SPACEWALK" on the radio there. Later, I found your website. I would be proud to add your music to my radio show playlist, if you would
be kind enough to send me a promotional copy of "SPACEWALK". I look forward to hearing from you soon .
Best Wishes!

Reviewer: Kelly
One night I was up late and my local NPR station was playing some strange and beautiful music. It turned out to be Ron FLores' Spacewalk. The track they played was Sail at Sunrise. I drifted off to sleep and had the most beautiful dreams I can remember in years. Being an insomniac I called the station to find out who it was and then bought this CD. Some of the tracks are very soothing and sweet. There are a few songs that seem a bit over the top with patriotic prose,---not my thing, but the rest of the record is quite good.

Reviewer: Marc Pringle
Spacewalk is a very cool CD if you are into ambient music combined with a jazz flavor...I liked this CD and played it for my 6th grade class. We were covering Space Travel that week and this CD provided a nice backdrop for the lecture. I found that it actually got those kids in my class who did not pay attention to suddenly take an interest in my Earth Science class. The tracks on the CD are appropriately named and Flores uses sounds from space and NASA communications in the pieces themselves. I think it is a pretty sonorous CD if you like this type of music...I found it incredibly helpful for my class. Thanks Ron, you made my job easier. Marc P Bethesda Maryland

Reviewer: Philip Mason
Spacewalk is a CD that is remarkable for its blend of musical styles. It is easy on the ears, has a positive, life-affirming message, and expresses a range of emotion. I do sense some of the mystery and awe of the celestial themes this recording explores. I especially like"Dark Matter" and "Walking on Mars". "Space Alien Boogie" is a humorous tip of the hat to the flying-saucer-themed novelty tunes from the '50's and '60's. Bless the U.S.A. is touchingly sung and affecting.

Take a Trip to Space,
I first heard this record on WMSU-Radio during a Newage show. It was very cool to think someone is writing music based on the experience of what an Astronaut might be experiencing.

Just that week I was talking to my 12 year old son about the recent Space Shuttle launch. I think this CD is very cool for young kids as well as adults.

Ron Flores has a great gift for rhythm and melody as well. I can best describe this recording as Weather Report (without Jaco) meets Pink Floyd. I even like the vocal tracks on the CD which are really patriotic songs---and why the heck not---the faster we get off the planet the quicker we can get a new government.

VIVA Ron Flores for creating a new sound with SPACEWALK

Bill Binkelman:

Spacewalk
At times sounding like Amin Bhatia's classic Interstellar Suite while at others similar to Richard Bone's jazzy cyber-lounge work, Ron Flores' Spacewalk is a short (41-minutes) excursion into dramatic orchestral electronic keyboard music, meant to convey the awe and majesty of outer space. With two exceptions, he more or less succeeds. His keyboards are of decent, if not good, quality, whether he is playing orchestral instruments or jazzier "synth" oriented sounds (the former dominates the album, by the way).

Sail at Sunrise starts things off nicely with lush strings and a midtempo beat on trap drums with trumpets sounding a fanfare at the midpoint of the song. The title track, up next, starts off in a promising vein with spacy electronic effects and snippets of Mission Control dialogue segueing into a Richard Bone-ish hip jazzy interlude with thumpy bass, digital piano, and nice synth embellishments. However, the spoken word dialogue which follows (being comments from the spacewalking astronaut observing Earth from orbit and spoken by the artist, I think) is over earnest and delivered with such solemnity that it borders on (or even crosses over into) pretentiousness. This is a shame because the music is pretty good, breezy and accessible with just the right amount of spaciness (along the lines of Jon O'Bergh's Songs from Other Planets).

Things rebound on Space Alien Boogie, which, as you might guess, is purposely cheesy with fat synth riffs and whirly-giggling effects, before spinning into a cosmic boogie of sorts, replete with chugging organ, pumping bass, and snappy snare beats. Dark Matter moves into a dramatic and powerful Bhatia-type of cinematic neo-classical motif with additional SF effects and noises thrown in, underscoring the outer space element. Timpani, massed synth strings, brass and woodwinds all combine in fine fashion, painting a darkly-tinted evocative portrait of deep space. Walking on Mars continues in the classical/orchestral vein but this time takes on a forlorn, even sad, mood owing to its plaintive solo oboe and somber strings. The oddly-titled Cleopatra's Trance combines muted march-cadence snares with dramatic strings and muted woodwinds and horns while O’rion [sic] Nebula is somewhat haunting and mysterious at the outset and then begins to sound like Jerry Goldsmmith's soundtrack to The Black Hole.

The biggest misstep on the CD is also its closing track. Admittedly, I’m reluctant to criticize this piece, but I have to be honest. Bless the U.S.A. is a vocal track and I'm at a loss to understand what it is doing here. It completely derails the CD's tone and mood, so I guess it's good that it comes at the album’s end. Please don’t think me unpatriotic but the lyrics (just as with the narration on the second track) are too overly sincere and so unsubtle that it's like being hit in the face with the message. While there is an astronaut on the cover of the CD with an American flag patch on his arm, what is the purpose of including this song on the same album as Little Green Men, and Space Alien Boogie? Anyway, I hope I won't get put on some government watch list for my opinion, but honestly, it's just a poor decision to put this song on this album, to my way of thinking at least.

With that complaint out of the way, I give a qualified "thumbs up" to Spacewalk. I admired the blend of orchestral and cyber-lounge instrumentals and most of the keyboards/synths were of solid quality. Flores is certainly capable of writing good music. As an afterthought, I think less dominance of the neo-classical influences might have increased the appeal of the CD to spacemusic fans (Amin Bhatia included lots more pure "synth" music on his Interstellar Suite album). Overall, I enjoyed this CD whenever I played it, the two tracks I critiqued above notwithstanding.

Rating: Good ______________________ 9 out of 11 ain't bad _____


- reviewed by Bill Binkelman on 9/27/2006

Reviewer: Gary North
I bought this CD "Synthetic Soul" a week ago after hearing it on my local NPR station. It has some interesting moods and sounds and some great percussion work. I liked mostly the instrumentals which were just shy of being smooth jazz tracks. Ron Flores has a cool way of mixing jazz with ambient sound...it reminds me of the great records made back in the days of Album Rock from Syd Barrett and other "Floydian" bands. Very cool stuff. Gary, San Francisco

Reviewer: Brian Berger of Musician Institute - L.A.
I enjoyed listening to "Beyond Our Control" . It has interesting melodies and chordal patterns. I do get the message of Ron's songwriting.This CD is energetic, soulful and sexy.