Airplay

For Emerging Transparency

NPR member station WDIY 88.1 FM, Allentown and Bethlehem, PA, 93.9 FM in Easton, PA and Phillipsburg, NJ, 93.7 FM in Fogelsville and Trexlertown, and webcasting on the internet- "Emerging Transparency" played on Galactic Travels show #628, April 16, 2009, "Fifty Light Years From Home" played on Galactic Travels show #624, March 19, 2009. "Bazaar Behavior" played on Galactic Travels show #618, February 5, 2009. The Emerging Transparency CD is in Galactic Travel's Top 20 for March 2009 and February 2009.

Radio Despi 107.1 FM in Barcelona, Spain, La Otra Orilla show, April 13, 2009 plays "Fifty Light Years From Home", and February 9, 2009, plays "Emerging Transparency."

WFIT 89.5 FM Future Echoes show, Palm Bay, FL, played "Erase Yourself" on April 12, 2009.

WWSP 90 FM Ambient Aether/Space Continuum (new age, ambient, smooth jazz, world music, college), Stevens Point, WI, "Fifty Light Years From Home" on April 12, 2009 and March 29, 2009, played "Emerging Transparency" on April 5, 2009, "Erase Yourself" on March 15, 2009, "Luck Of The Draw" on March 8, 2009 and "Tanzen Filter" on March 1, 2009. The Album is #1 for March 2009.

WVKR-FM, Poughkeepsie, NY, Secret Music, April 12, 2009, features "Luck Of The Draw", and April 5, 2009, features "Erase Yourself".

StillStream.com (ambient format)- Has played tracks from Emerging Transparency CD on April 12, March 10 and 7, February 28, 23, 21, and 14, 2009.

WXDU 88.7 FM New Frontiers (new age, ambient, smooth jazz, world music, college), Durham, NC, played "Emerging Transparency" on March 14, 2009, March 7, 2009, February 28, 2009 and "Fifty Light Years From Home" on April 11, 2009, March 21, 2009 and Februrary 14, 2009. The Album is #3 for March 2009.

KKUP 91.5 FM Mystic Music (new age, ambient, space, organ), Cupertino, CA, played "Emerging Transparency" on March 20, 2009, "Tanzen Filter" on April 10, 2009 and March 13, 2009 and "Fifty Light Years From Home (radio edit)" on March 6, 2009. Emerging Transparency CD selected #11 on Mystic Music Top 20 for March 2009.

WMUH 91.7 FM AM/FM Show, Allentown, PA, "Tanzen Filter" played on AM/FM show on March 21, 2009.

Echoes, the daily two-hour music soundscape, distributed by Public Radio International and broadcast on 130 radio stations from Maine to California- Emerging Transparency title track "Emerging Transparency" on Echoes Program 0911A - Monday, March 16, 2009, 0908A - Monday, February 23rd, and 0906A - Monday, February 9th.

YLE Radio 1 - Space Junk Finnish Broadcasting Company radio station (electronic/ambient/space format)- played "Fifty Light Years From Home" on their February 15, 2009 show.

New Age Reporter, December 2006 article by Bill Binkelman:

Leak is one of those maddeningly difficult to categorize/describe CDs that drive me nuts. I want to scream out loud how good it is, but after writing those words the details are tough to articulate! The reason that the music presents difficulties in describing it is, of course, indicative of how much talent the man behind Sensitive Chaos (Jim Combs) brings to this venture. Wielding a vast array of electronic keyboards and synths, he weaves heady and adventurous (yet from my perspective wholly accessible) ambient/electronica that crosses over into jazz fusion at times and also has some pronounced elements of retro EM as well. The music can be warm and friendly, even whimsical, or shadowy and shrouded in textural mystery. Four of the six album cuts are over nine minutes long which allows the music to take its time getting where it's going. To add further intrigue and pique your interest, a large amount of the music was composed on the fly at various live appearances (coffee houses, mostly). So, there is an element of improvisation here as well, although Combs always took the original live composition back home and tweaked it before considering it a finished track.

Two songs, the title track and “Starry Night,” feature the über-cool sax playing of Brian Good, and its his deft soloing, snaking amongst layers of keyboards and synths, that sometimes migrates the music over into progressive jazz fusion territory (although Combs' assorted synths still anchor each track's aesthetic in ambient or electronica). Ambient fans who loathe sax are urged to not prejudge this CD as it would be a mistake.

At times, Leak (e.g. the track “Android Cat Dreams Of Mice”) reminded me of the Eien's (Andrew Mays) Dandelion Dreamer. Like Eien, Combs concentrates less on the traditional ambient tools (synth pads, chords, washes, and drones) opting instead for layering notes and tones amidst his programmed beats. The sonic difference can't be missed and lends the music a pronounced air of “fun.” On the “Android Cat...” track, the assortment of retro/contemporary bloops, bleeps, shimmering notes and tones, and thumping snapping drums build up slowly, speaking of the number of instruments and a corresponding volume level, too. All these different “things” going on form a cohesive “whole” which energizes the listener, but never too much so. Some retro synths in the track also compare to pioneering artists such as Beaver and Krause and Patrick Gleeson.

“Starry Night,” the second “sax” number, goes in a different direction, opening with classic spacemusic washes. When Good's sax floats lazily into the scene, the music takes on a sensual aspect, only to have programmed drums and reverberating bells slowly fold into the mix. The undercurrent of floating spacemusic is still there but the beats and sax once again sway the overall feel over to that of progressive fusion. This is opposed to the title track, on which the sax has a more exotic wafting sound and the reverberating tones, plonking percussion and hand drum rhythms call to mind Robert Rich's Gaudi.

Other tracks include the bouncy trippy “Painting Earthtones in Orbit” which abounds with tons of retro synthesizers in the latter half of the cut and the closing “Nightshift At The Baby Mecha Nursery,” another excursion into electronic whimsy, playful and lighthearted with lots of twinkling bells offset by a pleasant bass rhythm.

Leak is a thoroughly enjoyable album. Combs consistently impresses with how he blends his melodic and rhythmic synths, always maintaining a coherent vision and never allowing the improvisatory nature of his music to overwhelm its sense of purpose. I highly recommend Leak for its inventiveness, its beat-happy effervescence, and its thorough lack of pretension, not to mention it's just a flat out fun album from start to finish.