Terre Thaemlitz's Soil takes a subliminal route, offering quiet synth washes mixes with odd, haphazard sounds like droning, buzzing, and strange voices. "Yer Ass Is Grass" even elevates into dramatic classical strings at its climax. New York-based Thaemlitz likes to inject some urban angst into the proceedings with the aforementioned sounds, best demonstrated at the album's end, when a woman recounts an incident of domestic violence amidst other processed voices. Thaemlitz certainly is trying new things, and while this release isn't that innovative musically, he is bringing a new slant to the ambient genre, a more original statement echoed by the picture of a condom in soil which graces the CD booklet's inner pages. (Instinct Ambient, 26 W. 17th Street #502, New York NY 10011)