Random RMI review, Beyond Within The Tepal Concept Beyond Within is comprised of two people, Mackenzie Dahl and Randy Manion. Together these two have produced a CD of surprisingly good quality. As I received this CD through an add for a free CD (providing I write a review) on the Internet, I expected music of limited quality, in line with the types of messages which are prevalent on the Internet: those of limited quality. Instead I was pleasantly surprised, and I am happy to add "The Tepal Concept" to my collection of music. "The Tepal Concept" is creative, innovative, and is sufficiently original to distinguish itself from every other piece of ambient music I've listened to. "The Tepal Concept," is rather dark music. It is far darker than anything in "From Here to Tranquility #3," Deep Forest albums, or the more ambient works from Art of Noise, which comprise the heart of my ambient music collection. It comes closest to "777," but goes even darker than that. I really haven't heard enough dark ambient music to make a decent comparison. And as far as ambient music goes, "The Tepal Concept" is somewhat more jarring than other ambient works I've heard. It doesn't fit quite as nicely into my schema of "ambient" as others have. I see this as a good thing, though, in that Beyond Within has displayed a good deal of creativity to be able to produce music which is ambient, and yet original enough to expand my definition of "ambient." The music itself is rather difficult to describe. Try visualizing it this way, though: Imagine the obelisk from 2001:A space Odyssey. Then imagine it breaking into several thousand shards, all sharp, all as perfectly black as the original. Then imagine someone trying to put the puzzle back together, and attaining success in some areas, but being forced simply to stick the pieces together in a broken fashion in other places. This music is like that. It conveys the sense of brokenness, while still retaining an overall consistency. In fact, a good deal of consistency exists within the entire CD. One track sounds much like the next. It's consistent enough to listen to as background music, but enough variation exists to keep the listener interested. And yet through it all, the music still somehow conveys an odd sense of brokenness.	Danny Houseman, Option Magazine It's hard being an indy-ambient techno group, but Seattle's Beyond Within make a case for trying, here proffering 15 song length pieces, which evolve along clear, crisp lines. Mackenzie Dahl and Randy Manion handle keyboards, beats, noises, industrial effects, faux strings and amorphous aural blobs with an impressive dexterity.. Standouts include "Turbo Failure, " "Cellular Automata" and "phototropism". The music evolves naturally up to dance beat tempos, or down to more introspective textures...overall The Tepal Concept make a vigorous spin. Option Magazine, June 96
Sonic Boom, Industrial Reviewer-at-Large This is being composed is a state of mental instability fashioned from the inability of sleep accompanied by this album on perpetual repeat and a volume far beyond what the speakers of a multimedia personal computer out to be able to withstand. The music in its organic vivacity has managed to avoid being stamped, numbered, classified, codified, taxified, filed, or briefed throughout the entire period in which it has remained berthed in the device. If my altered mental state is any indication of what this music has done to my psyche in the past few hours of listening then perhaps the resistance to labeling has finally begun to wear down. As each orchestrated movement of the music tears down the emotional walls of my inner being which is begging for the abatement of the continual agonizing despair in which I have encompassed myself at this particular juncture of my primal existence. The music has become my drug of choice as the wailing of my internal anguish explodes upon the surrounding environment and shatters my firmament. The suffering is at a long end as the last shudder is extinguished from my body and I pass into a restless state of brain inactivity only to wake again as the narcotic effects of the aural stimulation are eviscerated from my mortal coil.are eviscerated from my mortal coil.	Jo-Anne Greene, Pandemonium Magazine Pulsing with intricate rhythm patterns, which never descend into the repetitive trance trap, Tepal's constantly changing bpm's pull the listener into drifting realities, from sheer chill-out to dance inspired, and on to the realms of pure experimentalism. Moods shift, as sounds change form, energies ebb like tides, as evocative images are created and disintegrate. Pandemonium Magazine, Oct.'95