Re: OT: What are you listening to right now
This is a copy/paste of a post I just made in the EMB, but it fits here, too. Beware: it's long, but with lots of links!!
First off, I finally got Tricky's Knowle West Boy. Is that the album you've enjoyed? Considering I have zero context for what it should or could have sounded like since I'm not at all familiar with his work, I found most of the album to be... off. I didn't expect so much guitar, nor did I think Tricky himself wouldn't have more presence. There are a few decent tracks (
Veronika is easily the standout), but to me this album is retreads of things I've already heard and passed up. I'm glad you liked it, though! :thumbup:
Next is Dave Aju with Open Wide. The gimmick of this album is that all the sounds, and therefore the songs, on it are supposed to be entirely out of Monsieur Aju's mouth, yet every review says that his mastery of so many musical styles pushes this album beyond gimmick-itry. I have to disagree. While the songs themselves are varied, the album itself sounds limited. And that's not because of the limitiation of sounds, either; there are some synth-like sounds that, if hard pressed, I'd think were completely real. Overall, I think the songs fail because the composer never does enough with any song; it's just flat boring or annoying most of the time. A couple songs do stand out (Roundabout and
Crazy Place) but most of it lacks any sense of passion or urgency. It's like 'musicians' who make techno albums for the sole purpose that their listeners can test out the bass systems of their vehicles; there's some interesting parts, but most of the time it's simple and the music is thin once you get past the gimmicks. I say to all the reviewers out there: jack of all trades, master of none.
Now, two albums from Drop the Lime, heralded as one of the best artists of 2008 for his remixes (none of which I've heard yet). His first album from 2005, This Means Forever, was a bit of a shock to me. I suppose it's a form of IDM. It's best compared to Squarepusher; almost the entire album is the sounds of drum-rush with a little bit of a dark edge infused. It's almost as crazy as a bad Venetian Snares album, but it reigns itself in by consistently staying in a 4/4 time, which makes following it MUCH easier... yet it's only moderately enjoyable. Whenever his vocals come out on a few tracks, it's mostly just shouting at an effects pedal. Again, there's a couple standouts ('Never, Nah' and Rad Girl Killy. Note
Dubbio, however; it's the most musical and restrained track on the album with sampled vocals. Too bad this isn't the full song; the vocals get chopped and screwed really well). I've tried this genre a few times, though, and it never really sticks; I like music I can tap my fingers to, but this is too random and out there.
His second album, We Never Sleep from 2006, is... friggin' crap. Absolute crap. The best part about his first album was that it was raw and untamed. This album held back on the craziness to focus more on, of all things, his vocals. His style went from IDM to 4/4 techno and dub, and it is all pretty generic and uncreative. It's still got a bit of a dark feel, but it all feels rather 'meh'. It sounds like he's been influenced by a lot of artists, and not in a good way. The best track arguably, Bella, sounds like Modeselektor's
Kill Boll Vol. 4 with worse-than-Prodigy vocal loops. For the worst of the album, check out
Butterscotch; he croons and shouts at the same time! With the exception of Bella and Skyline Fantasy, a straight-forward 4/4 kick drum on, hi-hat off beat, with a driving bass guitar loop... this album is almost entirely skippable. As much as the first album got randomly repetitive, this one started off poor and never recovered. That said, I WOULD still be interested in hearing some of his recent works. I feel like he's got potential, but it's been poorly focused on these two albums.
Up next is Mr. Oizo, a Parisean on the Ed Banger label, which is now most famous for their 2007 smash group Justice. Mr. Oizo's first album, Analog Worms Attack from 1999, is possibly the best album I've heard from the past two days. It's simple; he picks a basic song structure and sticks with it throughout, adding or subtracting an element or two while messing around with the effects or dynamics. It's funky while maintaining an element of, "Hmm... that's cool. Wonder where this is going?" My best personal description is that it's like listening to the soundtrack from the Sega Genesis/Megadrive game ToeJam & Earl while you're in the first stages of some psychadelic drug. It's weird, but it doesn't make you uncomfortable. I like almost the whole album. Check out
Monophonic S*** and
No Day Massacre (the bass isn't as strong on youtube as the album, but still good), as well as
Last Night a DJ Killed My Dog. There's some crazier stuff on here, but this is the funky stuff I crave sometimes.
I missed out on his second album, but after listening to the first one I had pretty high expectations for Mr. Oizo's recent release, Lambs Anger. Sadly, that's not the case. At least, it's not the same. Nine years can change a guy... or maybe more importantly, the years can change a label. Remember the Ed Banger/Justice connection? A lot of the songs on here have the same sounds of Justice's Cross album, like the tracks
Hun and
Pourriture 2. That's not necessarily a bad thing; the flip-the-switch in genres IS. It sounds like they're trying to keep too many listeners happy, and it makes for a really confused sit-through. For example, listen to
Bruce Willis Is Dead, then the very next track is
Jo. What a huge jump that is, and the album does it all the time. The album's opener says it all: "Some are good, some are bad, some are OK."
Dang, I'm tired. I'll finish up tomorrow when I get a chance. I think I probably gave you a full album of links to listen to!
