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The 'recommend/review an album for TA' thread (pg. 3)
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| Bierheld |
Right, so I assume you don't care. I'm just going to document my listening habits here for a while. Seems like a good distraction and maybe it'll stop me from forgetting about everything I listen to ever, it's seriously becoming really bad.
Others are still welcome to join in of course. I'll probably even listen to them, I really don't care. Let us consume more music.
Now, let's get to it.
Klartraum – E3
Discogs:
Genre: technolounge housedub
Year: 2014
Recommended: Not quite?
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/LTwh9ddk0bI
Description: A bit conflicted about this one. Going into it you get a textbook techhouser in the form of Drama Queen. Establishes a good groove, all fine and correct. As the song goes on the percs get slightly snappier and so forth, you know how this works now people. It’s the sort of stuff you can listen to for hours If it weren’t so tragically unremarkable these days. How many more millions of competent techhouse releases do we need? Still, let’s say you make it past that single, you will end up in flight to berlin. A bit of a wonky one this, starts out slightly chunkier on the percs. Loungy atmos’ starts to kick in soon after and all seems well. Things get a bit busy from there though, lots of fractured saxophone(?) sounds start to play in the background and It doesn’t quite work out. Either put them in the foreground or just don’t bother with them as they’re needlessly distracting as it is now. That’s what I’d tell them anyway, I’m an expert right?
Dark Space Night however is a more dubby offering and quite a sweet one at that.
There’s also another version of flight to berlin, but yeah it’s extremely boring even for techhouse standards. This would have almost been a recommendation if it were a better package, as it is two tracks are good but unremarkable and the other two are kind of painful. Maybe check out Dark space night, it’s in the youtube link, and then forget about the rest.
Torn Hawk - For Edge Tek
Discogs:
Genre: Drugs?
Year: 2014
Recommended: Sure whatever
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/fBH9YFIDh6o
Description: Here’s an album by ehm… Torn Hawk, who may also be called Luke Wyatt, who according to his last.fm profile is: “A video-artist from Brooklyn, makes drug music”. That’s really all you need to know. What it amounts to is an hour-or-so long music session filled with tons of wacky synth experimentalism. Throughout the tracks melodic, atmospheric and percussive elements seem to effortlessly converge to and refract from each other resulting in an almost natural feeling synesthesia between components. Lots of panning percussion and spacial programming is employed as well. What’s really great about this is that while it’s obviously a bit rough and unrefined as is to be expected from such music, it never becomes remotely grating or painful to listen to which is all too often the case with such records.
Another strong point is the rhythms. It’s surprising to hear how immediately catchy and intuitive they are even though he made sure they really don’t sound quite like anything else. He doesn’t seem to resort to strange timings and glitches too much either so it’s quite an achievement. Fun, listenable and riddled with novelty appeal.
Gorge Soera - Malaria
Discogs:
(no discogs entry)
Genre: something tribal
Year: 2014
Recommended: meh
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/1xkkF4q0Wo8
Description: Gave this one a listen because I came across the title track and it sounded rather promising. A Very bleak bit of sound collaging that one: Whining mosquitos, crying children, it’s all there for your enjoyment and placed in a suitably eerie backdrop as well.
After that it turns into a dance music record though, how disappointing.
Some potent tribal techhouse here, sure, Bellissimo in particular has a wicked groove going for it, but I just don’t care for anything else in that track. Certainly not for the vocal anyway. Yes, there’s a dub on there as well, but that has the opposite problem. It’s too barren and devoid of content beyond the established percussion and atmosphere.
So yeah maybe if you want to pick some components from it for a DJ-set or something, if you like listening to shouting Italians or if percs are just all you care about, in which case you need to get away from me because you clearly have no soul. |
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| Psyshell |
Copied from the other thread(I'll be actively supporting this):
Discogs: Cosmic Baby - Thinking About Myself
Genre: Classic/Acid Trance
Year: 1995
Rating: 10/10
Youtube Sample: Cosmic Baby - Treptow
[Trance/Acid Trance] [1994] 5/5
Personally to me this album is quite special because I started listening to it at the age of 3. Fortunately however it's absolutely stood the test of time. I don't really listen to that much straightforward trance but this album is excellent. It has a unique mixture between trance, the harder side of mid 90s trance, a minimal style of classical and ambient with some detroit techno influences. It has strong openers and closers, with a great flow between the tracks and some standout tracks. In particular Treptow with it's basic melodies but beautiful sound aesthetic, Cosmic baby greets florida, with it's relaxing but energetic mood that is well placed in the middle of the album and ofcourse loops of infinity which was a popular track at the time. The full album version of loops of infinity I feel in particular has a nice energy curve as well as showcasing the themes present throughout the ablum at a higher tempo. This album showcases a more experimental, but none the less extremely well executed style of trance that I feel no longer exists, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's into trance from 97 or earlier. |
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| Bierheld |
Good on you for joining in.
I did give that album a listen earlier this week. The only problem I have with it is that all the big ravey trance tunes felt sort of stuck on at the end, whereas the first 50 or so minutes had a good album-flow going that didn't really feel like it was going to lead up to that. I mainly liked how he kept building upon the groundwork he lay in the beginning with the more bare-bones trance cuts and the two note piano interludes. It seemed to have a darker tone to it as well when compared to the ending cuts.
Because of this I don't feel it holds up as well as some other works from that era, like Tripomatic Fairytales for instance, which did manage to integrate it all in a single coherent experience and a more vibrant one at that if you ask me. |
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| Woony |
Plant43 – Scars Of Intransigence
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Plant43-Scar...e/master/747609
Genre: Electro
Year: 2014
Rating: 8/10
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/8dIyUxpf2C8
Plant43 might be the king of modern emotional electro next to ERP. Everything you'd expect is in here, heart tearing strings, airy pads, twinkly melodies, sparse electro percussion. I don't think all the tracks reach the level of his best material but still, if you're craving some heavy detroit melancholia, there's not much you can do wrong here. This is unapologetically emotional music, but does so in the most credible and subtle way. |
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| Woony |
Recondite – Iffy
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Recondite-Iffy/release/6276056
Genre: Innervisions
Year: 2014
Rating: 6,5/10
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/K0qwGPpimic
I still remember reading an interview with Recondite in the german DE:bug mag in 2011, back when his presence was nothing more than a series of whitelabels. He talked about how music for him is just a way to escape and he never wants to make it his profession. Well, here we are three years later and he's doing back to back gigs in sold out Ibiza clubs and an album for one of the biggest brands in clubland, Innervisions. While it would be going a bit too far to accuse him of selling out, given that this isn't super-obvious or bigroom music by any means, it still feels a bit watered down and just too tailor-made for the IV sound. The tracks plod along around 120-123 without much happening or any notable impact. They lack the emotional sincerity of the first few Recondite records or the power of his more dancefloor focussed Dystopian EPs. I imagine these working well as tools for a Dixon DJ set or plodding along during a Ibiza sunset, but for regular home or club play, i'd much rather dig out some of his older material. |
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| Bierheld |
^I wanted to review that one as well, but your view is probably a bit fairer then mine. I only managed to get through like the first four tracks before getting angry and turning it off anyway.
To be fair, I've been wanting to give it some ever since i saw the big dirty sponsored recommendation for it on my deezer page, it just represents everything that is wrong with music these days for me. It's so dumb.
I love how his artist page on last.fm boasts about his style having "a strong sensitivity for the deeper and melancholic side of electronic or club music", and his tracks being "dark, mystic and deliver a tranquil and intimate atmosphere."
I'm sorry but this album has none of that, because the incredibly barren and simplistic techno compositions were apparently appealing enough for him not to have to bother with any of that. There were no grooves, no atmosphere, no real instrumentation or sound design of any kind. It's almost like a joke. One of the worst things I've heard in years and that's no hyperbole I'll tell you.
I seriously wonder what his old stuff is like now, i just can't imagine it being any good if this is the benchmark. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| I just had a listen to Iffy and I fully agree. It has nothing of merit whatsoever. Not only is the actual writing on it laughably simplistic - one finger keyboard doodles with practically no polyphony or counterpoint - but it also lacks any of the techniques techno usually has in place of conventional song-writing: drum programming, sound-design, sample manipulation, layering, structural ingenuity. A halfway competent musician could out this album in 15 minutes. What does it get points for? It's a record for people with no actual ear for music who can only take in aesthetics. |
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| Woony |
| quote: | Originally posted by Bierheld
I seriously wonder what his old stuff is like now, i just can't imagine it being any good if this is the benchmark. |
As I've said, i'm a bit biased. I really fell in love with 'Robur' over three years ago and have been following his music since. I've never liked everything he does but some of his tracks have a lot of emotional value for me. I can understand not liking his music if the first thing you come across is the Ibiza-fied Innervisions album. I don't know if I would like his music as much without that connection. |
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| Bierheld |
Hmm, that robur track does have some charm to it, and I like cleric as well.
In any case a release like iffy is inexcusable, regardless of what sound or label it's confined to I just cannot imagine there being any sort of effort put into this on his behalf. You'd think he'd at least try when given the opportunity to get a release on a big label like IV. |
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| Bierheld |
Allright, got some more for ya.
So last time I talked down to some respected techhouse producers and then proceeded to give some wanker's masochistic dreamwork a glowing recommendation. Let's see if I can keep this roll going and find some more opportunities to complain about techhouse.
Casual Creation Issue 02
Discogs: no discogs again
Genre: Techhouse
Year: 2014
Recommended: fs@#a$!@$sfe@
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/a-aZ2C1y-Wk
Description: Yeah so this had some names on it who I remember being respectable and I was feeling too lazy to find something different today so a listen was given. In the end It was alright I suppose, some nice shaky sambapercs in Collective Machine’s Where Are You, boogie nights from Demian Muller + some friends of his was fun as well. There was also Einsauszwei’s Air Run and ehm.. other stuff. Ohhh I don’t know.
Look, it’s a techhouse compilation, it has songs on it and it lasts for a good while, that’s about all I have to say about it. Just leave me alone okay.
Vincenzo Monastra - Zile Nebune
Discogs: Still no discogs
Genre: techno
Year: 2013
Recommended: yeah
Youtube Sample: http://youtu.be/cnwR7QpeJow
Description: An interesting find this. He was apparently a big follower of the Villalobos movement and it shows. Well, ok. It sounds nothing like a Villalobos record, but it’s definitely very Hispanic. Very dense and addictive percussion work with beats perpetually galloping along at a brisk pace. Production is acceptable, again no Villalobos levels but it certainly does its job especially if you have an adequately boomy sound system at your disposal. As for what it has beyond the percs, some droney background pads and stuff, the usual. There is a serious amount of drumloops going on at any moment though so there really isn’t any room for too much else anyway, consider it excused.
Emmerichk - Late Nineties
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Emmerichk-La...release/6177331
Genre: Techno
Year: 2014
Recommended: Take notice, Germans.
Youtube Sample: can't find anything
ing finally someone makes an album that’s completely retro without actually sounding retro and that alone gives it plenty to be excited about.
Sykonee described the particularities of the sound adequately in this blogpost and I don’t have much to add to it, it’s just expertly executed all around. Structurally this is particularly mint, It’s one of those records were you can’t really remember any stand-out moments afterwards but you know that you enjoyed every second of it regardless.
Audiokonstrukte – Angelssphere & Other Fantastic Obstacles
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Audiokonstru...s/master/749566
Genre: Chillout IDM
Year: 2014
Recommended: …over techhouse
Youtube Sample: nope
Description: I don’t even know why we still have techhouse when there’s like this to listen to instead. If you’re going for the gentle treatment anyway why not bask in some of the lush ambience and silky smooth production that's present here. Fantastical themes abound, yet it’s all delivered in an easily digestible package because the actual compositions are kept simple and minimalistic. All the density comes from the inherent warmth of the instruments and the padwork, which is not overwhelmingly dubby either but keeps it clean throughout. It's not perfect, there are some shorts like spacefile that don't really go anywhere but on the whole this is a thoroughly satisfying release. Very good. |
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| Sykonee |
| quote: | Originally posted by Bierheld
snip |
Only an "adequate" description? Oh dear, I gotta' step up my game. :p
Also, is it just me, or is Audiokonstrukte style-biting Above & Beyond? |
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