I'm buggering the order of these albums all up, but I got curious for more after I enjoyed Computer World so much more than previous Kraftwerk albums.
This came right before computer world and right before Trans-Europe Express, and it shows. It has hints of the playfulness and future-obsession that was to come, while sticking with longer, icier composition (not to mention distorted vocals) of the band's previous work. There's less menace here, again, transitioning into the future-vulnerability found on Computer World, though the narratives still seem to be first person, still casting Kraftwerk as Daft Punk-like emissaries of the futuretimes. Musically, there's much less of TEE's harsh drums, pippy poppy synth noises sometimes keeping the beats instead.
It doesn't quite pull off whatever special thing Computer World does, and it doesn't quite have the spacing out value of legitimate early Kraftwerk, making this an awkward middle child in their discography 3.5/5
You might like this if: you found Kraftwerk too inaccessible, but want more edge than Computer World. Otherwise, look to the album after or before this one.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
#414 Radiohead - TKOL RMX 1234567
Radiohead, cmon. Even though I'm not so hot on remixes as a concept, here I make an exception.
I suppose this was the only way to finish the Radiohead journey - the band has increasingly shown interest in sounding like various newest waves of electronic fiddlers and experimenters, why not just have all those people remix Radiohead songs. And while we're at it, why don't we make sure those people really put their respective signature sounds on these songs, and really thoroughly embrace the post-IDM Radiohead sound.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The album plays out as all 7 singles played in order, and jumps between tracks, but the back-to-back pairing of Harmonic 313 and Mark Pritchard's remixes of Bloom is the most illustrative sequence. The former is what's wrong with this album, just sludgy, aimless noisemaking, dipping the song in tar and throwing it against the wall, with a minute-long ambient outro slapped on seemingly as a last-ditch effort to put some movement on the track. The latter, meanwhile, throws buzzy loping bass over swarming synth lines, building profitably on the tension of the original version (though it too suffers from an overlong endgame). Unfortunately, most of the songs fall into the Harmonic 313 category: lazy, gimmicky, a Yorke vocal line away from Aphex Twin's infamous whole-cloth non-remixes.
There's a few ways to evaluate a remix:
1) Does it inspire the remixer to do something outside of what they would normally do?
2) Does it improve on the original track in some way?
2a) Failing that, does it at least make you see the original track in a new light?
Let's go from no to yes. The biggest problem with this album is that it just sounds like a lot of the current crop of electronic music, with Thom Yorke singing on it, as much a Radiohead song as Rabbit in Your Headlights. I'm only familiar with a handful of these remixers' original works, but for the most part, these sound like (feat. Thom Yorke) tracks.
They do diverge from the originals, there's no denying that, and while they're often not straight improvements, the rub is in the 2a of it all, I do feel like I came away with a new perspective on OG TKOL. The album's play with repetition is pulled in all manner of new directions here, with single threads stretched and spun into endless quilts of sound. And if nothing else, I appreciate the meticulous craftsmanship that went into the original, since only a few of these have any real claim to being improvements on the originals. It's a perfectly enjoyable, spacy listen in its own right, if a bit overlong. With 2.375 remixes per source track, there's a lot of repetition, which is the collection's greatest strength and weakness 3/5
You might like this if: You like the modern indie/experiemental electronic music scene. Or you really like The King of Limbs.
I suppose this was the only way to finish the Radiohead journey - the band has increasingly shown interest in sounding like various newest waves of electronic fiddlers and experimenters, why not just have all those people remix Radiohead songs. And while we're at it, why don't we make sure those people really put their respective signature sounds on these songs, and really thoroughly embrace the post-IDM Radiohead sound.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The album plays out as all 7 singles played in order, and jumps between tracks, but the back-to-back pairing of Harmonic 313 and Mark Pritchard's remixes of Bloom is the most illustrative sequence. The former is what's wrong with this album, just sludgy, aimless noisemaking, dipping the song in tar and throwing it against the wall, with a minute-long ambient outro slapped on seemingly as a last-ditch effort to put some movement on the track. The latter, meanwhile, throws buzzy loping bass over swarming synth lines, building profitably on the tension of the original version (though it too suffers from an overlong endgame). Unfortunately, most of the songs fall into the Harmonic 313 category: lazy, gimmicky, a Yorke vocal line away from Aphex Twin's infamous whole-cloth non-remixes.
There's a few ways to evaluate a remix:
1) Does it inspire the remixer to do something outside of what they would normally do?
2) Does it improve on the original track in some way?
2a) Failing that, does it at least make you see the original track in a new light?
Let's go from no to yes. The biggest problem with this album is that it just sounds like a lot of the current crop of electronic music, with Thom Yorke singing on it, as much a Radiohead song as Rabbit in Your Headlights. I'm only familiar with a handful of these remixers' original works, but for the most part, these sound like (feat. Thom Yorke) tracks.
They do diverge from the originals, there's no denying that, and while they're often not straight improvements, the rub is in the 2a of it all, I do feel like I came away with a new perspective on OG TKOL. The album's play with repetition is pulled in all manner of new directions here, with single threads stretched and spun into endless quilts of sound. And if nothing else, I appreciate the meticulous craftsmanship that went into the original, since only a few of these have any real claim to being improvements on the originals. It's a perfectly enjoyable, spacy listen in its own right, if a bit overlong. With 2.375 remixes per source track, there's a lot of repetition, which is the collection's greatest strength and weakness 3/5
You might like this if: You like the modern indie/experiemental electronic music scene. Or you really like The King of Limbs.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
#413 Kraftwerk - Computer World
Mike's buddy put this on while we played Boom Blox. You'd be surprised how well this worked.
While having previously glanced Kraftwerk, my real introduction came when I listened to Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express almost 400 albums ago, near the start of this project. Man, my attitude about these lil reviews has changed since then.
Those albums were, in retrospect, icy, impersonal, and had a Velvetsey, aggresive disdain for traditional human listening patterns of the time. Here, by comparison, things downright playful at times (especially on the singular Pocket Calculator, but also on opener Computer World), and downright moving at others (especially on Computer Love, with a riff so perfect that Coldplay built a completely different song, but failed to nail that incomparable buzzy bridge that is the song's actual soul).
In fact, Computer Love is the song that best represents what sets this album apart from previous Kraftwerk albums (or at least the albums I've heard). The themes of computers and technology and general futurism are nothing new, but where the Kraftwerk served as the icy overlord of the onrushing empire, here they are subjects of our society, on the receiving end of the crush of the future. Here the sound is downright vulnerable, serving as a harbinger of Radiohead albums to come. Even on Home Computer, where the narrator is the programmer of the computer, he exists as its victim more than its champion.
Musically, this is a much more fun listen, with great little melodies, and actually very little in terms of Motorik or general Krauty indulgend (do a shot). It's probably not as good for spacing out or working or driving to as their older stuff, but it makes for a mean Boom Blox soundtrack 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like quirky electronic music: this is accessible, inventive, fun, and doesn't even sound particularly dated.
While having previously glanced Kraftwerk, my real introduction came when I listened to Autobahn and Trans-Europe Express almost 400 albums ago, near the start of this project. Man, my attitude about these lil reviews has changed since then.
Those albums were, in retrospect, icy, impersonal, and had a Velvetsey, aggresive disdain for traditional human listening patterns of the time. Here, by comparison, things downright playful at times (especially on the singular Pocket Calculator, but also on opener Computer World), and downright moving at others (especially on Computer Love, with a riff so perfect that Coldplay built a completely different song, but failed to nail that incomparable buzzy bridge that is the song's actual soul).
In fact, Computer Love is the song that best represents what sets this album apart from previous Kraftwerk albums (or at least the albums I've heard). The themes of computers and technology and general futurism are nothing new, but where the Kraftwerk served as the icy overlord of the onrushing empire, here they are subjects of our society, on the receiving end of the crush of the future. Here the sound is downright vulnerable, serving as a harbinger of Radiohead albums to come. Even on Home Computer, where the narrator is the programmer of the computer, he exists as its victim more than its champion.
Musically, this is a much more fun listen, with great little melodies, and actually very little in terms of Motorik or general Krauty indulgend (do a shot). It's probably not as good for spacing out or working or driving to as their older stuff, but it makes for a mean Boom Blox soundtrack 4.5/5
You might like this if: you like quirky electronic music: this is accessible, inventive, fun, and doesn't even sound particularly dated.
Monday, November 14, 2011
#412 Ponytail - Do Whatever You Want All the Time
Loved Ice Cream Spiritual. Moremoremore.
Ponytail is spazzy, angular electronic guitars and frenetic yelping, evoking Deerhoof as the most obvious point of comparison. But where ICS was pure raw 12 year olds on speed energy, DWYWAOTT is actually pretty mellow. Mellow! Ponytail! Not quite mellow maybe, but it's build more on patience and tension and repetition than it is bursting off in every direction at once. Beyondersville burbles with synthy energy, Flabbermouse's guitars soar, and opener Easy Peasy counts off "one...one" ... "one" ... "one...one" in a parody of a rock countdown that actually makes any progress towards anything; "we're running out of time!" Molly Siegel exults, taunting us, just rubbing it in.
There's still plenty of gotta-see-these-guys-live bursting energy here though, like the psychocalypso swoon of AwayWay that explodes into chiming guitars and snare fills and joy just as it seems to be winding back down. There's also more buzzy electronic noise here, especially on the strangely-perfectly-titled Music Tunes. Fun stuff, even if the manic energy level is just a bit much for frequent listens 4/5
You might like this if: you like tense guitars and shameless yelping, and are looking for an album more toe-clenching than toe-tapping, squirming with manic energy.
Ponytail is spazzy, angular electronic guitars and frenetic yelping, evoking Deerhoof as the most obvious point of comparison. But where ICS was pure raw 12 year olds on speed energy, DWYWAOTT is actually pretty mellow. Mellow! Ponytail! Not quite mellow maybe, but it's build more on patience and tension and repetition than it is bursting off in every direction at once. Beyondersville burbles with synthy energy, Flabbermouse's guitars soar, and opener Easy Peasy counts off "one...one" ... "one" ... "one...one" in a parody of a rock countdown that actually makes any progress towards anything; "we're running out of time!" Molly Siegel exults, taunting us, just rubbing it in.
There's still plenty of gotta-see-these-guys-live bursting energy here though, like the psychocalypso swoon of AwayWay that explodes into chiming guitars and snare fills and joy just as it seems to be winding back down. There's also more buzzy electronic noise here, especially on the strangely-perfectly-titled Music Tunes. Fun stuff, even if the manic energy level is just a bit much for frequent listens 4/5
You might like this if: you like tense guitars and shameless yelping, and are looking for an album more toe-clenching than toe-tapping, squirming with manic energy.
#411 Passengers - Original Sountracks 1
I really liked Zooropa, the oft-dismissed post-Achtung U2 experiment, and got intruiged when I heard about this little-noticed collaboration with Brian Eno.
Only a few of these songs were actually used in the films suggested by the title, but the whole project was composed with an eye towards soundtrack-ready music - most ambient, more about feel, less vocally driven. The problem here is that this comes across basically like a Brian Eno album with Bono on it, and I don't want Bono on my ambient, experimental tunes. Conversely, Bono is at his best when he's at his most soaring or his most icy, and the soundtrackey approach precludes the former and there's surprisingly little room for the latter.
The finest moments are the subtle pieces of guitar noise and Enoism, especially on the swervey opener that evokes Zooropa's title track, and the Laurie Andersonism and subbass buzz of A Different Kind of Blue. A disappointingly limp album that doesn't quite work as ambient, doesn't take enough real chances, though I admire its nerve in places 2.5/5
You might like this if: you enjoy the songs on the middle of Brian Eno's ambient-to-pop spectrum, and don't mind if things are a bit slower-paced.
Only a few of these songs were actually used in the films suggested by the title, but the whole project was composed with an eye towards soundtrack-ready music - most ambient, more about feel, less vocally driven. The problem here is that this comes across basically like a Brian Eno album with Bono on it, and I don't want Bono on my ambient, experimental tunes. Conversely, Bono is at his best when he's at his most soaring or his most icy, and the soundtrackey approach precludes the former and there's surprisingly little room for the latter.
The finest moments are the subtle pieces of guitar noise and Enoism, especially on the swervey opener that evokes Zooropa's title track, and the Laurie Andersonism and subbass buzz of A Different Kind of Blue. A disappointingly limp album that doesn't quite work as ambient, doesn't take enough real chances, though I admire its nerve in places 2.5/5
You might like this if: you enjoy the songs on the middle of Brian Eno's ambient-to-pop spectrum, and don't mind if things are a bit slower-paced.
Friday, November 4, 2011
#410 The Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
My appreciation for these guys have been growing, doing my homework albumwise.
I've been trying on a move away from "personal reaction" to "actual reviews" on here, despite the fact that a single listen hardly qualifies me as an authority on any of these. But I don't think I can get away from the context this time - I put my headphones on and started this as I walked around NYC for the first time, riding trains, getting lost, getting crowded out circa 5pm, streets and beats. My theory is the universe got me lost just long enough so that the album wouldn't end until my train to Jersey started on its way. The whole debacle soundtracked. I was heading to Penn Station, and if I had listened closely to B-Boys Makin' with the Freak Freak I would have known that its up on 8th ave., which would have saved me a lot of trouble.
I've always loved Sure Shot, while there's nothing else on here that sounds like that - that's kind of the point. The energy of the album is all over the place, just blasting through megaphones, over static, overblown drums, guitars, and bass, with horns, organs and any damn thing you can imagine butting in at any damn moment. It's a messy mess, with the words sometimes so blasted that they work mostly as sounds (which is fine) with a meandering second half that doesn't quite live up to the energy of the first (less fine).
In all, it ends up being an assault, just wandering too long, too noisy for too long. One of those cases where a 40 minute version of the same album would have been mindblowing, this is just mindaching. A good one for picking and choosing, but a flawed album experience. 3.5/5
You might like this if: You like Sabotage? That's the only song like it on here, but its a pretty good representative for the tone of the album. It is what it is, shouty, noisy, brash, brassy; act accordingly.
I've been trying on a move away from "personal reaction" to "actual reviews" on here, despite the fact that a single listen hardly qualifies me as an authority on any of these. But I don't think I can get away from the context this time - I put my headphones on and started this as I walked around NYC for the first time, riding trains, getting lost, getting crowded out circa 5pm, streets and beats. My theory is the universe got me lost just long enough so that the album wouldn't end until my train to Jersey started on its way. The whole debacle soundtracked. I was heading to Penn Station, and if I had listened closely to B-Boys Makin' with the Freak Freak I would have known that its up on 8th ave., which would have saved me a lot of trouble.
I've always loved Sure Shot, while there's nothing else on here that sounds like that - that's kind of the point. The energy of the album is all over the place, just blasting through megaphones, over static, overblown drums, guitars, and bass, with horns, organs and any damn thing you can imagine butting in at any damn moment. It's a messy mess, with the words sometimes so blasted that they work mostly as sounds (which is fine) with a meandering second half that doesn't quite live up to the energy of the first (less fine).
In all, it ends up being an assault, just wandering too long, too noisy for too long. One of those cases where a 40 minute version of the same album would have been mindblowing, this is just mindaching. A good one for picking and choosing, but a flawed album experience. 3.5/5
You might like this if: You like Sabotage? That's the only song like it on here, but its a pretty good representative for the tone of the album. It is what it is, shouty, noisy, brash, brassy; act accordingly.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
#409 Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
I've been going through my mp3s on random at work lately, and keep coming across albums that I've had and never actually gotten around to listening to. Take this one, an album whose title track more or less completely overshadows it (and in fact, the band itself).
Because of that title track I had expected something heavier, but what you have here is sleepy, pretty, organ-laden psychadelia, landing somewhere between The Doors and Odyssey and Oracle, with some hints of the kind of heavy, progginess that Jethro Tull and Genesis would be getting into in a few years. In fact early Genesis highlight The Knife seems directly inspired by Are You Happy. The crunchy guitars and brisk drums on Termination are a fun highlight too.
And then there's the title track, running nearly as long as the rest of the album combined, about which there isn't a lot left to be said. You'd certainly recognize the riff, but if you haven't bothered, you really ought to just give the damn thing its full 17 minute playthrough. It's actually pretty good, being desert-road endless, but providing some compelling shifts and evolutions. Its nearly ambient for (very) long stretches, and therefore better used as accompaniment to doing something else, but its certainly no more difficult a listen than Green Typewriters 8, Shut Down, Revolution #9 or most Krautrock epics (do a shot).
In a weird mirroring to the Germs album, the contrast ends up creating an album that's more than the sum or its parts - some tight sections offset by a grand gesture. I can't say I'll listen to it often, but its a good one to have in my clip 4/5
You might like this if: You like good, trippy, organ-heavy psychadelia. You want to kind of space out, and little more, for 17 minutes.
Because of that title track I had expected something heavier, but what you have here is sleepy, pretty, organ-laden psychadelia, landing somewhere between The Doors and Odyssey and Oracle, with some hints of the kind of heavy, progginess that Jethro Tull and Genesis would be getting into in a few years. In fact early Genesis highlight The Knife seems directly inspired by Are You Happy. The crunchy guitars and brisk drums on Termination are a fun highlight too.
And then there's the title track, running nearly as long as the rest of the album combined, about which there isn't a lot left to be said. You'd certainly recognize the riff, but if you haven't bothered, you really ought to just give the damn thing its full 17 minute playthrough. It's actually pretty good, being desert-road endless, but providing some compelling shifts and evolutions. Its nearly ambient for (very) long stretches, and therefore better used as accompaniment to doing something else, but its certainly no more difficult a listen than Green Typewriters 8, Shut Down, Revolution #9 or most Krautrock epics (do a shot).
In a weird mirroring to the Germs album, the contrast ends up creating an album that's more than the sum or its parts - some tight sections offset by a grand gesture. I can't say I'll listen to it often, but its a good one to have in my clip 4/5
You might like this if: You like good, trippy, organ-heavy psychadelia. You want to kind of space out, and little more, for 17 minutes.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
#408 The Germs - (GI)
I got this ages ago, and realized I'd never actually listened to it for some reason - probably one of the biggest punk albums I've never heard.
Harder, faster, angrier than most of its predecessors, this is a shouty, thin jag of proto-hardcore that's place in the canon is well-deserved. The sloppy rage of the Sex Pistols and the hookiness of the Buzzcocks collide, everything is faster and more furious than either, planting the seeds of albums like Bad Brains and Raw Power to come.
The songs are actually a lot of fun, for the most part, charmingly messy, full of flubbed notes, missed beats and gutteral, yowling stumbles. There's a Minutemenesque balance here, with the drums, guitars, and bass taking their turns to rise to the fore, always with Crash's tortured, torturing wailing slathered over top.
There's also what I'm going to indulge in calling a proto-post-punk moment: the 9:30 closer, coming after 15 tracks running about 2 each. Building on early Stooges and predicting Liar's This Dust That Makes Mud, it's an early example of exploring the "punk" space, pissing the audience off by spitting in the face of notions of pacing and engagement. Much as with the Liars track, its a hint that these guys were in on the joke, that they might have more tricks up their sleeve than playing fast ad hard. Shame that, in the Germs' case, we never got to find out what they might have done next. A weirdly fascinating album, and awfully listenable for how ugly it is 4/5
You might like this if: You like punk, and you like is sloppy, fast, dumb, and smart.
Harder, faster, angrier than most of its predecessors, this is a shouty, thin jag of proto-hardcore that's place in the canon is well-deserved. The sloppy rage of the Sex Pistols and the hookiness of the Buzzcocks collide, everything is faster and more furious than either, planting the seeds of albums like Bad Brains and Raw Power to come.
The songs are actually a lot of fun, for the most part, charmingly messy, full of flubbed notes, missed beats and gutteral, yowling stumbles. There's a Minutemenesque balance here, with the drums, guitars, and bass taking their turns to rise to the fore, always with Crash's tortured, torturing wailing slathered over top.
There's also what I'm going to indulge in calling a proto-post-punk moment: the 9:30 closer, coming after 15 tracks running about 2 each. Building on early Stooges and predicting Liar's This Dust That Makes Mud, it's an early example of exploring the "punk" space, pissing the audience off by spitting in the face of notions of pacing and engagement. Much as with the Liars track, its a hint that these guys were in on the joke, that they might have more tricks up their sleeve than playing fast ad hard. Shame that, in the Germs' case, we never got to find out what they might have done next. A weirdly fascinating album, and awfully listenable for how ugly it is 4/5
You might like this if: You like punk, and you like is sloppy, fast, dumb, and smart.
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