Enigma - Seven Lives Many Faces

I pre-ordered from Amazon, and got it in on the release date which was really great. I was very anxious to hear it, which I had NOT been with the last two albums...the build up to those albums in my mind wasn't much, but with Cretu using a new studio set up and trying something very different I thought this could be a really great stand-out. I was right and wrong.

I listened to the album first at night, on headphones. This is definitely an album to be heard on headphones, isolated and in the dark. Very surreal and atmospheric but not in any sort of ambient sense - just a test of the senses through sound. The tracks didn't really seem to have beginnings or endings through the headphone listen - I wasn't starring at the CD player, seeing which track I was on at any point. I just let the album flow and enjoyed it. I was very pleased at the end of the listen, especially with the use of vocals (not being overbearing like they have been in the past few albums.) The beats felt good - not as good as E3 mind you, but solid and full.

Now for the bad part - I listened to it a few times the next day in my car while working (my job requires me to do LOTS of travelling, so I have plenty of time to listen in the car each day), and I was extremely disappointed. I couldn't find any of the sounds I had enjoyed the night before. I didn't care for much of it at all on my second listen....now with a few listens after I found some songs I really enjoy, mainly Je T'aime Till My Dying Day and Deja Vu. The further listening into the evening got me more excited and able to enjoy Touchness, Same Parents, La Puerta del Cielo and The Language of Sound. Now - enjoying these songs doesn't mean I liked the album. They are good standalones, albiet some of these songs sound like CD single B-sides.

The album overall to me after listening to it in a couple of different cars in the past few days, it just seems directionless and for those that aren't Enigma fans it was very boring to them. The first few tracks especially don't flow together at all - it seems just bland and that there is NO cohesive manor to them at all. As the album progresses the sounds seem to fit well together as it goes from track to track, but the album should have ended at Deja Vu, and the last two tracks should have been mixed in to earlier parts of the album.

The second disc was nice. Superficial was the only boring track, the others were definitely a good addition to the feel of the album.

I will absolutely recommend this album to friends and anyone that is big into seperating themselves from the world so they can listen to music in headphones at times...I am guilty of this, and this album works extremely well in this setting. As for anyone wanting a new electronic album to dance to or chill out to or anything like that, I don't think this would be in my top 5 recommendations at all. It just doesn't have any stand-out tracks that really sell this album, but it also doesn't have some kind of amazing overall thematic feel that I could describe. The lack of a real theme seperates this album from E1-4 certainly, and just feels directionless at the end of the listening experience.

Brainwashed

A great music website

Just wanted to throw this out there - I try to find, read and keep up with as many websites dealing with music as I can.  Few are worth much though.  That isn't the case with Brainwashed.com.  It is extremely helpful with experimental, post-whatever and everything not mainstream.

I could go on for days about everything the site offers - so just go check it out; extremely great info on acts such as Current 93, Nurse with Wound, Christoph Heeman and so on (these are just some of my favorites I keep up with, but they have a TON of info on all kinds of acts and styles...not just collage/drone work).

Brainwashed has been running since 1996, and now even curates a music festival each year.  There are album reviews, news, new release info, video interviews, archival material and a ton more.  I check the site usually every Sunday late evening, or Monday afternoon/evening for the new updates.

Brainwashed.com - go check it out if you don't already follow it.

For the love of you

From 90s hip hop back to 70s disco funk

Okay so this post may not be worth anything to some, but to others it might be fun.  I grew up in the 80s/90s, and got my introduction to music through the emerging Mtv, local pop radio and rarely mix tapes I found randomly through friends or other means.

Most of the music I encountered in the late 80s/early 90s was hip hop/rap.  They had a almost common musical theme back then - steal from the 60s & 70s.  Sampling ran wild in hip hop, and the Isley Brothers were at the top of the list.  I had albums from Tupac, Masta Ace, Ice Cube and so forth.  Probably sad looking, some 14 year old white kid listening to ex-NWA member solo releases in his parent's garage...buuuut I loved it, so who cares.

The most interesting thing to me about that music was that they chose sex-inducing, romantic late night radio music from the 60s and 70s as the basis for their music...not their lyrics mind you, but the actual music was heavily influenced, or straight pulled from acts like the Isley Brothers, Parliament, Kool & The Gang, Bootsy Collins, War or the Bar-Kays.  This never registered with someone at my age in the early 90s.  

Fast forward to high school and college - I became heavily interested in vinyl.  I LOVED the sound, still do, of a crackling and popping record playing music of the past.  There is something about that that you can't encapsulate by simply calling it retro, vintage or nostaglic.  It is a magic all its own.  There was another magic feeling I had the first few times I put on Isley Brother records I had taken out of storage that belonged to my parents and grandparents.  They had discarded these records years and years ago, being a worthless means of entertainment to them in this new era of stereo hi-fi machines!

Those records were exactly what I was searching for.  That music - I had heard it before...sped up, slowed down, chopped and diced to fit something I was use to - but this sound was much warmer, more inviting....less volitile.  I didn't mind the volitilty mind you, but still there was just something exciting about hearing this music in reverse.  I already knew what it sounded like being rapped over, and with as a heavier bass-lined track...but to hear it in its most original, pure form was awesome.  I still am amazed to this day when I put on those records.

There are a few stand out tracks to me - Footsteps in the Dark (being sampled on my favorite rap song of all time from Ice Cube's "Today Was A Good Day"), For The Love Of You" and a few others that I always go to first but almost all of their music is extremely worth while, and their albums typically have very little, if any, filler.

If you know what I'm talking about than just hearing the drums start up on Footsteps in the Dark will excite you forever.

Richter Indulgence

Some videos featuring Max Richter music

Halloween is truly the best holiday

Scar Stuff Blog

Sooooo this is something different, but equally as important to me.  I want to recommend another blog, much better and more interesting than this one.  Scar Stuff is loaded with interesting information, pictures, videos and yes, best of all, downloads of TONS of amazing records collected from the vintage years that deal with Halloween - whether its Halloween safety records handed out to children in the 70s, records you could purchase from comic books, haunted house sound collections or just really weird horror-rock...you could sit, read & listen for hours.

I know this is a bit early, buuuut Halloween isn't too far away so I thought I would throw this one out now so whoever reads this could get some great stuff downloaded in preperation for the best holiday out there.

You can find Scar Stuff here.

Gas - Nah Und Fern (2008)

Gas - Nah Und Fern (Kompakt, 2008)

Gas is a project that you wish wouldn't be so limited in releases.  The atmospheric breathing of sound and the pulse of a 4/4 beat can keep you in a trance for hours.  The sounds of Gas have been described as music heard underwater or something playing in the far-off distance.  I don't know if that makes it appealing to anyone or not...all I can say is it is beautiful whereever you hear it coming from.

The Nah Und Fern box set collects all 4 Gas albums (Gas, Zauberberg, Konigsforst & Pop ), with some minor editing and reworking.  This Kompakt release is a really great way to listen to the original sound that has pushed Kompakt ahead of the curve for electronic/techno music in the last 5 to 8 years.

if inclined, feel free to try out the album here before purchasing. 

Kompakt website.

Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too (2008)

Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too (Smalltown Supersound, 2008)

I am new to Lindstrom's work, but really enjoy what I am hearing thus far.  The new album combines his overall typical sound, but throws in some great audio references to sci-fi scores of the 80's...which as a child of that era is simply awesome to hear it be given respectful use, and not just passed off as if it were on the same level as 1970s plaid pants, or any other ridiculous item that pop culture attempts to use in a quick definition of times past.

The three tracks that make up Where You Go I Go Too are greatly minimal, but powerful too.  You'll feel the atmospheric rise and fall, the dance beats just present enough to keep you energized but quiet enough to not ever be overbearing.  This isn't as thick or dirty as Justice, not as robotic as Daft Punk...Lindstrom is his own sound, and rightfully so.  The heavy use of arpeggios and classic synth sounds are a great tribute to old school electronic music, while still giving direction for something new.  Even though these tracks can look lenghty in terms of minutes spent listening, no one particular sound overstays its welcome, allowing an easy progression from one section to another of the work.

If you like this album, let me also highly recommend his 2006 release, It's A Feedelity Affair.

If inclined, try the album here before purchasing.

official site.