Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (2008 remaster)

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (2008 remaster)

1 Xtal 4:54
2 Tha 9:07
3 Pulsewidth 3:48
4 Ageispolis 5:23
5 I 1:17
6 Green Calx 6:05
7 Heliosphan 4:53
8 We Are the Music Makers 7:43
9 Schottkey 7th Path 5:08
10 Ptolemy 7:14
11 Hedphelym 6:03
12 Delphium 5:29
13 Actium 7:36
 

 My Review : 

This is the highest regarded album from a very, very young Richard D. James, and I suppose that for its time this was modern, but alas, for 2009 does sound a little dated, and is not more than a techno which doesn't go beyond than that: much of the stuff contained in this 'Selected ambient works 85-92' is not very different to the lounge music I used to hear on a radio programme in Buenos Aires that aired DJ music to chill out on weekends after hours.
I never was too skilled to determine what it was influential as fuck in the pop music (some people 'round here seem very skilled about and I admire them), and if this was that influential or not, I couldn't say it, but one thing surely this is not: so bold and adventurous as later James works (the exception maybe is 'Hedphelym'): I really got no clue why this is so generally rated as the greatest Aphex Twin record, while in reality, it's almost his weakest; the proof is easy: you can really dance to this, and when you can dance to electronic music, it means that is not so good.
On the other hand I can understand if this is meaningful for some people: the affective factor must be respected, and I do.
 

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Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (1998)

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children (1998)

01. Wildlife Analysis
02. An Eagle in Your Mind
03. The Color of the Fire
04. Telephasic Workshop
05. Triangles & Rhombuses
06. Sixtyten
07. Turquoise Hexagon Sun
08. Kaini Industries
09. Bocuma
10. Roygbiv
11. Rue the Whirl
12. Aquarius
13. Olson
14. Pete Standing Alone
15. Smokes Quantity
16. Open the Light
17. One Very Important Thought
18. Happy Cycling
 

My  Review : 

This album, is so fucking good. The few words to describe it. Fucking good. Fucking perfect. AHHHHHHHHHH. FUCK. Some songs have a Black Moth Super Rainbow kinda feel to them. Like Turquoise Hexagon Sun. The chords remind me a lot of BMSR's "I Think It Is Beautiful That You Are 256 Colors Too" off of Falling Through a Field. Then there are certain songs like Roygbiv, which are just simply amazing. By the time the song ends, I think to myself, "Jesus Christ, that was 2 minutes and 33 seconds?" Its repetitive, but in an extremely good way. The album in general is mysterious, curious, and magical. Very superb. I just wish it was endless.

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Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (2003)

Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher (2003)

01 The Wrong Side of Reflection (Intro)
02 The End of Biters-International
03 Plastic (feat. Diverse)
04 Uprock and Invigorate a Prefuse (produced by Dabrye)
05 The Color of Tempo
06 Dave's Bonus Beats
07 Detchibe
08 Altoid Addiction-Interlude
09 Busy Signal (Make You Go Bombing Mix)
10 One Word Extinguisher
11 90% of My Mind is With You
12 Huevos With Jeff and Roni (feat. Mr. Lif on a minidisc mic)
13 Female Demands
14 Why I Love You
15 Southerners-Interlude
16 Perverted Undertone
17 Invigorate
18 Choking You
19 Storm Returns with Tommy Guerrero
20 Trains on Top of the Game
21 Styles That Fade Away With a Collonade-Reprise
22 Esta
23 Pentagram
 

My Review : 

Constantly morphing and changing, these are melodies for those who grow bored quickly. I listen to One Word Extinguisher and think to myself, "electronic with a hip-hop base". That's what this essentially instrumental album does, and Prefuse 73 does it well. Each song gives off its own flair and spark of creativity, and they are generally kept short and condensed which is the perfect way of going about it. Rife with energy and always going, this is upbeat music for those on the move. The cut and paste feeling is fluent and lets the layers of sound breathe freely. Manic samples only help to round this out. Some of them are a little too much, but for the most part it's spot on. At times it's more glitchy and at other times it's focused more on grooves and atmosphere. At times I sense an Autechre influence which wouldn't surprise me since both artists are on Warp. There is a lot to analyze as well, since One Word Extinguisher is packed full to the brim with tracks. Luckily it stays coherent and doesn't fall prey to keeling over in a stupor of boredom.

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Fennesz - Endless Summer (2001)

Fennesz - Endless Summer (2001)

1 Made in Hongkong 4:22
2 Endless Summer 8:35
3 A Year in a Minute 6:01
4 Caecilia 3:53
5 Got to Move On 3:48
6 Shisheido 2:58
7 Before I Leave 4:06
8 Happy Audio 10:55
 

My Review : 

There are times when I think that "Endless Summer" might very well be the best album of 2001 and one of the most important and relevant albums of the entire decades. There are other times when I don't understand why I am so fascinated with this record. A glitchy, ambient, obscene and serene take on sun, seen through the eyes of the inimitable Christian Fennesz. I don't hate this record ever, don't get me wrong, but I don't always love it. It's a "when the mood is right" type of record for me. It almost always sounds pretty (though the harsh glitches on "Shisheido" and "Before I Leave" wake me from my daydream), but about one out of every 4 listens reveals a record that stands on its own, with few sounding like it. The mixture of guitars, fuzz, and samples just hits the right emotions. One of the very few ambient that does indeed work on a sunny day. Keep it around, listen to it every now and then, you'll become obsessed eventually. 

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Murcof - Martes (2002)

Murcof - Martes (2002)

1. Memoria
2. Mapa
3. Mir
4. Mármol
5. Mao
6. Muim
7. Mes
8. Maíz
 

My  Review : 

A pretty damn fascinating album. Martes sounds like a typical Warp records release with the weirdness replaced with thoughtfulness; while the processed drums and clicks certainly sound like something you might here on a rhythmically spastic Autechre track, they're arranged into regular, danceable, almost club-friendly beats, allowing what sits over the top of them to really breathe and stand on its own merit.

And it's a good job too, because some of these arrangements are excellent. Murcof clearly has a passing interest in classical music, but he treats it in largely the same way he treats his beats - tiny snippets reconstructed into something bigger. He occasionally hints at shifting tone clusters but only actually uses two or three dissonant notes and holds them - similarly, "Memoria" makes out like it's about to introduce a long, flowing cello melody, but the instrument only ends up repeating the same two notes. Ditto the pizzicato playing on "Mir" - it's another loop, just hitting in a different register. It's like everything, tonal or not, is treated as percussion, whether it has clear melodic content or it's just a dull thud.

Martes succeeds, though, because it pulls off the same trick that acts as diverse as Massive Attack, Lamb, Kraftwerk, Burial, and New Order have typically relied on - placing sad, dark, affecting music over steady dance beats. Considering the general lack of anything 'human', this is a pretty emotional album - it'd be as welcome on a chill-out mixtape as it would on a glitch or techno one. Despite its refusal to ever truly spazz out and go properly nuts, you suspect IDM would be a much more fitting description for this than most things; this really is intelligent.
 

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Dhafer Youssef - Divine Shadows (2006)

Dhafer Youssef - Divine Shadows (2006)

1. Cantos Lamentos (Dedicated To A. Part)
2. 27th Century Ethos
3. Miel Et Cendres (Dedicated To Mohamed Choukril)
4. In Human Sense
5. Odd Poetry
6. 27th Ethos (Dedicated To Jatinder Thakur)
7. Persona Non Grata
8. Postludium
9. Eleventh Stone
10. Ivresse Divine
11. Un Soupir Eternel (To A Norwegian Girl, Karen Steen Aarset 1931 - 2004)
 

My  Review : 

This isn't my favorite disc from Dhafer Youssef but it's still pretty darn good. He manages to mix in a good selection of styles of jazz in here and some tracks he'll even toss in some catchy beats, like on Persona non grata. For the most part this is farsi or eastern style jazz and it's a great chill out album. Tracks like Eleventh Stone and Odd Poetry are prime examples and take you right to the Eastern side of the World into a beautiful memory forgotten. The tracks flow into one another as well making Dhafer a great producer because if I'm not watching the track list on the stereo sometimes I have no idea what track I'm actually listening to. Very well done and I recommend this to any World Jazz fan! 

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Dhafer Youssef - Abu Nawas Rhapsody (2010)

Dhafer Youssef - Abu Nawas Rhapsody (2010)

1.Sacré 4:59
2. Les Ondes Orientales 9:09
3. Khamsa 7:40
4. Interl’oud 1:44
5. Louage (Odd Elegy) 4:52
6. Ya Hobb 4:07
7. Shatha (intro) 2:08
8. Shatha 5:36
9. Mudamatan 4:54
10. Sabaa 5:00
11.Sura 6/05
12. Profane 4:38

 My Review : 

If you're at all inclined to the sort of music that invites you to a simultaneously intensely personal and all embracing communal meditative experience, buy this CD immediately. Ten or twenty years ago, I surrendered to the Middle Eastern magic of a group called Night Ark. This seems to be the next chapter, the next semester in the course. At its core, it is a small jazz ensemble: percussion, bass, guitar (in this case, 'oud) and vocalist. But here is a group that is deft at the long-time tradition of middle eastern music, predating the development of American jazz by centuries, if not millenia. And it is highly skilled, highly virtuosic improvisation that is focused away from the ego and toward the adoration of The Beloved, Love personified, if you will. I have only to add a comment on the liner notes. In the spirit of the music, in the spirit of the inspiration of the ensemble, the notes for each song are presented as a spectacular, one-page painting by a contemporary watercolorist 

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Mr. Meeble - Never Trust The Chinese (2008)

Mr. Meeble - Never Trust The Chinese (2008)

1. Fine
2. Raindrops
3. Cultivation of the Imagination
4. Dragonfly
5. It All Came To Pass
6. Every Thing is Good Part One
7. A Ton of Bricks
8. I Fell Through
9. Everything is Good Part 2
10. Until I Grasp the Second
11. 100 Pills
12. Forget This Ever Happened
 

My  Review : 

Flying in the face of earthly convention, Mr. Meeble issues a warning to everyone who checks out their indie debut album: Never Trust The Chinese. Between its title and content - this Phoenix based trio’s sensual and soulful pop meets dark electronica record is bound to drop jaws, turn heads and offend, oh, maybe about a billion people.
But it’s nothing personal… well, except for the one nameless female who inspired this collection of songs that tell stories of the denial and despair of lost love, personal accountability, remembering, mourning and finally, just maybe, a glimmer of hope.
Like their nearest ‘sounds kinda like’ cousins, Mr. Meeble incorporates both stellar instrumental work and an ethos of lyrical authenticity. Reminiscent of fellow French band Air, NTTC has moments of smooth, breathy vocals over spacey synths, chilled-out Rhodes and orchestral strings. At other times, it sounds similar to Thom Yorke’s Eraser with its emotive, pained vocals over minimal, tense electronics. Those familiar with Massive Attack’s Mezzanine will identify with NTTC’s dark, plodding and ominous vibe. The curious mix of stops, glitches, pops, whizzes, bleeps, stutters, and scratches together with sweeping, sometimes unnerving, visceral emotion is as close to opposites becoming singularly effective as you will find in music, or any art form, for that matter
 

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