The Field, "From Here We Go To Sublime"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'll be listening to this album in about five minutes. I might have something to say about it after that, but I'm not promising anything. Instead I offer you this:

resident advisor review

"I'll have to resort to pictures."

― lukas, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:21 (nineteen years ago)

That's a review of the actual album to be released, of course, whereas the thread title discusses a super-secret, um...fuck.

― lukas, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

We've discussed this somewhat but I can't remember where. Rolling Minimal maybe.

― jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

Saucy.

I will be giving this an ear tonight or tomorrow.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

Well I already like Field Music, so I decided I'd try "The Field". Is this just the year for bands with "Field" in their name or what?

― Bimble, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:25 (nineteen years ago)

weird... i just put this on 3 minutes ago.

― s1ocki, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:38 (nineteen years ago)

this is so so so good

― ^@^, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:01 (nineteen years ago)

there's some discussion about it on the kompakt thread:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=44735

― jackl, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

and yes, so so so good indeed.

― jackl, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

Is this just the year for bands with "Field" in their name or what?

First dibs on 'Field Wolf'!

― unfished business, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

field & sebastian!

no this is very good, agreed. nothing i havne't heard before, but definitely cool -- i like the little winks and nods to 90esque trance (the broken vocals on everday sound.. actually that whole song sounds like something from a sasha set in 98, not that i'm complaing). ace. shuffles almost running.

― 7seasjim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

Hmm, better and better, then. I'll get to it here after listening to recent Blonde Redhead stuff (I'm supposed to be interviewing them so I figured 'okay, so I actually need to hear what they sound like these days').

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

not to add anything to this incredibly informative thread --i've kind of exhausted anything i have to say about this album...last week i wrote through like three drafts of my pfork review, which i think should be up monday -- but yes, this is just pure loveliness. but then i've always loved kompakt's "expensive cheese" nu-trance side (in the review i called digweed and tiesto the field's "spirit animals") though i totally understand why some people hate it.

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

So it's playing now -- very nice indeed, I suspect a second listen will help it fully click. This is more like an initial flipthrough knowing that I will like it even more next time through. Strongo's post is a good one, obv.; there's a perfect attractive smoothness to it that suggests how electronic music's functionality is very important in a myriad of contexts. I suppose a key word for this album is 'balance.'

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

(And the Flamingoes sample on the title track that closes the album = genius touch.)

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

I think all this enthusiasm is going to make me give this another try.

― jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

also LOL @ everyone on blogs (particularly that chucklehead tom breihan) saying this record sampled the fugees!!

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

Serious?! Hahaha.

― jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

Status is indeed not hood.

― jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

tom's deer-in-the-headlights stance when it comes to dance music is always a little cringey but this was just kinda embarrassing:

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/03/the_field_techn.php

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

i mean, even if you don't know the name the flamingos, i assumed everyone knows the title "i only have eyes for you," but also how hard is it to look up a sample source, especially when every bit of pre-release hype for this album mentions it! especially considering a big part of the field's whole shtick is based on a.) sampling tiny moments and b.) slowly or eventually revealing those moments.

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

None of it ever really sounded like actual club music, like anything you could really dance to if you weren't on some expensive and exotic drug, though I've still never been to any minimal-techno club night and so maybe I should just shut up about stuff I don't understand.
Breihan OTM.

― jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

o god!

erm i am still in awe & adoration mode when it comes to the field at their best, which is roughly half the album, which was mostly on the ep last year...i have to say the rest of it really underwhelmed me though, i just prefer the gui boratto, pantha du prince and gabriel ananda efforts this year as full-lengths.

― lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

all the records came in similarly unadorned packaging with the same simple font on the covers

erm welcome to dance 12s?

― lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

i think i listened to the title track 10 or 12 times in a row on the way home the other night

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince

yeah i'd agree with this

― lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

i guess those moments are why i'd still rate the field album higher than pdp, if that makes any sense

― strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

if i hadn't heard the sun & ice ep last year i probably would too, i tend to rate albums with highest highs over consistent albums which work better as albums, but they even left off my favourite track on the ep!

― lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

Very good album but I do wish there was more stuff like "Over The Ice" - stuff that works as a dance track while still allowing the Field schtick to do its magical stuff. On the other hand my other favourite track is the title track, so perhaps its more a case of wanting The Field to play the ends against the middle more.

― Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

wow, this album is weird definitely has that feeling of being strangely 'important' if only in a "minor classic" way... also, I feel like I failed music class but I actually -don't- recognise most of these famous samples :/

Boomkat thinks it's going to take off with indie kids (maybe that Breihan dude is proof...) which sort of helps me frame some thoughts (humour me) I'd been having about The Field's stuff...

Touted by many as Kompakt's answer to the relative crossover success enjoyed by the likes of James Holden and Trentemoller [...] Willner taps into the same tempered-euphoria that made Ulrich Schnauss so popular

I mean, I loathe Ulrich Schnauss, am hard on the fence about Holden and thought there was barely a third of decent-not-dire material on Trentmoller's magnum opus....

And yet... this is great. Except even for ME it's really very repetitive and 4/4, almost to the point of testing the patience, but never quite getting there, and I think that tension is probably at the heart of why/how this actually *works*. Putting this into words has been on my mind since I heard that live set of theirs really. It feels like there's a BIG opening for Ableton or some kind of Ableton-esque production technique to inject life back into techno via taking a deliberately rough/crappy/slapdash approach but nobody really cracked it yet, or the people with actual skills got too hung up on glitch/IDM/forced dissonance... until now. To me this is the record Nathan Fake could have made if he'd stuck with proper (lol) beats. Also (getting back to the indie, and right now, for a second) it does a fuck of a lot more interesting things with loops than "Person Pitch" (and most indietronica, rightly, should go without mention...)

The Gui Boratto BORED ME RIGID frankly, so I'm quite surprised how much I like this right now

― fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

Tim F is definitely very otm (above) though,

I didn't explain that "tension" thing at all :/ something to do with trance at the most teethgrinding/rigid extreme maybe... I'll fall in this hole if I don't stop digging. gah. :(

― fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:44 (nineteen years ago)

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince

yeah i'd agree with this

Yep

― Andy K, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

and where will the efdemin album sit in those equations??

― tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

even though I typed all that crap... part of me is still(!) not convinced I'm gonna care about this in two months. I wish every individual track stood out further instead of the whole lessening the impact so much (something Kompakt stuff suffers from, and yet is pretty much defined by now...)

― fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:12 (nineteen years ago)

The Efdemin album is good but I think it struggles to distinguish itself from the rest of the Dial sound.

Oddly i think he sounds more modern when going for a Sasha & Digweed circa Northern Exposure 2 kind of fluffy prog-house sound than when he's doing the melancholy chiming ambient house thing - I suppose the latter sounds very 2002 or something.

― Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

i've been listening to his last few singles a lot and to me it sounds like he's found an escape hatch from 2002-itis. more warm than "warm" though there is still chiming. chimes are underrated though.

― tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:50 (nineteen years ago)

I like chimes; the chimes in "Lohn & Brot" are the best thing about it, pretty much, but then I'm putting "Lohn & Brot" in the Sasha & Digweed camp. On about half of the album he goes for more of that fragile weedy vibe that Lawrence does so well, and he holds his own but it makes it hard to see the album as epochal or anything.

There's certainly nothing like "Just A Track" on there.

― Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:56 (nineteen years ago)

i was kind of disappointed to not see that in the tracklist, but it makes sense.

i was at a friend's last night at he was playing the dj hell misch masch mix and we both noticed a very digweed like moment amidst the electro. i don't know which track it was, but it sounded pretty great in that context.

i am now listening to the "sun and ice" ep in anticipation of the field album. i love how he plays with glitch and volume. it reminds me of french filter house.

― tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:19 (nineteen years ago)

and bugz in the attic weirdly enough.

― tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:21 (nineteen years ago)

but they even left off my favourite track on the ep!

oh.... :(

good things end, the little heart beats so fast and everyday are all very fine field moments for me, as well as just about everything else on the album. really enjoying it

― micarl, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

particularly that chucklehead tom breihan

oh man I kept laughing to myself over "chuckleheads" in the lcd soundsystem thread and now you've done it again! it's truly a wonderful word.

― aaron d.g., Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

I'm looking forward to the album btw; Over The Ice was one of my most-played tracks last year.

― aaron d.g., Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:41 (nineteen years ago)

My conclusion this is so far one of the cooler things I've heard from 2007.

― Bimble, Sunday, 25 March 2007 09:12 (nineteen years ago)

I love it, of course (and co-co-cosign Jess's PDP comparison). It's probably the most fulfilling example of an album following up on the promise of initial singles since maybe the LCD Soundsystem debut, only it feels less cold to me, less "now we are making a proper album with proper album tracks that slot into their proper places" than LCD's did--just immensely satisfying iterations on what they do and how they do it. (Plus forget about the Flamingos--not something I say easily; "Only Have Eyes" is one of my 10 favorite singles ever--the Field source I adore most is the guitar solo from Lionel Richie's "Hello.")

― Matos W.K., Sunday, 25 March 2007 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

Which track was that one again? As I mentioned my initial listen was more of a glancing one and I admit I didn't catch that.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

"A Paw in My Face", Ned.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

Thank yer.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

it reminds of me filter house too, weirdly. markus popp and bangalter have a baby.

― strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

i don't think it's wierd to think that... it's doing what basic channel did for rave to filter house

― lfam, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

What's the sample in "Everyday"? It's something completely obvious and I can remember the melody of the actual song etc. but it's just evading my grasp.

Oh and I am quite liking this now. Gave it a chance in the early hours when i was pished. Clicked a bit better. Re-listening just now.

― jim, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and I am quite liking this now.

i.e. ILM hivemind strikes again.

― jim, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

ah, the comment about the volume levels/fuckery/filter house, that's what I was grasping towards with the "rough/crappy/slapdash" comment! and I suppose why on first spin this record felt oddly un-Kompakt-like :)

― fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:12 (nineteen years ago)

someone needs to tell me what all the samples are tbh... I love the little Kate Bush obsession they have going on hehe

― fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

it's weird. in the review i say that dude's got hands like a surgeon, and he does, considering that he's finding these tiny, perfect little melodic fragments in his record collection and isolating them. and then he's deploying them like a caveman who was given a copy of "meet me at the love parade."

― strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

it's like todd edwards working with a akai s900 or something. after being smacked in the head with a brick.

― strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

mmm woozy 12-bit cut-ups.

re glitch: i hear a distinctively kompakt sound underneath the fuckery. like if it was taken away, there'd be a very k2-like or even speicher-like sound there. all that sweepy stuff and the general bigness is very kompakt.

― tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 17:31 (nineteen years ago)

what kate bush are they sampling?

― cutty, Sunday, 25 March 2007 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

i love how field tracks sound they like they are looping infinitely somewhere and we only get a glimpse of them

― cutty, Sunday, 25 March 2007 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

"Over The Ice" samples several bits of "Under Ice".

― Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 23:39 (nineteen years ago)

and then he's deploying them like a caveman who was given a copy of "meet me at the love parade."

Well considering the samples, thank god the programming doesn't come off as fussy and contrived. The album would be too toothache-sweet.

― lukas, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

haha well yeah it'd just sound like a todd edwards trance record then!

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

aka best fake genre ever

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

Is this available to order anywhere?

― jamescobo, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

swirling
i like how the terseness and repitition of the samples undercuts the schnauss-like sentimentality.
cold weather metaphors seem apropos

― deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

am i the straw that broke the consensus' back? someone can start hating now.

― deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

is there somewhere i can listen to this online other than blogcrawling(hypemachinewhatever)?

― killa bee, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

ronan slams it: http://ronanfitzgerald.net/houseisafeeling/2007/03/26/64/

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

or rather, he slams the buzz about it and says he's not surprised

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:15 (nineteen years ago)

i guess i knew how it was going to sound as well but most of the the songs are still really good

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

ronan otm (except there are dance full-lengths i like) (though certainly none have blown me away like booka shade/allien & apparat did last year)

feels stupid to say "i don't like the repetition" about a dance record but it's particularly relentless on the field album...it's not repetition of something which has its own little changes and nuances, it's just one sound over and over again, on one pitch - it's the opposite of ed banger! except for mindless overdriven bass going nowhere and doing your head in, it's mindless whooshy treble going nowhere &c. and frustrating because it could be so much better!

still love 'over the ice' and 'everyday' though.

― lex pretend, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

Ronan's post seems entirely reasonable but doesn't really say much about the record...which is his point, i suppose. I can see how this feels like, i don't know, the clipse of dance or whatever.

― deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

It's great, it'd drive me nuts if I listened to the whole thing on headphones, but it was great to have on the stereo when I was sitting just outside the door yesterday. It's probably danceable but I think it's getting attention because this is a chopped-up endpoint of the chillout album continuum.

― mh, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

there are dance full-lengths i like [...]though certainly none have blown me away like booka shade/allien & apparat did last year

what, never??

anyway, re: the repetition I agree with Lex, the other broader points I agree with Ronan, the process is tedious, but unlike him that I have -no- problem at all with there being a handful of crossover records each year... sure there's more to this genre than they represent by themselves (so I'll listen to just as many singles/mixes too) but I don't see how it's so much worse as tokenism for indie/mainstream crowds than what happens in hip-hop/metal/whatever.

If this ends up as THE big 'techno' crossover album this year though, well, it's a rather large step down from something like Wearemonster to here....

― fandango, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

no i meant this year! which in itself says bugger all as this is only march. i don't mind crossover records when they're as good as movements or ...bubbles.

― lex pretend, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

I was in love with this record by track five and kind of bored to tears by track nine, and listening to the second half in isolation didn't really change that.

There's nothing wrong with the house album format even now, and minimal is better suited than most to it I think. The Gui Boratto and Eulberg albums are doing far more for me right now though.

― Matt DC, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

well, it's a rather large step down from something like Wearemonster to here....

OTM. None of these records, gui boratto, the field, sound to me like they were made to be albums, in the way that wearemonster did. None of them make me want to not listen to the best 12s of that week and listen to one artist for an hour. I don't know if that's because of techno being quite good lately, or just because I have a short attention span or am too indoctrinated into buying singles.

To me, someone like Boratto releases so much music, like a 12 every week, that I can't even take his album seriously, I just think, well that 12 could have been on it, or so could that 12 from 3 weeks ago, or one from 7 weeks ago...it's just a snapshot for someone like him.

In the case of The Field it's a bit different...to speak more about the music itself, it's just kind of boring for me. I don't despise it or think it's awful, I don't hate it because it's so trancey, though I do wonder about indie kids going gaga for the trendy trance a little, it just doesn't really hold my attention. Truth be told even by the time the second single came out I listened and thought "this is great but it's just aural candy". It just seems kinda facile, plus there's no bass!

I also just generally I feel the whole anthemic melancholy cool trance thing is the most overdone style in techno at the moment.The Field may not be as bad as some Border Community ripoffs, but it still gets my goat a little in this way. Conceptually there's nothing really that interesting about trance meets My Bloody Valentine to me...

But I should say despite my post maybe not concentrating too much on the sound of the record, that's probably my biggest obstacle to liking this album...it doesn't even really sound like trance does it? Just like, noises!

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

Very good album but I do wish there was more stuff like "Over The Ice" - stuff that works as a dance track while still allowing the Field schtick to do its magical stuff.

I wanted to hear this new record, but that's disappointing to read. "Over the Ice" was definitely my favorite track to walk around campus to.
I wanted more so I purchased the mp3s of the EP and some other tracks without preview hoping for more of the same
but I could never really get into the other tracks the same way and they've been sitting in a folder ever since.
Yeah, so the attention on this record is still kind of exciting
but I definitely want to pre-listen to this thing somehow before I shell out the bux.

― mox twelve, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

I listened and thought "this is great but it's just aural candy".

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

you are mike taylor and i claim my $5

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

"then they changed what 'it' was. now what i'm with isn't 'it.' and what's 'it' seems weird and scary. it'll happen to yoooooou."

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

"this is great but it's just aural candy". It just seems kinda facile, plus there's no bass! "

This makes me think of when I heard an indie DJ try to pump "Over the Ice" at a club.
I'm like, what are you doing. You can't dance to this at all.

― mox twelve, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

"you are mike taylor and i claim my $5"

Actually he is wearing the Joe Claussell hat today. "Eat your greens."

― Andy K, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:04 (nineteen years ago)

"Over the Ice" was definitely my favorite track to walk around campus to.

everybody [walk around campus] now!

― deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

Agreed this has nothing on "Wearemonster" or "Dislocated Genius" as an album. I also agree with Ronan, regarding Gui Boratto, that having so, so many releases really diminishes the potential impact of the album. It's like the album better be really great (which I didn't find the Boratto album to be) in the midst of all the other releases or what's the point? Just chop it up into a few more 12"s.

As for the Field, after "Things Keep Falling Down" I was super excited for what would come next (and that Four Tops sample is still my favorite of his slowly revealed samples). After "Sun & Ice" my excitement for the album was at fever pitch for a while, but then at some point in the fall I played "Over the Ice" and was totally disappointed. It just didn't seem to be very dynamic (which I know was never really the case) even within its slightly tweaked repetitiveness. It just seemed to be there doing something pretty (and in the case of "Over the Ice" with some pretty great bass) but to no real effect. And that's, sadly, how the album hits me.

― matt2, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

haha the funniest part is that i jizz all over the field today and tomorrow they publish a review where i shit on minimal for 800 words

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

walkingcontradiction.mp3

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

What review/column is that gonna be?

― matt2, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

i do understand ronan's dislike/distaste, but i also can't ever see him enjoying pop or 94diskont or uh...that curd duca album? i guess what i'm wondering is that if this had been put out on some k-pakt side label, if he would care as much.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think that's contradictory at all.

― Andy K, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

xpost black dog review. it's my version of ronan's completely indefensible "things were so much better back then" type stylee

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

a bigger question is if this album came out on too pure or darla or morr if anyone would care as much, but that's one i can't answer.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

Because the equivalent in 1993 would've been to praise Seefeel and trash, er, a bunch of Global Communication rip-offs (maybe).

― Andy K, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

Make that B12. Again, maybe.

― Andy K, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

And to come back to the tiny sidetrack of other "big" techno-crossover albums in the recent past, could anyone really, really sit through the whole Trentemoller album?

― matt2, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

probably more like praising seefeel and trashing a bunch of junior vasquez rip-offs

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:15 (nineteen years ago)

post-hawtin ableton lego mixes = tribal 2k7

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

i kind of wonder about the lasting power of it... i haven't heard the album at all (only the ep), but what i have heard is really good for a bit, then sort of samey. good nonetheless, but a sound that i tire of.

― the table is the table, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

is it just me or is the remaster of Parallel really fuckin' LOUD?

― fandango, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

My favourite dance lp this year so far is the Hug one. Which scares me no end.

― jim, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

it's REALLY loud. the first disc sounds like they found it buried under black dog towers and the second is super hi-fi.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

a bunch of junior vasquez rip-offs

Don't make my headache any worse than it is.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

"you are mike taylor and i claim my $5"

Actually he is wearing the Joe Claussell hat today. "Eat your greens."

Come on Jess...you are just Mike crossed with a little Tom Ewing!

Anyway when I said "this is great but it's just aural candy" I meant this is great more in the sense of "this is all well and good" rather than is actually greatness. I mean, what's the point?

Also my style here isn't "things were so much better back then", I don't think dance music is in the doldrums, I think it's doing great, I mean, come on, I manage to do a weekly radio show of new stuff I like. I just don't much like the incarnations of house and techno that seem to characterise the popular album formats, ESPECIALLY not Kompakt's versions, and let's face it Kompakt is the big album techno imprint du jour. It just seems forced and they've been ploughing this fucking indie-trance furrow for years now, it's starting to wear a bit thin not least when there is so much good house music around.

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

Come on Jess...you are just Mike crossed with a little Tom Ewing!

touche, sir. touche.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

i think i'm actually more like vahid. i can never keep what i love and i what i hate straight anymore.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

i was wondering how long it would take for the MBV reference to appear.

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

At this stage I'd like to hear a comp of dance producers who've never heard of MBV...

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

so wait are some people in this thread saying there's a bit of borrowed nostalgia from the unremembered 90s in this album?

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

ugh. for the unremembered 90s i mean.

i bought that black dog reissue the day it came out and i have to say that while parallel is still great, i'm still feeling 2007 art techno way more.

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

though yes, there is ample reason to bitch about it

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

well i did write the review in cranky old man mode, that's for sure

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

i think whenever i use the word "kids" derisively in a review i should have $5 docked

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:01 (nineteen years ago)

Haha Ronan one of the reasons I like the Gui Boratto album is precisely because it sounds like he just threw together a load of good tracks he had lying around, rather than trying to craft an album or whatever. I wish more producers would do that - definitely prefer it to the Trentemoller approach anyway.

Part of what's frustrating about the Field album is that it feels like it's meant to be Sat Down And Listened To and yet it fails to hold my attention past the half way line. There's a sort of 'nice in small doses' pretty blandness to it.

― Matt DC, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

yes!! roffles

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

xpost dammit

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

"There's a sort of 'nice in small doses' pretty blandness to it."

yup. i bet it would fairing better if it was under the 40 minute mark.

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

i am boggled by people who think this album demands being listened to closely! if anything it feels like it's meant to just wash over you or zone out to it. AMBIENT, PEOPLE, AMBIENT.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:05 (nineteen years ago)

the times this album has sounded best to me have been when i've been walking home late at night zonked out of my mind from tiredness

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

When I heard it again yesterday while drifting into an afternoon nap I was all "Ah, perfect."

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

Darla has totally put out scads of music like this, going way back to the mid/late 90s, but so far as I remember none of it was anywhere near this good, what with the lowered indie / weedy / Flowchart / "lookit what I did in my basement over spring break" aesethetic (which I'm not knocking, just saying those were different days, when synth-pad Sundays covers were totes awes and it seemed totally convenient for Hyperreal to bring drum-machine samples and drug-chemistry seminars together at last).

But so people would take this less seriously as a Darla release for sure, but that probably says more about people's low opinion of little Darla and her treats than drinking the Kompakt Kool-Aid.

― nabisco, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

they've been ploughing this fucking indie-trance furrow for years now, it's starting to wear a bit thin not least when there is so much good house music around.

I would say the Field LP is where "indie-trance" finally starts to get interesting. Of course, I don't know much about trance in general, so that's not really what comes to mind when I listen to this.

― lou, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

Can someone photoshop a review of this record onto one of those ads for pensioner laxatives?

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/moi/i/307-ParisIrelandLondon-2000-06-16.jpg

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:13 (nineteen years ago)

"i say, we simply must have more of that delicious m_nus and tuning spork when we visit the vineyard this year."

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:14 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.sciences.adelaide.edu.au/programs/images/wine%20tasting1.jpg

"a subtly fruity bouquet with minimal hints of pine and well engineered aromatics"

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

ipreferthelindstromremix.jpg

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

I would say the Field LP is where "indie-trance" finally starts to get interesting.

COSIGN.

and again, what I was trying to get at above by pointing out all the other records which haven't worked for me, whilst seeming to kick at the same or similar goals. And YET it feels like slim pickings still... frustrating.

― fandango, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

They make laxatives specifically for retirees?

― nabisco, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

they make ads specifically aimed at them

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

way back in the 90s i went to an afterparty for the shamen and moby. everyone at the party was hugely e'd off their faces (except for moby) and one dude was doing this sort of shuffle-y i'm-not-really-here jog-in-place dance which became synonymous with that culture for me because the vibe in that place was so intense and spaceship and unforgettable. the field would make a nice soundtrack for a comedown from that.

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

dudes i would have a few glasses of red zin with this music any day.

my favorite oblique strongo comment on minimal coffee table is CAT FANCY DISCOTHEQUE

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

I have to say I see the Field as the delightful vino in this equation...at least relative to other ear candy.

Why don't these Field fans just go and listen to DJ Sammy? (besides Jess, who I know listens to DJ Sammy)

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:31 (nineteen years ago)

i am boggled by people who think this album demands being listened to closely! if anything it feels like it's meant to just wash over you or zone out to it. AMBIENT, PEOPLE, AMBIENT.

otm

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

if you approach it as techno, it sucks, but as ambient, it's pretty pretty.

― lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

I do agree with the ambient thing.

― Ronan, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.simnet.is/logan/discocat.jpg

― the table is the table, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

christ that cat has hooves

― tricky, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

haha i dont even remember cat fancy disco

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 22:49 (nineteen years ago)

it's on p. 147 of Chuck Eddy's Accidental History book

― Matos W.K., Monday, 26 March 2007 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

Your search - "cat fancy disco" - did not match any documents.

Suggestions:

* Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
* Try different keywords.
* Try more general keywords.

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

a better term for minimal might be "garbage disco"

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

but i kid

― strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 23:59 (nineteen years ago)

i'd say that the "no bass" and "ambient" are totally OTM, but can someone (Ronan?) explain how this is endemic to Kompakt's sound? I can only think of Kaito an' the Superpitcher MFA remix that mine this territory...

plus, the simple fact that phil condemns this album as repetitve endears it to no end for me.

― BleepBot, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:10 (nineteen years ago)

it was on the michael mayer/sfj new yorker party thread jess

one man's trash is another man's gold

http://www.lightmillennium.org/2006_17th/image/rrauschenberg_ca.jpg

― tricky, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

Yes to be honest the idea that Kompakt spend all their time making indie-trance is one of those weird myths that sound totally correct as long as you don't stop and think about them at all.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

haha oh right

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

BETTER HOMES AND TRANCE

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

this one is better

http://brooklynrail.org/article_image/image/156/04_Minutiae__1954.jpg

― tricky, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

i do loves me some rauschenberg

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of the art world, pfork totally cut my barnett newman reference AND my dj sammy reference

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

they also cut the arcade fire diss SURPRISE SURPRISE

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:19 (nineteen years ago)

that's disappointingly PC. although maybe you said they ate young children or something.

tim f OTM

― tricky, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:21 (nineteen years ago)

i intimated they might not be as good as some have claimed

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

YOU DIDN'T!

― Tim F, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

i know, i know

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:28 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.revolutionarywebdesign.com/032203/images/x.shame.jpg

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:29 (nineteen years ago)

funniest post on that thread remains

THE UTNE RAVER

s1ocki (slutsky) on Monday, August 28, 2006

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

i intimated they might not be as good as some have claimed

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/P/0486406571.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

that's what blogs are for

― lfam, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 01:25 (nineteen years ago)

Well...Kompakt release so much that to say they spend all their time making any one thing would be unfair. But I think it's fair to say they've been hammering the indie-trance nail for a good while now, Mayer/Superpitcher as DJs and producers (especially Supermayer), Gui Boratto has definitely had his moments, several Speichers.

I mean seriously didn't anyone else cringe when reading the blurb for Tobias Thomas's mix with "LISTEN CLOSELY AND YOU'LL HEAR THE SMITHS AND THE WEDDING PRESENT". At this stage I'd be more shocked if they said "LISTEN CLOSELY AND YOU WON'T HEAR ANY BANDS THE PINEFOX LIKES REFERENCED", or "TOBIAS HAS HERE PAID HOMAGE TO THE WISTFUL RHYMES OF SNOOP DOGGY DOGG. TIP!"

― Ronan, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

I feel a LOT fonder about this if I think of it the same way I think about say Orbital's first full-length... but do any Kompakt artists actually make that kind of sudden leap in quality on their second albums (hell, apart from Kaito, Köhncke, Guentner... I'm struggling thru' unfamiliarity with their stuff) or just sideways moves/further refinements?

or maybe I'm just really feeling it tonight (and I much prefer most of this to that "not as good as the original" Superpitcher MFA remix Ronan posits as the endpoint we shouldn't maybe have gone beyond? there's just more "there" about this. more vibe.) funny album, sometimes it feels like nothing special sometimes all I want to hear... until I don't.

That weakass acid line (in fact mostly the whole track) in "The little heart..." really bugs me. I think if that, and "Silent" were just shortened drastically or otherwise made lesser/linking tracks... this would actually be pretty damn perfect tbh.

― fandango, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

Fandango that Superpitcher remix is one of the most amazing things ever!?!?

― Tim F, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 23:33 (nineteen years ago)

I agree with fandango on that actually. That Superpitcher remix leaves me cold for some reason, this doesn't ... usually.

― lukas, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure if I can see eye to eye with anyone who doesn't say Tim OTM re: the Superpitcher remix.

With all the gushing praise for this, I wonder whether people are talking about "From Here We Go To Sublime" or the live mix that was floating around a while ago...i still loop the live mix over an' over again but the album has those clunkers that I can't stand already ("The Deal" guhhh).

― BleepBot, Thursday, 29 March 2007 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

Do tell about this live mix and where it might be found. He said.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 29 March 2007 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

the deal sounds like panda bear or jane

― lfam, Thursday, 29 March 2007 17:35 (nineteen years ago)

Does it help improve the image of this record if I say that hardcore Asian prog-house obsessives who have completist collections of John Digweed mixes (and there are a LOT of these people in Singapore) love it?

I mean seriously, the whole "indie guys like it so it must suck" is just the stupidest ilm trope of all time...

― J@cob, Friday, 30 March 2007 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

Jacob I think the trope is "indie guys will hail it as the best dance record of the year without bothering to listen to any of the others". Which may or may not be accurate but at least get the objection right.

― Matt DC, Friday, 30 March 2007 10:39 (nineteen years ago)

my trope is "IT IS CRAP", coupled with "plus it is getting hyped to bejesus at the moment".

― Ronan, Friday, 30 March 2007 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

thats my stance on all the other non-speicher kompakt releases. but not on this one! go axel!

― fies, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

I like it a lot. You can all feel free to stop liking it now. I won't mind.

― unperson, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

this thread is certainly crawling with people who listen to no other dance music than one or two kompakt releases a year

― strongohulkington, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:27 (nineteen years ago)

I cheerfully admit as much. I don't use the stuff I do like as a springboard for sweeping pronouncements on the state of dance music, though - I just like what I like and recognize I have neither the time nor the disposable income necessary to investigate more thoroughly.

― unperson, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

i was being sarcastic, whoever you are.

― strongohulkington, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Strongo, meet PDF.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

i thought it might be louis jagger for a second O_o

― strongohulkington, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

Oh lord.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not jaymc here, man

― strongohulkington, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't mean that! I was just frightened at the idea it WAS him.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

this thread is certainly crawling with people who listen to no other dance music than one or two kompakt releases a year

Have no idea what most people on this thread listen to.

― Ronan, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

this thread is certainly crawling with people who listen to no other dance music than one or two kompakt releases a year

this is true of me at the moment, actually. Not out of choice, it just happened!

― admrl, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:41 (nineteen years ago)

In other words, what have I missed?

― admrl, Friday, 30 March 2007 16:41 (nineteen years ago)

admrl!

― cutty, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

cutty buddy!

― admrl, Friday, 30 March 2007 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

Ned, the live mix is pretty much all of the Field's earlier single/EP releases mixed for a couple minutes at a time - it all kinda flies past before anything can go on for too long - thereby taking out the only decent criticism i've heard of the album. the mix has a mashup/mix between annie's "heartbeats" and "over the ice" that works nicely...

― BleepBot, Friday, 30 March 2007 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

if you want, just drop me an email an' i can upload it for you...

― BleepBot, Friday, 30 March 2007 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

Nice. Look for a webmail.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 March 2007 20:46 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

yowch - http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2007.shtml

#1!!?!111

― fandango, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:14 (nineteen years ago)

how/why on earth this dance full-length has become the token 2007 dance pick above all the other dance full-lengths i've heard this year is a complete mystery to me.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

i mean, i can name probably five others more worthy of being the token crossover off the top of my head!

― lex pretend, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

wow... off the top of your head??? that's amazing!

― creme1, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

how/why on earth this dance full-length has become the token 2007 dance pick above all the other dance full-lengths i've heard this year is a complete mystery to me.

-- lex pretend, Sunday, 15 April 2007 14:17 (3 hours ago)

is it really that hard to figure out?

― lfam, Sunday, 15 April 2007 17:37 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think it's hard to figure out, but I would like to hear Lex's other token crossover pics.

I'd throw up Kathy Diamond as the first nominee...

― BleepBot, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

it's the kompakt factor which i guess makes it seem like more of a dance album than it really is to some people.
like whoever said upthread, if this had come out on darla or something, there would be none of this "omg best techno album in years" crap.
still very nice, though.

― babedad, Sunday, 15 April 2007 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

I've only heard songs on the new album off their myspace page. To me, it just sounds like standard techno, but it's pretty rare for me to get into a record like this anyway. Not that it's even the same genre, or anything, and so I'm lazily lumping these together, but I didn't really care for the critically lauded releases by Tim Hecker, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Ekkehard Ehlers (except for Cassavetes 2 on Plays), either.

― jposnan, Sunday, 15 April 2007 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

well yeah it is hard to figure out! i think 3-4 songs off the field album are sublime and the rest is boring - i wouldn't say that any dance album in 07 has blown me away a la ellen allien last year, but gui boratto (also on kompakt) and pantha du prince are more consistent throughout, kalabrese has higher highs, gabriel ananda has both higher highs and is more consistent. my favourite techno album this year is probably mia's bittersüss though...so tight, and really hooky too.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

It leaked? I'll be damned.

Meantime, heard the new Apparat yet? Just landed in my mailbox.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

no no not THAT mia! this one is michaela grobelny, sub static bosswoman

― lex pretend, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

lex stop being a danceist and listening to albums all the time

― artdamages, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:15 (nineteen years ago)

yes lex, but the whole thing is relaxing

ambient!!

― lfam, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:41 (nineteen years ago)

The Kathy Diamond does sound amazing on first listen.

Kalabrese is my frontrunner at the moment though. It would be the Dixon RA podcast by a zillion light years if it was, y'know, actually released.

― Tim F, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:45 (nineteen years ago)

it's not relaxing, the relentless treble puts me right on edge!

i only listen to albums because i get sent them and have to review them and have a convenient album-length commute and no ipod.

― lex pretend, Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:51 (nineteen years ago)

I think there are more than 3-4 great songs on The Field album personally... but it's surely the most POP of that lot in it's own way, no? I actually like close listening on headphones, with it, some of those loops are ingenious!

I can't seem to get into anything else this year as far as full-lengths go, they all seem so bland & identikit all of a sudden. I tried Chromophobia and Bambusbeats and they both added up to boredom :/
(that said listening to the latter again and "Trommelstunde" actually isn't so bad...)

I DID like Pole - Steingarten though! Very bouncy. Again, not eeeesential but v.nice (kinda where the last Mouse on Mars fell... the 'no buy' zone, but grateful they're still out there doing their thing).

I don't want Ellen's fabric mix to end up being my favourite techno thing (not album obv.) this year, that would be TOO predictable.

― fandango, Sunday, 15 April 2007 23:05 (nineteen years ago)

I feel like I still need to hear the CLaude Vonstroke thing about twice as much as any of these first 1/4 offerings...

― fandango, Sunday, 15 April 2007 23:06 (nineteen years ago)

I only like dance you can't dance to when dance fans like it.

― filthy dylan, Monday, 16 April 2007 01:06 (nineteen years ago)

woah, for some reason i wouldn't think that mia's album would be hooky - guess i should check it out. same goes for dixon's podcast (is that thing still up anywhere?)...

i think mike powell really hits this cross-over on the head with this sentence from his knife article..."And in song-based music outside the mainstream, electronics are only specifically valorized when people figure out how to make guitar anthems with them (Radiohead), neuter them (the new Junior Boys and IDM generally), or make glorious caricatures (Daft Punk)."

...and the field really seems to fit snug enough in the last category to get this type of crossover, at least with critics, like "it's a once-cheesy-electronic-genre but done so artfully" caricature.

and mike's little aside really fucks over pantha du prince, an' I'd go so far to say most of Gui Boratto's album as for cross-over.

― BleepBot, Monday, 16 April 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

I only like dance you can't dance to when dance fans like it.

?

― lfam, Monday, 16 April 2007 02:34 (nineteen years ago)

Oh great...

― lou, Monday, 16 April 2007 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

he's giving interviews now? what an asshole!!

― ^@^, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:08 (nineteen years ago)

No, it's not that. I love the album. I was referring to the "creator of the year's best electronic album so far" quote on the P-fork front page, which just adds more fuel to the fire for those who don't get what all the fuss is about (along with the album's WTF #1 placement on Metacritic, which is really just because it's only been reviewed by 8 publications).

― lou, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:29 (nineteen years ago)

surely the metacritic thing isn't much of a wtf as you've just explained how it happened yourself?

― ^@^, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:36 (nineteen years ago)

It was a little shocking at first (isn't the Field the first Kompakt artist ever to appear on Metacritic?). But, yeah- once you see it's only gotten 8 reviews and most of the other albums have 20 or more, it makes sense.

― lou, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

Bambusbeats is crap in my opinion. I listened once and it did zero for me.

― Ronan, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:48 (nineteen years ago)

not even 'egge' or 'blauer'?! i love the percussion on it...

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

"And in song-based music outside the mainstream, electronics are only specifically valorized when people figure out how to make guitar anthems with them (Radiohead), neuter them (the new Junior Boys and IDM generally), or make glorious caricatures (Daft Punk)."

yeah this is otm - no coincidence that i hate radiohead, daft punk and idm...

(j boys surely not idm? too many melodies, too much heart)

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 13:55 (nineteen years ago)

Powell's observation is a good one, but it also sorta implies that there is correct or at least "better" way to listen to electronic dance music, that you have to be schooled to appreciate the "real" stuff. Hell, maybe that's true, but I'm sure you could make similar claims re metal, r&b, etc.

Field is much closer to ambient or IDM than techno. If you want, you can forget about "dance" completely when you listen to it, unlike, say, Gui Boratto.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:05 (nineteen years ago)

lex do you like Adam Beyer? Bambusbeats just feels like a light & 'minimal' take on that whole late 90s loop techno thing to me. It's pleasant tho', but it's no "Live @ Weetamix" it actually feels curiously dated somehow, very low concept, very deliberately 'clubby' & not much else.

I feel like techno in general is starting to go backwards anyway, I don't mean for inspiration to go forwards, it just feels like so much stuff is retreading old ground, old ideas without any recognition in itself that it's doing it. And a lot of the kind of spacious pop-minimal (Holden, Fairmont etc) a little bit of that sounds okay... a LOT of it together starts to sound desperately empty.

― fandango, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

How does Powell's observation hold true for the Chemical Brothers/Underworld/Leftfield etc....

Or are we saying that that sort of dance crossover album, ie the one that sounded even a little bit like techno, is gone, for the moment.

Field is much closer to ambient or IDM than techno. If you want, you can forget about "dance" completely when you listen to it, unlike, say, Gui Boratto.

Not so sure about this, most of it sounds like trance music to me, with a noteworthy dollop of Bangalter.

But this thread is kind of drowning in semantics.

― Ronan, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

ah, Junior Boys... another entry on my list of "stuff I have no idea why ILM gets its panties SO twisted up about"

― fandango, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

Or are we saying that that sort of dance crossover album, ie the one that sounded even a little bit like techno, is gone, for the moment.

If it's not Ellen Allien trying to make one of these then I am truly stumped.

― fandango, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:12 (nineteen years ago)

hold on...I'm not sure I follow now.

I actually kind of agree about techno going backwards, not all of it, however I do think the "new deep" thing is a little bit like a lot of Berlin minimal producers just kinda shrugged and thought "what do we do now. clicky minimal is very popular.....hmmm. yeah I guess we make some US house, ok."

I mean the likes of Dixon aren't like trailblazers are they, they've been around for years and now are suddenly hip because the music has regressed to US house revival.

The big caveat here is that I like a lot of the stuff these people are doing.

― Ronan, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

it seems there ought to be more of this (or maybe there shouldn't be...) what with indie people still sorta interested in dance music for the time being. unless blog house is the new big beat!

xpost

― artdamages, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

that sort of BRITISH dance crossover album is pretty much missing, presumed dead for sure.

(haha I originally typed ENGLISH, but had to amend for Mylo)

(also, on preview, I agree w/Ronan)

― fandango, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

http://assets.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/29137.thefieldfront.jpg?

― artdamages, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

Rich Tea Hawtin

― fandango, Monday, 16 April 2007 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

Repetitive Ambient Works, Part 1

― christoff, Monday, 16 April 2007 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

re: that sort of BRITISH dance crossover album is pretty much missing, presumed dead for sure.

prepare for the resurrection of Underworld

― djmartian, Monday, 16 April 2007 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

fandango i've never heard adam beyer! remember i've only actually been into/paid attention to house & techno for a few years.

― lex pretend, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

I'm still bored rigid by Bambusbeats, even the better stuff feels oddly lacking somehow :/

― Matt DC, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

That said I put the Field on while lying on the grass in the sunshine on Saturday and it worked perfectly. Still can't see myself wanting to go back to it that many times though.

― Matt DC, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

I've only listened to half of this so far, but it strikes me as much more consistent than Chromophobia.

― jaymc, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

More consistent, mellower, less fun. Watch for the Metacritic rating to not change much.

― kenan, Monday, 16 April 2007 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

"consistent" is a euphemism.

this record is good, for sure, but is it offering anything that Orbital didn't? and i have to say that all the tracks sound strikingly similar.

― Cameron Octigan, Monday, 16 April 2007 22:25 (nineteen years ago)

This has v. little to do with "dance" music. I have no idea why people are criticizing it as such.

Chromophobia did little to nothing for me as well. Pantha record is so great, tho

― HPSCHD, Monday, 16 April 2007 23:30 (nineteen years ago)

the lex needs to get a better system

― creme1, Monday, 16 April 2007 23:35 (nineteen years ago)

this seems like the whole thread, but new Apparat is very... mellow!

certainly not Duplex pt.2. kind of feels like it lacks a consistent aesthetic to glue it all together a bit, a few vocal tracks but doesn't really feel vocal driven exactly, but not 'ambient' or overly/excessively IDM/Glitch, kinda has that To Rococo Rot feel... Adult-Orientated Electronica?

I'm not sure I dig it that much (on first impressions) but I'm giving it some more listens, it's 'not bad' y'know?

― fandango, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

*the wrong thread

― fandango, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

As for the Field, after "Things Keep Falling Down" I was super excited for what would come next (and that Four Tops sample is still my favorite of his slowly revealed samples). After "Sun & Ice" my excitement for the album was at fever pitch for a while, but then at some point in the fall I played "Over the Ice" and was totally disappointed. It just didn't seem to be very dynamic (which I know was never really the case) even within its slightly tweaked repetitiveness. It just seemed to be there doing something pretty (and in the case of "Over the Ice" with some pretty great bass) but to no real effect. And that's, sadly, how the album hits me.

-- matt2, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:07 (3 weeks ago)

Wait, so the Four Tops sample is on a track that's not on this LP right?

― ken taylrr, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

Correct. It's on the track "Thought vs. Action" from the Thing Keep falling down 12". The second half of the track, which is the half that uses the Four Tops sample, is also on Total 6 as "Action."

― matt2, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

thanks!

― ken taylrr, Friday, 20 April 2007 21:28 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

Still #1 on Metacritic - huh? (ok it's great and stuff, but aren't we supposed to have Dylan or some unknown Brazilian at #1 usually?)

― StanM, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 08:47 (eighteen years ago)

Aye, the Metacritic score is completely banjaxed; it's cos there are only about seven reviews written about it.

I like it; it's a decent record, perhaps even a really good record, but it's, to me and my girlfriend anyway, essentially just some nice ambient. It's certainly not the perfect artistic behemoth a lot of people are talking it up as.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 08:58 (eighteen years ago)

It's very Orbital/Spooky, isn't it? If it didn't remind me of them as much as it does now I think I might enjoy it even more.

― StanM, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 09:15 (eighteen years ago)

It's not (Geirism alert) melodic enough or varied enough in the beat to be too Orbital, but I know what you mean.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

ok, not everything by Orbital or Spooky, just the general feel of things, I guess.

― StanM, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 09:26 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

The #1 spot has been hijacked, and rightly so:
http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2007.shtml

― stephen, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 18:27 (eighteen years ago)

Isn't Robert Plant & Alison Kraus #4 on Metacritic this year?
AKA, who cares about Metacritic?

― Z S, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 18:30 (eighteen years ago)

xpost, SCREENSHOT OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN

― ☪, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 18:46 (eighteen years ago)

not saying i care much about this, or any, hierarchy of "best" albums. just pointing out that it's no longer #1 now.

― stephen, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

Comments section of the Field review is interesting. It kind of lays out the challenge for writers, in trying to describe why this album is good. Convince the people with the red numbers next to their comments, tell them what is special about this album and why they should care. It ain't easy!

― Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:17 (eighteen years ago)

Maybe I just don't understand it but in my opinion it should defiantly not be #1 let alone the top 10

i feel like this is probably the general feeling of 95% of metacritic's general readership.

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 21 November 2007 21:27 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

iTunes (UK) has the "sound of light" EP for 79p a track right now (they've got it as a "partial album" -- don't think they realise what it is). that's an hour of music for £3.16, which strikes me as the kind of thing they'll bump upwards as soon as they realise.

just saying, like. just saying.

― grimly fiendish, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 14:58 (eighteen years ago)

one of those albums i bought, liked the first track a hell of a lot, couldn't get into the rest. have just put it on again, skipping first track and am enjoying a paw in my face a hell of a lot. think this dude should make an album without beats.

― Crackle Box, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 15:09 (eighteen years ago)

i bought "sound of light" on itunes(us) for $3.95 yesterday. "morning" and "night" are super super nice.

― the leglo, Thursday, 17 January 2008 21:52 (eighteen years ago)

"morning" is awesome; wasn't so sure about "night", actually. like "day" a lot, too.

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 17 January 2008 22:22 (eighteen years ago)

seven months pass...

iTunes just freaked out playing Chris Brown and it sounded exactly like this album!

― I know, right?, Friday, 22 August 2008 11:32 (seventeen years ago)

haha that sounds incredible

― J0rdan S., Friday, 22 August 2008 15:15 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

this album is like the end of a.i., but more fun

― :) Mrs Edward Cullen XD (max), Sunday, 30 November 2008 16:02 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

So upon hearing some of his remix work done after 'from here we go sublime' I couldnt help but notice how homogenic and limited his sound palette is. Rumours has it that he'll be making a comeback this year. Is The Field a one-trick pony about to encounter the inevitable backlash? Or will he be able to hold up to the amount of sheer excitement provoked by this album?

― Moka, Saturday, 31 January 2009 08:37 (seventeen years ago)

I still rock this occasionally (good record to fall asleep to, oddly enough, and I mean that in a positive way), but I don't think I'd have much tolerance for more of the same.

― The Reverend, Saturday, 31 January 2009 08:48 (seventeen years ago)

do people still listen to this album? because in my ears this is the type of album that wow-ed you at first listen only to get tiring quickly.

― dan138zig (Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr), Saturday, 31 January 2009 08:58 (seventeen years ago)

Really? For me, the first time I heard it, it bored me. On repeat listens, I was caught by the subtleties.

― The Reverend, Saturday, 31 January 2009 09:33 (seventeen years ago)

The Reverend OTM -- this is exactly the kind of record that gets better with repeat listens. Same goes for the Gas records, the Kompakt kompilations, that last Gui Boratto one... basically, anything on Kompakt that holds water is better over time.

― ilxor, Saturday, 31 January 2009 18:25 (seventeen years ago)

Still play this all the time.

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 31 January 2009 18:51 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

this is really starting to grow on me, like what...2 years later? 3 years?

― dyao, Saturday, 7 August 2010 19:22 (fifteen years ago)

great record

that being said, being an indie kid, this is the only minimal techno record I've ever heard

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 19:26 (fifteen years ago)

best use of a lionel richie sample ever?

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:34 (fifteen years ago)

only use of a lionel richie sample ever?

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:34 (fifteen years ago)

it's definitely the best use of a lionel richie sample in minimal techo

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:35 (fifteen years ago)

uh, this is the only minimal techno record you've heard, remember?

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:36 (fifteen years ago)

unless you've heard many more minimal techno records in the one-hour between those two posts.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:37 (fifteen years ago)

eminem told me nobody listens to techno, so i feel like listening to this one record has given me the authority to say whatever i want about the genre since theres nobody else around who even listens to it, thus arguably making my thoughts slightly more valuable than silence

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:38 (fifteen years ago)

actually, his comments were addressed to moby, but lets not get pedantic

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:39 (fifteen years ago)

Maybe you could try Efdemin, Pantha Du Prince or Michael Mayer's Immer

― du mein bestie (micarl), Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:36 (fifteen years ago)

thanks! i really should. i know pretty much nothing about electronic music, as ive said before, but i thought this record was fantastic. i think i bought whatever pantha record came out in 2007 but didnt listen to it much. anyway, thanks -- i def need to investigate the genre more

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:37 (fifteen years ago)

"electronic" covers a lot of ground. it includes four-tet, i guess. his lastest is a fantastic, pulsating disc.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:45 (fifteen years ago)

i've got the follow-up from the field. the songs are so long tho (iirc), and less memorable.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:45 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, i know nothing about the various dance/electronic subgenres

i liked the first field record & most of the burial songs ive heard but thats about all that i can think of unless you count, like, thom yorkes solo record and thats really really pushing it

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:47 (fifteen years ago)

pretty sure i bought the second field record, not sure how much of it i listened to, but i didnt really give it much of a chance

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:47 (fifteen years ago)

was going to suggest burial's untrue, actually. my favorite disc of last decade, still.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:48 (fifteen years ago)

favorite record of the 2000s? wow. that's high praise. not sure if i ever made it through all of untrue, but i loved archangel. listened to all of his first record, though, im pretty sure

― markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:50 (fifteen years ago)

the last song on the second field record is the best thing he has ever done or will do

― Dad Can Dance (LOLK), Sunday, 8 August 2010 04:39 (fifteen years ago)

Aye, Sequenced knocks everything on ...Sublime into a cocked hat.

― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:09 (fifteen years ago)

Still don't get Burial.

― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:10 (fifteen years ago)

I was into IDM in college (Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, etc.) but hadn't really heard much electronic music beyond that until a few years ago.

If I were to recommend one electronic album from the past decade (and I guess I'm not including stuff like Junior Boys, which leans pop), it would be Luomo's The Present Lover. Although I think Isolee's We Are Monster makes a pretty good primer for someone who doesn't listen to a lot of electronic music, just because it's so varied sonically.

― jaymc, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:22 (fifteen years ago)

would be interested in checking out both of those records!

fwiw, i love the second junior boys record, think the latest one was whatever, and have been told by a least one ilxor that i need to get a copy of last exit asap

― markers, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:23 (fifteen years ago)

so this is goodbye really is just such a solid record. haven't listened to the whole thing in forever but i really should soon

― markers, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:24 (fifteen years ago)

I was really into Orbital, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, etc when I was 17. In Sides & Snivilisation by Orbital remain all-time favourites. Big fan of Four Tet, Caribou, Pantha Du Prince etc these days. Like but not blown away by Luomo. Never heard We Are Monster; I guess I should.

― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:43 (fifteen years ago)

Isolee's We Are Monster is fantastic (one particularly standout song, whose name escapes me atm).

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 8 August 2010 10:34 (fifteen years ago)

I'd say replace The Present Lover with Vocalcity, make it your life's goal to hear We Are Monster, and you'll be just fine.

― I'm banishing you to a time warp from which you will never return (EDB), Sunday, 8 August 2010 15:41 (fifteen years ago)

In Sides & Snivilisation by Orbital remain all-time favourites

In Sides is top 10 for me. I actually started following your writing on Stylus after that article where you talk about the In Sides poster you've lugged around for years.

That album got love when it came out, but I think it gets overlooked now.

― 'ello govna, Sunday, 8 August 2010 18:12 (fifteen years ago)

eight years pass...

can't find a general thread for him just ones for each album

but new song & album alert!

https://www.thefourohfive.com/music/article/the-field-sets-us-sailing-through-the-spectral-who-goes-there-153

― nxd, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 14:42 (seven years ago)

five years pass...

I guess at some point we stopped starting new threads for new albums by The Field, but on a whim I played Infinite Moment this morning and really enjoyed it. The whole second half is wonderful, but then I always prefer the more subtle-and-understated Field tracks to the anthems.

Is it just me or was this album kinda slept on relative to the previous ones? I don't recall hearing a lot about it at the time.

Also crazy that this was released nearly six years ago! I still think of it as the "new" one.

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 8 September 2023 14:04 (two years ago)

Haven't thought about The Field for awhile but it's good work techno (which is very distinct from business techno, lol). I remember having an early revelation about the power of a very (deceptively) simple loop listening to his first record.

― 50 Favorite Jordans (Jordan), Friday, 8 September 2023 15:03 (two years ago)

one year passes...

Heard one of their tracks out last night, from the second album I think. Sounded great. I'm a sucker for a kind of tasteful urgency.

― default damager (lukas), Saturday, 5 October 2024 18:52 (one year ago)

I still listen to the first album all the time. I like all of them to various degrees, but this one has always seemed special, and it still sounds really good to me.

― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 5 October 2024 19:02 (one year ago)

still sounds wonderful

― nxd, Sunday, 6 October 2024 22:26 (one year ago)

eight months pass...

I wonder why "Istedgade" was left off the album. Maybe to get people to buy the Sun & Ice EP.

― brimstead, Sunday, 29 June 2025 19:19 (eleven months ago)

Oh it’s here.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 July 2025 16:39 (eleven months ago)

ten months pass...

This new mini-lp Now You Exist is really, really, nice. It's soft and light.

https://thefield.bandcamp.com/album/now-you-exist

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 May 2026 02:39 (one month ago)

this is cool, i like this!

― big boodith judith (m bison), Sunday, 17 May 2026 03:10 (one month ago)

v nice

― nxd, Sunday, 17 May 2026 10:56 (one month ago)

Yeah - I was surprised, nice u-turn from his last two albums!

― octobeard, Sunday, 17 May 2026 20:35 (one month ago)

it gets a little downtempo and occasionally fits into some of the 90s triphop revival thing peeking out of sidewalk cracks recently

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 May 2026 22:53 (one month ago)

I really like this and yes I can hear the 90s trip-hop revival moments but I wouldn't say it's a huge departure?

― boxedjoy, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 09:52 (four weeks ago)

Haven't kept up with him but I liked this interview:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/18/i-had-been-silent-for-a-very-long-time-how-a-chance-meeting-at-a-burger-van-revived-techno-genius-the-field

― stick your cheffing job (ledge), Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:34 (four weeks ago)

^good piece

I'm only on the second track, but it sounds more like Gas with beats than trip-hop, but maybe that changes later

― rob, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 14:29 (four weeks ago)

I'm halfway through and trying to decide how I feel about the polyrhythmic drums. On the one hand yeah, seems very much in my wheelhouse and it's a much bolder choice than a 4/4 kick. On the other hand it feels a bit arbitrary, pitting a snare that loops for an odd (or even) number of beats against a kick pattern that loops for a different odd number of beats.

On the third hand, in 'Hey Baby' when the snare switches to a backbeat a few minutes from the end, that's a great moment. And all the non-drum stuff is typically lovely.

In conclusion, this is his prog album, fr.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, 19 May 2026 14:55 (four weeks ago)

no not a huge departure, the mix just sounds smoother and less edgy to me than a lot of his previous stuff I’ve heard (in a good way).

― brimstead, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 20:32 (four weeks ago)

Enjoyed this, especially "Hey Baby" and "Another Day."

― Indexed, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 20:46 (four weeks ago)

Record is definitely a grower. Took me three listens, but I absolutely love it

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, 22 May 2026 19:55 (three weeks ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.