Kelley Polar - Love Songs of The Hanging Gardens (Environ CD05)

there's a fair bit of proselytizing going on here, it's true!

Surprises = most sexiest!

agree...and the sounds like metro area commentary is definitely spot on.

also, ronan, i get where you're coming from. i think this music is very insider-y stuff. it's may sound poppy, but it is not populist.

what if your not really looking for this in dance music?

or that youre specifically looking for pastiches of these elements, facsimiles?

the bits of this album i have heard, i wished things like the melodies and stuff were more obvious,like their chord progression. i wanted it to be more cheesy and lush. it breaks into a lush swell and then cuts it out. i finsd that with metro area stuff as well. in other music that tension can be exhilirating but weith this i find a little disappointing. but i havent heard it properly yet. and i lost patience with bleep about half way thru anyway.

OTM!

I think the nay-sayers are severely underestimating the impact of the first four Metro Area releases, and the criticism that "it's always the same" is really unfair considering how much ground they've covered over the course of six records. Sure, there's a sonic "signature" there, but that has much more to do with a production aesthetic than any sort of compositional rut.

What songs exactly? While the references and feel are distinctly retro, or at least, refer to timelessly good stuff, I think that statement is a bit harsh.

Exactly, which brings us back around to the IDM question. My understanding of IDM is that one of its foundations is the ability to stay somewhat fuctional while exploring unconventional structures and/or aesthetics in the music. Metro Area, clearly not IDM, is very much functional music. The Kelley Polar record is also functional, though I don't really think the vocal variance nor layering of strings, etc. really make in any more unconventional than a Metro Area record. I'm hearing a little IDM in "Vocalise" and "My Beauty In The Moon", but otherwise not really.

I think the nay-sayers are severely underestimating the impact of the first four Metro Area releases, and the criticism that "it's always the same" is really unfair considering how much ground they've covered over the course of six records. Sure, there's a sonic "signature" there, but that has much more to do with a production aesthetic than any sort of compositional rut.

No, I agree that there was some valid impact with their initial releases, but the first part of this statement is absurd.

What songs exactly? While the references and feel are distinctly retro, or at least, refer to timelessly good stuff, I think that statement is a bit harsh.

Come on, guys- even The Rapture has the good sense not to use the cowbell in every single track.....

Clap-Clap!

http://www.jefferymac.com/images/1018599.gif

Fightin' words!

And you are way under-appreciating the amount of care and attention they put into the production, compared to most dance music made these days. Remember when it was shocking to hear a live instrument on a dance record?

oh shit I'm listening to caught up right now and will ferrel is just about hitting the cowbell on beat. close enough to be funny anyway. I'm sure it works with anything...try it.

(heightened lushness and obviousness being among the key achievements of Get Physical's earlier, more discoid efforts vis a vis Metro Area)

But semantics aside, Tim, are you suggesting the record would benefit from more Metro Area, or less of it?

one of my favorite things about metro area is the way they capture what is to me a kind of urban american street vibe, an urbanity that is not so polished, but still very pretty: multicultural, multiracial, multisexual, gritty, vacant, wide streets with buildings so high they obscure the sun during the daytime so it's perpetual twilight (the streets are like tunnels you can get lost in), anonymity, trash and sleaze, glitz, hardness, tighly knit patchwork neighborhoods, all of the people down or up on their luck, flustered eye contact on the subway, graffiti, men and women in suits, kids in the street everywhere, the guys selling drugs on the corner next to the homeless dude with one shoe, the rivers and bridges and the ocean, endless traffic and noise, a kind of hopeful sadness, the pressure of all of those other souls around you, the masks people wear, the madness and rush of modern capitalist culture, the release of nighttime...

also, scratch "time out" and replace it with "freemind"

Ha! Yes.

are you suggesting the record would benefit from more Metro Area, or less of it?

Wouldn't that be the the three Quartet 12-inches? (which I really don't feel as much as the album. But then Ronan really nailed my feelings re. Metro Area.)

On a more practical level: why oh why no vinyl version? It's perfect for an old-school two side pop-LP, Cupid & Psyche '05. Jeezzzz.

and yes: I like Herbie Hancock.

Obviously not stuff like "Time Out" or "Mandarine Girl" or "Jah"...

Justus Kohncke and then the whole Lindstrom "space disco" axis are other obvious "metro area but maximalist" practitioners - has anyone noticed how "Kreig" is Kohncke's obvious (and awesome) Lindstrom nod in the same way that "Station 17" was his obvious Metro Area nod?

I'm with you on this one.

lindstrom + prins thomas = freak-folk

please, tell me you can understand the difference between "tired of the relentless Soul Jazz Records compilation machine" and "devoted fan of Soul and Jazz records".

not that i know of. the tune they play in the BIS mix is "world turning" and it's awesome.

lindstrom-freakfolk Is this supposed to be a put down?

i didn't read it that way...

yep, tim, idealism> was reissued. recently, i think, too.

nope.