Electric Introvert

What a gem have I found.  I’m not exactly going to talk about this album but rather the artist’s work in general. NEO NEOS kicks ass. It’s obnoxious, provocative, and abrasive; essentially what I like about Punk music and its sub genres (not including the corporate faecal matter that is Pop Punk). 

The thing that stands out to me about this artist’s work is how maniacal it all sounds. His vocals are like if Mark Mothersbaugh had ADD and spliced his DNA with the Bad Brains self titled album. The Dude sounds straight out of a soft cell man. It’s awesome. 

Now such a voice can only be matched with a batshit instrumental. Well he delivers. It’s fast, abrasive, distorted and has this groovy twang that I just can’t get enough of. His instrumental changes give his short tracks a lot of variety; I haven’t come across a track that’s been boring or repetitive. Those two words just don’t exist in his music. Dude’s instrumentals and production are just straight up unfiltered fun. 

As for production quality, man there’s no need for a clean sound when it comes to music that makes you want to jump around and slap the walls. A clean sound is so overrated. The production should work for what it is and let me tell you NEO NEOS production quality is absolute dirty perfection. 

I’m not going to sit here like some guy who knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the punk genre. I’m not qualified to tell you where I think his music should be placed amongst others. That’d just make me a poser. I like personalities and let me tell you this dude has personality.

Well it’s been a while since I've posted on this blog and what better way to start off a new era by talking about Vaporwave. Not just any Vaporwave mind you, i’m going to be discussing the diamond in the rough that is ‘One Hundred Mornings’ by Windows 96. Now this album was truly a godsend. I’m not sure if I could have survived my uni semester without this album to keep me company throughout those late nights. I’m probably talking it up a bit.

Firstly the thing that stands out in the tracks on this album in comparison to other Vaporwave albums is the lack of repetition. This is a highlight of the album as it’s clear that Windows96 has taken the effort to ensure that the tracks stay fresh throughout their run times which is certainly something to take notice of when comparing this body of work with other Vaporwave albums. That being said though I feel that each track is just good but nothing to really obsess over. The compositions are quite solid, everything fits together quite nicely. It’s really just something easy to listen to. Just let the sounds wash over your ears whilst you bang out some work.

Short Review

‘Campfire Headphase’ is an emotionally rich journey of an album. The tracks are thick with various sounds that sound strangely organic and nostalgic. I recommend this album if you’re searching for something calming to listen to whilst you do your homework or something... I dunno that’s what I use this album for.

Long Review

Eventually I will write about Boards of Canada’s more recent album ‘Tomorrows Harvest’ but today I got a $400 driving ticket and want to listen to one of my favourite albums ‘Campfire Headphase’. ‘Boards of Canada’ is the stage name of the Scottish electronic duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin. Their music can be characterised as sound rich and highly organic. In a way their music is quite nostalgic in the sense that it feels like listening to the echoes of the past which is probably an odd thing to say but that’s what I think. The style of music that ‘Boards of Canada’ produces is kind of hard to pin point. It’s kind of a cross between ambient, IDM, and highly instrumental styles of music. Their music is something you just listen to and enjoy; it’s certainly not something you’d hear at the club as far as I know.

‘Campfire Headphase’ is one of my favourite albums from Boards of Canada with their recent album ‘Tomorrows Harvest’ almost topping it in rank. ‘Campfire Headphase’ is just such a brilliant albums featuring these tracks that have thick layers of organic sounding… uhh… sounds. Each track feels very well produced as if a horrendous amount of thought had been implemented to produce such calculated pieces. If I could describe this album in three words I would say calming, warm and brilliant.

In the first half of the album we’re introduced to tracks such as ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ and ‘Peacock Tail’. These tracks seem like you’re going on a journey as you listen to them. The tracks actually go somewhere. ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ begins with a tame sounding banjo sort of sound and drums before all of a sudden the track just bursts with swirling ambient sounds and what I’m assuming is woodwind pipes? It’s pretty sweet. ‘Peacock Tail’ is similar to ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ in terms of composition; however instead of moving in and out of banjos and drums to heavy ambient synths, ‘Peacock Tail’ is just one big build up. The track begins with a gentle guitar strumming and as the track progresses drums, xylophones, synths and sort of weird old transmission sounds join in. The track just becomes stockier as it progresses before fading out into nothing.

‘Dayvan Cowboy’ is another track from the first half that’s worth mentioning. The beginning half of the track is a slow progression towards something that you just know if going to happen. The sounds of eerie, old sounding ambient music switching from left to right of your ears, deteriorated notes from something that sounds like an electric guitar, and the sound of distant drums that get closer as the track progresses gives the beginning half this sense of suspense. The second half begins with all sounds cutting out leaving this lone guitar to strum before a sort of drop occurs with the sounds of violins, xylophones, synths, drums, etc. gaining speed before ending with the lone guitar. It’s a really spectacular track. I’ll link this pretty cool music video someone made using the track ‘Dayvan Cowboy’ and footage of the ‘Red Bull Stratos Jump’ at the end of this review.

Out of the whole album and not just the first half I would probably suggest that the best tracks (apart from ‘Dayvan Cowboy’) would be ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ and ‘Oscar See through Red Eye’. These two particular tracks are probably the fullest sounding tracks without being overly obnoxious. ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ is just such a calming track even though the track is so thick in composition. There are so many sounds in just one track. The sound of various drums, symbols, thick bass sounds, xylophones, strangely organic synth sounds, ambient noises of streets and rain seem to just swirl in and out. It’s beautiful. The track ‘Oscar See through Red Eye’ is kind of similar to ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ in composition however it’s heavier on the drums and strings. The direction in this track just like ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ relies heavily on the sounds of the synths in the background allowing the listener and the various, VARIOUS other sounds to follow along this flowing stream of musical water (and that ladies,  gentlemen and whatever other gender is how you sound like an asshole). They’re really good tracks… in my opinion.

There’s not a lot to say about the second half of the album. The first half is just this amazing array of sounds whist the second half (although still beautiful) is kind of a depressing come down with tracks that progressively become slower and more shallow in terms of their composition. The second half is more of a drawn out closing for the album. Don’t let that be a turn off though there are still some decent tracks in the second half. I would suggest ‘Slow This Bird Down’ and ‘Tears from the Compound Eye’ are the best tracks of the second half. ‘Slow This Bird Down’ is a very nice ambient track; it’s very minimalist compared to many of the other tracks. The track features some nice slow and consistent drums, some eerie radio transmission like sounds whilst ambient synth sounds echo in the background like a choir. ‘Tears from the Compound Eye’ is a little different. It features similar ambient synth sounds with some strange sounding transmission noises. I particularly enjoy the slightly aged sounding, almost violin like synth that sticks out from the eerie drones of ambient sounds; it’s very emotional in a sad lonesome way. The album then comes to an end with ‘Farewell Fire’ and ‘Macquarie Ridge’ (a bonus track in the Japanese release I believe) two very different sounding tracks. ‘Farewell fire’ is what I consider to be the end of the album. It’s this very bleak sounding ambient track which has this aged sounding synth playing this kind of slowed down carousel music. It’s really nice. ‘Macquarie Ridge’, the final track on this album is kind of the opposite. The track has these loud, reverberating synths that repetitively fluctuate whilst this bass sound accompanies the track keeping it grounded. There are also some melodic sounds, various ambient synth sounds, and distant xylophone tunes that appear every now and again. It’s a pretty uplifting track to end on, a lot less depressing than ‘Farewell Fire’ my opinion.

I think the album as a whole has been put together incredibly well. The album opens up with tracks that sound like you’re embarking on an amazing journey gaining in awe as it progresses before slowly drawing to an end by the second half inducing feelings of loneliness and emptiness. From the tracks to the construction of the album this album is incredibly emotionally heavy. The tracks are strangely organic sounding as I previously mentioned but even the synthetic sounds have these weird natural textures. It’s bizarre but awesome. This album is brilliant and I highly recommend the album to anyone who wants to try a very different style of electronic music.

Other Material

Short Review:

The tracks on the album are very well composed. The album is a nice, emotional mix of lo-fi, ambient, and synthetic electronic sounds.

Long Review:

Stephen Wilkinson AKA Bibio is an English music producer specialising in electronic and experimental music. I personally don’t know much about Bibio, in fact I actually stumbled upon his album ‘Silver Wilkinson’ by accident and what a happy accident it was. I honestly for a month could not go a day without listening to tracks from this album. It’s really something special.

The most noticeable characteristic of ‘Silver Wilkenson’ is its mix of lo-fi and electronic sounds. The album is very instrumental containing some very organic sounds from guitars, violins, and tambourines.  The vocals are very lo-fi sounding on some of the tracks, particularly the track 'À tout à l'heure’ which sounds somewhat similar to the vocals from bands like ‘Arctic Monkeys’. The tracks on the album also contain a nice range of electronic sounds. Almost all the tracks have some emotional ambient electronic sounds in the background. The track ‘You’ which is also one of my personal favourites on this album has some very funky electronic beats. There are also some very robotic electronic sounds scattered throughout the album too. Essentially the album is a nice blend of organic and synthetic sounds.

‘Silver Wilkinson’ has some very melodic sounding tracks. These tracks are the more uplifting tracks in this emotionally bipolar album and are in my personal opinion some of the best tracks. The track ‘Raincoat’ is one of these melodic tracks featuring a nice flow of strings accompanied by the vocals of Wilkinson himself which is just really enjoyable.

The tracks ‘You’ and ‘Look at Orion!’ are the more danceable tracks. Where the majority of the tracks on ‘Silver Wilkinson’ seem to be more organic sounding then synthetic these tracks seem to be the opposite whilst still maintaining unity with the rest of the album incorporating some guitar melodies and other similar sounds here and there. ‘Look at Orion!’ in particular is a pretty sweet dance track. It’s got a good, thumping dance beat that consistently plays throughout the track whilst the sounds of synths, echoic distorted vocals, and guitar strings flutters around the beat. ‘Business Park’ is another great track on this album. It’s a fast paced synth based track that contains some pretty groovy guitar riffs.

Short Review:

This album is good. You should listen to it if you like dance music.

Long review:

If you've heard of Aphex Twin and I'm sure many of you readers who have stumbled upon my droolings have, you probably heard of the much anticipated album 'Syro' that was released early 2014. As a self-proclaimed Aphex Twin fan I was pretty damn excited when warp published the track 'Minipops 67 [120.2] [source field]' (a classic sounding Aphex Twin title) and why wouldn't I? It had been 7 years since Richard D James had released anything under his Aphex Twin alias and within those long 7 years James would constantly mention that he has this amazing stock pile of unreleased music. Hopes were high for this album and when it was released it was hit with some mixed emotions. I personally really liked 'Syro' but like many Aphex fans I was expecting more of a loud come back from the angry ginger.

'Syro' to me sounds like a cross between James' 'Selected Ambient Works 85 - 92' album and the 'Analord' collections he released under 'AFX' one of his other many aliases. In other words the tracks on 'Syro' are generally made up of chilled out ambient sounds mixed with some bouncy (sometimes funky) analogue synth beats. 'Syro' is definitely one of the more... sensible albums in the Aphex Twin discography. It's certainly not as berserk as 'Come to Daddy EP' (an EP I’ll be covering later) or 'Druqks' album.

So from the first tracks 'Minipops 67 [120.2] [source field]' you'll kind of get a glimpse at the tone of the album. As stated before 'Syro' is certainly a lot more chilled out than many other Aphex Twin albums but you can still hear James' insane attention to detail. The first track is probably one of the best constructed tracks on the entire album. The beat is very danceable even with the constant change in beat patterns which just flow so well that you can barely notice the change unless you were to skip ahead a few minutes, then it's like a completely different track. The Second track 'XMAS_EVET10 [120] [thanaton3 mix]' (also the longest track) is probably my favorite track out of the entire album. The track is just so chilled out. The yawning of the background synth, the bloopy analogue synth (similar to that in the first track) accompanied by the quiet pattering of snares and various other drums is just so nicely composed.

By the beginning of the second half of the album the pace of the tracks begin to pick up in speed. The track 'CIRCLONT6A [141.98] [syrobonkus mix]' has this really complicated techno sounding dance beat; it's really enjoyable in my opinion. However the problem with the second half of the album is that a few tracks either feel unfinished or out of place. The track 'syro u473t8+e [141.98] [piezoluminescence mix]' felt kind of empty to me. Although I liked aspects of the track hearing it in the same listening session as the other tracks just made the track seem less creative in use of sound compared to the rest of the album. The track 'PAPAT4 [155] [pineal mix]' is an ok track but it seems a little out of place in. The track is very reminiscent of some older Aphex Twin tracks particularly 'Carn Marth' from 'The Richard D James Album' comes to mind with its quirky, upbeat sounds.

All in all 'Syro' is one of the best Aphex Twin albums in terms of sound quality. A lot of the Tracks on this album are pretty nice to casually listen too. In my opinion the album doesn't stand out to me compared to many of Aphex Twin's previous albums but 'Syro' still contains some great tracks that I do occasionally visit.

Other Material

Selected Ambient Works (Full Album): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw5AiRVqfqk

AFX - Analord (Full Series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aloryfd5ipw

Come to Daddy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmNmpGnKp4

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