Under The Influence

Opening your album with an argument concerning the details of Morrissey singles is a good thing - it shows a real appreciation of music.

Whenever I think of great song-writing Heartbreaker comes to mind. Every single track is an emotive masterpiece. Oh My Sweet Carolina makes me want to develop a southern accent (much like Lucinda Williams' drawl) something chronic. Before embarking on Call Me On Your Way Back Home Adams draws a breath in which you can feel the weight of the impending music bearing down. It's all so pure - unmarred by heavy production. This is the Ryan Adams I'd lose my little finger to see live in a tiny venue.

Second listen and I just can't bear to turn it off.

Might be wrong but it sounds like it's cut to tape too. mmmmm... juicy juicy tape.

I almost don't want to mention this track - purely for selfish reasons. It's been high on my covers list for months now. I mean, a trash cover of an ABBA track - what could possibly go wrong?

High energy doesn't even begin to describe how powerful it is, with metal guitars backed up extreme synth action. Layers of vocals in the chorus and wailing guitar solos. Lord it's good!

I always think to myself that next time I'm going to do a party this song would be the acid test for acceptance. Not that I'm elitist or anything but you could guarantee that a party full of people who enjoyed this song would make for a hell of a fun night. If I played this at a party in London right now it would probably clear half the room - though it's probably a good thing ultimately.

I'm not sure why/where/when/how this album came to my attention. The male singers voice is really familiar, maybe that's the association and I just can't pick it. Beautiful orchestration - I bet it's a BigBang/National Bank affiliated project (one of those Norwegian groups).

Not exactly melancholy, warmer than that - certainly very sparse. It almost feels like sitting in a conservatory. It's not raining - but everything's too wet to go outside - not that you mind though... 'cos the fire's on and it's cozy in here.

Ha! I just had a look on t'internet. Turns out that it's a couple who have locked themselves away in a cabin in the woods in Finland. It's probably fair to say they've managed to portray the atmosphere of their existence nicely then!

'Tis a lovely bit of work.

This was the album that made Stevie Wonder famous back in 1963. The opening song, Fingertips, was at #1 at the same time the album itself was, a first in history of the industry.

There's a good reason he'd already earned the title of genius at age 12. The first few songs see him playing different instruments; harmonica, bongos, drums included. I think Marvin Gaye plays the drums on the other songs - my guess is that the whole band consists of a star-studded Motown line-up.

My pick would have to be La La La La La, in which he plays the drums. It's the funkiest track on the album and his talent really shines through (how many kids have rhythm like that at 12?).

The last few tracks, while impressive, are a tad on the disturbing side (Don't You Know in particular). I always find there's something a bit strange about kids singing grown-up songs.

It's one of those albums everyone should hear - if for no other reason than the history lesson.

I downloaded this album (from EM) because of a segment on 2manydjs pt 2 featuring the vocals from their track Keine Melodien over something (Felix The Housecat's Silverscreen I think). Imagine my surprise when I found it jam packed full of acoustic guitars. It's a funny little beast, gradually becoming more and more electronic as the album goes on. By the time you hit Latialla Taas it has turned into a bit of a dance album.

It never reaches the high that I was expecting after their appearance on 2manydjs - of course - but once I got over that I found it to be an enjoyable work. At its peak (around Latialla Taas) it's fun, playful, danceable and worthy of further listens.

Can you believe this album was released in 2001 and I've only just gotten around to listening to it? Disgraceful really considering Ænima was one of my most overplayed albums of 1997. I'm not really sure why I let it happen. Silly.

Of course it's good. It's Tool. These guys are like the nuclear physicists of metal. Disassemble the music, understand the music, put it back together to create new things nobody ever thought possible. Their rhythms are always so interesting, wonderful hypnotic patterns set in differing time-signatures for every instrument ensure that the emphasis is constantly shifting. Then after much suspense everything slots back into place with a thud (half way through Triad we see the effect executed perfectly).

God, I'm so far behind the times. I have another Tool album to catch up on now - at least Lateralus provides something of an assurance that it's bound to be good.

I'm liking this more and more with every listen. At its core it's a big noisy jazz album, at times hectic like only a jazz lover could enjoy (check out the last 90 seconds of String Ray and the Beginning of Time, Pt. 1 for a demonstration). Annoyingly the EM version has 2 second gaps at the end of the songs which really ruins the effects of the transitions during the 4 part and 5 part tracks, ho-hum.

Every song exploits a different great off-kilter rhythm for its foundation. The orchestration is colourful, and the performance tight. Some of the melodies feel almost Eastern influenced (which currently finds favour with me).

According to their website:

We Are All From Somewhere Else is comprised of 3 distinct sections, and corresponds to a story involving an exploding star, cosmic transformation, a sting ray, the travels of the sting ray, intelligent conversations with electric eels, the destructive power of humans, the death and ascension of sting ray, the transformation of sting ray ghost to flying bird, and the transformation of bird to phoenix to rocket to flying burning matter to a new-born star.

I almost see what they're talking about - make of that what you will.

Ma Fleur is a beautiful album to be sure, but don't buy it with the expectation that you'll be hearing more of The Cinematic Orchestra you used to know and love. Gone are the hyped up jazz rhythms, sweet softly spoken melodies seem to have held a coup during The Cinematic Orchestra's absence.

It's all very ambient and mellow. In fact, there a only a few tracks that actually have a beat at all. As The Stars Fall is probably the most traditionally Cinematic song on the album, though Breathe - which features Fontella Bass familiar to us from Everyday's All That You Give - isn't too far behind and it's an exceptionally lovely piece of music too.

I can't fault the album really, other than to say it's not like anything they've done before - like that was ever a bad thing.

These guys infuse so many different styles into their music that I've been hard pushed to figure out just how to place them. That probably goes a long way to explaining why they've never really broken the mainstream market. To be fair they've had a couple of tracks that have become DJ essentials over the years. Jungle Brother (True Blue) is in almost every DnB DJ's record bag and many consider their classic I'll House You to be the foundation of the hip-house crossover genre.

Fans of Outkast, Arrested Development and the like will find a lot to enjoy here. The rhymes are intelligent and witty. Nods to other great hip-hop/pop works pervade many of the songs making it great for all the trainspotters. Thankfully The J. Beez don't suffer from the self-indulgent skit syndrome that other artists allow to destroy their work (there's only a single skit on the album and it's more of an introduction than anything).

Love & Hate is particularly interesting, sounding more like electro/disco club than hip-hop.

I've gone through several infatuations with Ratatat over the last couple of years. The last one was fuelled by their London inclusive tour. I'd been listening to their second album, Classics, fairly exclusively (though I did give the first one a brief shot). Another infatuation is eminent - this time I feel like I'm going to be all over their debut, Ratatat.

The secret is that it all sounds backwards (somewhat like Boards Of Canada or RJD2's production). I think that's what makes it so nice to listen to - each note floats over, popping just out of reach. Very pretty. Great melodies, and great beats too. Their live set up is more traditional then I'd expected; synth, guitar and bass. The use of synths instead of a drummer for the rhythm lends a lot to the sound, the beats are crisp and full.

I don't want to give you the wrong impression - it's not all downbeat, far from it in fact, the sound is generally very uplifting and these guys really know how to rock.

If nothing else it's more proof that people sending random mp3s to your email does help to sell cds. Really looking forward to hearing more from these cats in the future.