The rather belated part two of my Album of the Year series:
All forms of popular music aspire to being jazz. (I'm not sure who said this, but someone must have. If not, I'd like to claim it as it sounds really insightful.)
Arguably, electronic music comes closest to making good on this aspiration. In its ability to break new ground whilst acknowledging the genre's past and bending it into new forms and structures, it is in its own way, Whitney Balliet's "sound of surprise".
Given this, its perhaps worrying that for the past two years, the big news has been about the re-emergence of innovators from decades past. In 2013, it was Boards of Canada's underwhelming "Tomorrow's Harvest" that set the commentards chattering - I had the sense that they were so relieved that the duo had returned, that the quality of the album really didn't matter.
In 2014, we had Aphex Twin's "Syro", which at least sounds like RDJ is having fun. But it could have been made any time in the last ten years, if not before. Wire magazine made it their album of the year - I mean, really? Adventures in modern music? Perhaps not.
So what else attracted my interest this year?
Vladislav Delay is perhaps better know as one third of the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, a unit which courts a jazz sensibility in their name, as well as their music, but are currently missing in action. "Visa" is his latest solo outing, which is like a warm bath, with its gentle fizz and pop, not a million miles from, say, Oval - which is obviously no bad thing.
Kreidler and long-time associates, To Rococo Rot have both released albums this year, both of which were underwhelming. Perhaps recognising this, To Rococo Rot have decided to call it a day, leaving "Instrument" as their final release. In a bit of a departure, Arto Lindsay provides vocals on three tracks, which appears to have been a final throw of the dice that didn't produce sixes. Kreidler's "ABC" is pleasant enough, but that's as far as it goes. The problem with their warm, analogue take on electronica is that it can very easily bland-out.
Talking of Boards of Canada, 2014 saw them reissue their 1996 release "Skam". Clocking in at 32 minutes, this EP points up the bloated, purposelessness of "Tomorrow's Harvest".
Hauschka is a pianist whose aim in life is to make his prepared piano sound like a bunch of fx, to the point were his CDs are usually filed in the electronic section in music shops. Leaving aside the question of why anyone would want to do this,his latest release, "Abandoned City" is very atmospheric. In much the same way that the nature of the instrument in use has to be taken on trust, I'm not clear if the tracks have any relationship to the cities whose names they bear or whether any of this matters.
Finally, we had the sophomore effort from La Roux, "Trouble in Paradise". A rather muted affair, this lacks the obvious hits of her début, but this actually works to its advantage, the resulting album being more of a finished whole.
So, on the whole, not a vintage year.
All forms of popular music aspire to being jazz. (I'm not sure who said this, but someone must have. If not, I'd like to claim it as it sounds really insightful.)
Arguably, electronic music comes closest to making good on this aspiration. In its ability to break new ground whilst acknowledging the genre's past and bending it into new forms and structures, it is in its own way, Whitney Balliet's "sound of surprise".
Given this, its perhaps worrying that for the past two years, the big news has been about the re-emergence of innovators from decades past. In 2013, it was Boards of Canada's underwhelming "Tomorrow's Harvest" that set the commentards chattering - I had the sense that they were so relieved that the duo had returned, that the quality of the album really didn't matter.
In 2014, we had Aphex Twin's "Syro", which at least sounds like RDJ is having fun. But it could have been made any time in the last ten years, if not before. Wire magazine made it their album of the year - I mean, really? Adventures in modern music? Perhaps not.
So what else attracted my interest this year?
Vladislav Delay is perhaps better know as one third of the Moritz Von Oswald Trio, a unit which courts a jazz sensibility in their name, as well as their music, but are currently missing in action. "Visa" is his latest solo outing, which is like a warm bath, with its gentle fizz and pop, not a million miles from, say, Oval - which is obviously no bad thing.
Kreidler and long-time associates, To Rococo Rot have both released albums this year, both of which were underwhelming. Perhaps recognising this, To Rococo Rot have decided to call it a day, leaving "Instrument" as their final release. In a bit of a departure, Arto Lindsay provides vocals on three tracks, which appears to have been a final throw of the dice that didn't produce sixes. Kreidler's "ABC" is pleasant enough, but that's as far as it goes. The problem with their warm, analogue take on electronica is that it can very easily bland-out.
Talking of Boards of Canada, 2014 saw them reissue their 1996 release "Skam". Clocking in at 32 minutes, this EP points up the bloated, purposelessness of "Tomorrow's Harvest".
Hauschka is a pianist whose aim in life is to make his prepared piano sound like a bunch of fx, to the point were his CDs are usually filed in the electronic section in music shops. Leaving aside the question of why anyone would want to do this,his latest release, "Abandoned City" is very atmospheric. In much the same way that the nature of the instrument in use has to be taken on trust, I'm not clear if the tracks have any relationship to the cities whose names they bear or whether any of this matters.
Finally, we had the sophomore effort from La Roux, "Trouble in Paradise". A rather muted affair, this lacks the obvious hits of her début, but this actually works to its advantage, the resulting album being more of a finished whole.
So, on the whole, not a vintage year.
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