The heat continues. Compounded by me thinking it would be a good idea to render out all my old AE projects too, it's been a inclement week to say the least. But it does have it's upsides, I haven't been skipping stuff on shuffle so much these days just because I ain't going into the sweltering rendering room or I just can't be arsed to move. Which brought the Alpinestars back into my awareness, I think I've mentioned my mixed opinions on the White Noise album, I picked it up in the early 00's when I was on my chill electronica kick. It's a bit of a mixed bag in hindsight, and this tune is a perfect example of that: it's your standard generic early 00's electronic sound, there's nothing really remarkable about it at all. But that's not a mark against it at all, in fact I think there's a place for stuff like this in anyone's collection, it's few and far between in mine so it's always nice to have an injection of variety now and then, even if it's not pushing any boundaries.
Similarly on the list of "Random albums I picked up in the early 2000's" is Blu Mar Ten's The Six Million Names Of God. I think I've talked a bit about this in in the past too, it's similar to the Alpinestars situation I mentioned above, there's a few songs that I will hold up as quality to this day but also a fair bit of filler in there too. This is one of the strong opening salvo of songs, but even then it also kinda falls into that same generic category too (though I will admit I am also slightly biased due to memories tied to this song). Worth mentioning as well however is that Blu Mar Ten's output around this time (and to this day) leans heavily on the rum & Bass side of things, so them coming out with a downtempo and slightly housey in parts album as their debut was a bold move, and one that they did quite well at if I do say so myself.
And let's finish with probably my favourite album of that category; Röyksopp's Melody A.M.. A masterful debut, a short sharp and sweet LP that landed the Röyksopp boys on the map. It like the others here also starts incredibly strong, the first half of the album regularly making it on my essentials lists. I'm fairly sure I've talked about all of them in the past too, but surprisingly one of the more popular tracks on the LP I haven't mentioned until now. One of two tracks featuring Erlend Øye (of Kings Of Convenience fame), Remind Me is a solid example of whats in store on Melody A.M., even if it gets a little Muzak-y at times. Those of you reading this from the states might know this one from being featured in a bunch of Geico ads around the time it was released!
-Claude Van Foxbat
No comments:
Post a Comment