Reviews (218)

The Postal Service -- Give Up | Junkmedia.org Review
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Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard knew they were on to something good as soon as they finished collaborating on the track "(This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan." That compelling combination of Tamborello's melodic knob-twiddling and Gibbard's literate vocals and forlorn delivery was the triumph of Dntel's acclaimed 2001 release Life Is Full of Possibilities. Not long after that first collaboration, The Postal Service was born. The relative strangers began recording in December 2001, swapping tracks on CD-Rs through the mail.

Listening to the act's debut brings back the same sort of giddiness inspired in me by New Order's Low Life when I first picked it up a decade-and-a-half ago. The Postal Service expertly channels that adolescent spirit with an awkward blend of dance beats and melodic songwriting. However, the duo has updated the sound for the millennial set, pleasantly mixing Depeche Mode beats and bass lines, Pet Shop Boys melodies and Warp Records-styled twinkling tones and clicks. Orchestral samples and pseudo horns add an unusual flavor to "Clark Gable." Chunky, monophonic Casio-sounding keys tie the vocals to the beat in "Nothing Better."

Two of the album's highlights appear right at the front end of the record. The first song, "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight," leads with brooding organ, before beats saunter in and steadily cruise through the first verse and chorus to a clean, ringing guitar riff. A second chorus pumps even harder and defies you to not sing along. This despite a characteristically bumming realization repeated by Gibbard: "I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving" (Christ, Benny, just stick a fork through my heart, why don't you?). Track two, "Such Great Heights," has already been released as a single. The catchy number apes Rod Stewart's "Young Turks," especially the beat and understated arrangement, albeit in an electro fashion.

The remainder of Give Up is solid, though Gibbard's lyrics are less potent by the middle of the record, and Tamborello burrows perhaps a little too deeply into some of the thinner sounds of the cold '80s era that inspires him. "Sleeping In" stumbles a bit with Gibbard's trite invocation of the JFK assassination, but the murmured chorus, "Don't wake me, I plan on sleeping in," that drapes over a quiet acoustic guitar phrase is strong enough to carry the entire song.

Perhaps the only shortcoming of Give Up is that the adherence to pop shuts out some of the more interesting electronic elements explored on Life Is Full of Possibilities. "Natural Anthem" is probably the most adventurous Postal Service tune, utilizing a relatively heavy break-beat, a looping string sample and more aggressive production, but clearly the duo's strengths are geared more toward hit-making than trailblazing. So, while the record isn't necessarily an instant classic, the unabashed embrace of simple pop sensibilities, both old and new, make it a record that is hard to stop listening to.

Jay Breitling

Electronica redeemed...?
This album of dancy electronic pop hasn't left my MP3 player since I bought it. It's like finding a lost and prescient New Order album circa 1985, filled with compelling and instantly memorable melodies. The lyrics are quite wordy, but they are also quite good, like on the melancholic opener, a guy going to visit his ex in a new city:

"Smeared black ink...Your palms are sweaty and I'm barely listening to last demands...I'm staring at the asphalt wondering what's buried underneath: There I am. Wear my badge--a vinyl sticker with big black letters adhering to my chest. Tells your new friends I am a visitor here, I am not permanent..And the only thing keeping me dry is: You seem so out of context in this gaudy apartment complex/I'm a stranger with a doorkey explaining that I'm just visiting/I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving."

"Give Up" is an excellent, warm and human example of a genre in which one's connection can sometimes get lost amongst the bleeps and blips of synths and Casios. One of last year's best!

Perfect Balance
I have never been a fan of electronic music... and to be quite honest I probably won't convert anytime soon. I've always felt that the music never had an heart or substance to it; it was just too cold. So when one of my friends gave me this CD to listen to, I was worried and immediately the electronic bleeps and blurps made me tune out. But then I listened a bit more, to the lyrics and the melody and how perfectly they combined. This CD is amazing because you take the amazing emo-esque lyrics (honest, heart breaking... I love "I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving") and combine it with the most peppy and catchy music ever. I actually got to see them in concert (lucky me!!!) and I was worried how the album would translate but it was even better than the cd. This amazing little project is must for anyone, period; no matter what style of music you like.

lovely
i have to say, i really enjoyed listening to this album. To be honest, one may get tired of the seemingly redundant pop/synthesizer beats but my that is hard to say, because this album altogether is just heavenly. My favorites are such great heights and brand new colony. i am looking forward to purchasing a few death cab cds also...

Gorgeous in every aspect
Wow what a great album. Benjamin Gibbard is one of my favorite artists of all time, so I bought this with high hopes. I had never heard of Tamborello, but hey, my focus was Gibbard. When I first listened to it, i really did try to keep an open mind, and then I ended up hating it. About a month later, I popped it in again after listening to every single Death Cab for Cutie album, and all of a sudden i was tapping my feet and flipping through the lyric book rapidly. How could i have ever thought this bad??!!

As always Gibbard delivers with sharp, smart, and epic lyrics, turning what is obviously small events into the most important thing the world. The electronica takes some getting used to, but by the time you get past it, you see how perfect with the melancholic perfection of Gibbard.

The standout tracks are #2, Such Great Heights, all for its lyrics, "i am thinking its a sign that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned; #4, which is a duet played out like a tense and pleading conversation between Gibbard and a girl who is leaving him; and #8, This Place is a Prison, which is an extremely mournful song rife with touching lyrics.

All in all a brilliant and lasting album. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

This isn't really Prefuse 73 anymore
I absolutely loved Prefuse 73's old albums.Things have changed in this album.Songs like perverted undertone are replaced by a little more artist flavor.Personally, I'm not a big fan, and am a little dissapointed that this album didn't sound like his last two.

his best?
i'm still teetering on that question, i love this album and vocal studies & uprock narritives, but i seriously think this one has beaten it out of its number 1 prefuse album on my list. this album is just so diverse, with sound. I love how he mixedclassical into his work, it is so emotional. brings tears to my eyes, i have no idea why, the music just touches my heart. heh, that sounds so corny.

UNBELIEVABLE
Another incredible and innovative record from one of the most significant musicians around today.Buy this and his whole catalog

"Rain Edit Interlude"
Let's just start by announcing my favorite track on here, ok? "Rain Edit Interlude" transports a fairly long sample from Linda Perhacs' Parallelograms into the glitchhop modernity of Prefuse 73's fourth full length. Yes, to me it is the best. In fact, it seems to almost transcend the rest of the album as more of a fully baked "song", less a merely super-produced mix of glitches and samples. P73 (aka Scott Heren) seems to do well working with female vocalists (see Savath & Savalas) - even when they're simply sampled. The vocal track(s) tend to beautifully round out his glitchy click clack hip hop production. Other featured artists/samples include Ghostface, El-P, Aesop Rock, Broadcast, Tyondai Braxton, Masta Killa and GZA. Recommended for fans of Amon Tobin, DJ Shadow, Unagi, Kid Koala, etc.

I love you Kazu
This record rips it up. It's party music. It's wild. It's the more experimental record you will ever here. It is off the hook. It is where hiphop is. Ghostface Killa shows up on a track. The sisters from On Air Library are on here too. "Pastel Assassins" is a major track. Kazu from Blonde Redhead sings on another track. There are also appearances by The Books, Aesop Rock, GZA, Nobody, Beans, and a load of other fine tracks. Some of the previous records by Prefuse 73 seemed out of control. This is a studied journey. It's a valid statement. ... Read more

Amazon.co.uk

Hip-hop confabulations don't come much more forward-thinking than this. Working from solid atomic principles, Deltron 3030 takes one producer, one MC, and one DJ and throws them beyond Futurama. Dan the Automator (one of the founders of the Handsome Boy Modeling School and administrator of Dr. Octagon's porno hospital) reinvents himself as the Cantankerous Captain Aptos and teams up with Deltron Zero (a.k.a. Hieroglyphics crew member Del tha Funky Homosapien) and Skiznod the Boy Wonder (bucky turntablist Kid Koala). Between the radio ads for future-funked, rap jams, and camouflaged cameos (by the likes of Prince Paul, a castrato Damon Albarn, MC Paul Barman and his Upper West Side doppelgänger Sean Lennon), the Deltron crew advise you to upgrade your brain to avoid getting sucked into the time virus. ("Ugrade your gray matter," they chant, "'cause one day it may matter.") The thematic opener, "3030," sounds like a beat-driven David Lean movie that slipped into the DJ's fingers with 31st-century rhythm stutters and scratches. Automator ping-pongs loops as rousing choral parts swell with space pride. "Things You Can Do" riffs off mod rock while a harpsichord hack and Sean Lennon drops feature on the sickly sweet mental apocalypse of "Memory Loss." Over its 21 tracks, Deltron 3030 erases the errors of this rap era in favor of hip-hop's future fathers. --Chris Campion ... Read more

Reviews (154)

Amazing.
This is an amazing CD. Just about everything works. Del's lyricism and delivery are the best he's ever spit to us (not to disrespect the other stuff now), Kid K.'s work is slightly outta sight, and Automator is just plain always brilliant. And this is deep stuff here, not easy hip hop listening. I was challenged by this CD right off and still am every time I listen to it (which is five or six times a week). And that's the way I like it. But your results may vary.

Still, I personally think that everyone who listens to hip hop should give this disc a spin and join the party. Now I know that's not how it will be, though, cause lots of people will think there are too many skits, some will think that the words are no good, and other folks won't like the way Deltron Z (or Del tha Funkee Homo Sapien, whatever) rhymes. Maybe some folks won't like the "positive conTACT!" overdub on Positive Contact. (Well, actually, I don't like that particular element myself.) But I think that anyone who comes to this looking at it as, album-oriented hip hop, will be pretty impressed. I sure was.

All in all, this is the best thing I heard in 2000 and I look forward to listening to it in 2001, 2002, 2003...

3030: A hip hop
I've always been impressed by Dan The Automator's work. From his lounge hip hop concept album with Prince Paul(Handsome Boy Modeling School)to his tinkering with make out music(Lovage), to finally his most comercially successful project yet(Gorilliaz). However, I can't think there is an album that shows off the producing prowless like Deltron 3030.

Its soundscapes and lush atmosphere rival that of Doves and Massive Attack(no small feat) layered with Del's complex, smooth as silk delievery. The combination works like no other I've ever heard. The tracks themselves are layered perfectly, showing off the production skills of the former classical musician, Nakamura himself. Combine all these things with Kid Koala virtuoso scratching and sampling skills, and you have hip hop super group.

Another great aspect of this CD is its balance. For variety, there is a balance were the music is the central focus with Del complmenting the music, and then vice versa. Then sometimes, they just come together as one to form on eccstacy inducing musical pleasure(the title track is the perfect example of this). This is something that most hip hop lacks but Automator and co. pull of perfectly.

Fact of the matter is, everyone should get a kick out of this. Quality transends genre and Deltron 3030 is the perfect example of this. Fans of music should check this one out.

Welcome to the Future of Hip Hop
'Deltron 3030' is an innovative undertaking by rapper Del the Funky Homosapien, producer Dan the Automator, and DJ Kid Koala. With futuristic production and skillful lyricism, 'Deltron 3030' tells of a post-apocalyptic world in the year 3030. This CD is by no means commercial with its lack of hooks (most verses are met with simple repeated samples and/or scratching) and its offbeat lyrical content. There are some great tracks like 'Mastermind', 'Madness', '3030', and 'Madness'. However this CD is weighted down by a whopping nine skits that follow the futuristic theme of the CD. Personally, I never find skits groundbreaking or even necessary to a project so it definitely prevents me from putting this in my CD player and listening from cover to cover without skipping. Nothing profound is said by Del, and I am more attracted to how he says it (he flows very well with the beats) rather than what he says. However, I would recommend 'Deltron 3030' for any hip hop fan who is looking for something different because this is definitely a memorable album.

(4/5 mics)

Good. Not necessarily a classic, though
I liked the style that Del used in the hit "Clint Eastwood" on the Gorillaz album, so I looked for more of his work. Among several solo works, as well as other collaborations with Dan The Automator, I found this.
Deltron 3030 is a pretty good album with great lyricism and wordplay, as well as interesting production. However, when I say "interesting", I don't always mean in a good way. There are some slip-ups - "Virus" and "Battlesong" aren't very good songs. Also, in many of the songs, there aren't great choruses. Some don't have choruses, at all.
Also, for a concept album, this album isn't very conceptual. Many of the tracks merely have Del bragging about what a good rapper he is, replacing talk of guns and such with talk of laser pistols and other futuristic gadgets.
Still, despite it's flaws, it's a good album. The opening track (the one after the intro) is great, and really reminds you of authentic sci-fi, which I assume is what they were trying for. The best song on the is (in my opinion) "Time Keeps On Slipping", featuring Damon Albarn, the singer from Blur, as well as a collaborator on the Gorillaz album.
So, summarizing it all up, this is a good album, but it may not be the epic that they were trying for. Worth a listen.

A Gift From The Future
In all honesty, I have not heard a better hip hop album than Deltron 3030. The more and more I listen to it, the more and more I fall in love with it. What sets this one apart from the rest is the production. Koala and Automator shine together, created rhythms and beats that sound like no other. The album kicks off with a bang with the hip hop symphony, 3030. The rest progresses perfectly, with not one track out of place. There is not a slouch in the bunch, but I do have my favorites. 3030 and Mastermind, oh wait, also Madness, oh wait, there's also Virus, oh wait.... just buy the album, you won't be sorry!

And Del The Funky Homosapien kills it, as usual. Were there any doubts in your mind? ... Read more

Amazon.com

The eighth album by these OG glitch kingpins is a curious thing. While none of the album's sounds are particularly different (Autechre is working with pretty much the same palette started with), it's not like they've gone laptop folk or added favela beats. The band's relentless experimentation continues unabated. Each of these songs here has more parts than an entire Rush album; every succeeding Autechre album has gotten more complex, as if there were Oulipo-style rules system guides the entire practice. But, while some patterns change rapidly--the complex and jagged try dancing to this rhythms rarely repeat for very long–-sine tones and drones underneath it all change very slowly. So, while the music may be composed in a postmodern way, then, it's staunchly modernist in its sharp, subtle honing of minimalist compositional techniques. The contrast between the jagged sounds and the surface and the moaning bass tones will either thrill or bore. There is no middle ground.--Mike McGonigal ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Don't Judge Too Quickly
At first listen, you may say Untilted is the worst CD
you've ever heard in your life and be strongly tempted
to hurl it in the gargabe.However, don't judge too
quickly.Give it another chance or two and you'll see...oh
my goodness...I love it!Warning: the first three minutes
of track one are VERY ANNOYING and may turn you off...
but allow yourself to get past that....eventually you too may realize...this CD is 5 stars!

A new one for the books.
It's always an event when these guys put a new album out, and as usual, Autechre has given us a work of art that is both unpredictable and serene in it's charm. Charm? Do you have a better word in mind? As you know it's difficult to describe the sonic structures of Autechre's pieces, but this album will grow on new and old listeners alike.O, and go see them live. jb

Still godly
Decades ago, a famous sportswriter, apparently tired of criticisms of his favorite sport, wrote "baseball is dull only to those with dull minds".While that point is certainly debatable when it comes to the national pastime (this guy wrote before the days of three-hour games), it applies equally well to the work of Autechre.This English duo (Sean Booth and Rob Brown, if you want to get all specific) has spent the past decade or so composing some of the most original and experimental electronic music ever made (oh, screw it, this is some of the most original and experimental MUSIC ever made, period), winning a small army of enthusiastic converts while alienating others who apparently can't figure out how an hour of glitches and bleeps constitutes music.That said, there aren't a lot of artists out there who can consistently come out with something at least interesting, and whatever one thinks of them, Autechre do manage to challenge perceptions and screw up minds with each successive release.In spite of some accusations, whatever else Autechre may be, they're not dull.

Anyway, this all leads us to Untilted, the eighth album in the Autechre canon and one that should please all those looking for their customary blend of bizarrely arranged bleeps, sweeps, and creeps.Despite occasionally bringing in sounds somewhat similar to the dronings on an MRI machine, Untilted is a surpisingly musical release, occasionally managing to sound catchy even amidst a flurry of determinedly abstract time signatures and song structures.At the same time, Untitled is still an Autechre release, and as such the focus remains on feeding your brain first and foremost.As you'd expect from the group that brought us Tri Repetae ++ and Confield, intellectually severe, high-speed musical calculus is the order of the day.

I personally found this album to be somewhat more instantly gratifying than its predecessor Draft 7.30, but that doesn't mean there aren't voluminous reams of complexity for you to decipher.Tracks open with a frenzy of spastic beats and pummelling percussion before gradually evolving into slower, more atmospheric pieces without sacrificing Autechre's trademark mathematical precision.Dense, rapid-fire sensory overload steadily gives way to hypnotic drones that are only somewhat interrupted by the jagged sounds that skid over them.Booming backbeats, out-of-time glitches, and even some subtle melodic underpinnings are interspersed into bizarre, ever-shifting sonic landscapes.New and fascinating uses for the drum machine are repeatedly discovered, with slice-and-dice programming (especially on the brilliant Augmatic Disport) that almost redeems the machine's use on countless boy-band atrocities.And the epic, 15-minute closer Sublimit cycles through every trick in Autechre's book, easily ranking among the most convincing displays of their demented genius as it staggers and stutters through a dizzying array of beats and textures.

In the end, Untilted is a quintessential Autechre album: strange, abstract, unique, and sure to be divisive.However, as a fan of Sean and Rob's work, I for one wouldn't have it any other way.While the forthcoming Meshuggah full-length will probably ending up grabbing my coveted album of the year designation, for now Untilted holds the top spot.

Misunderstood composition
Autechre have been given a bad rap in recent months for this album. It hasn't been panned so much as simply disregarded as 'another autechre album'. Its a disappointing evaluation, given the quality of the song craftsmanship on this album - seriously. Gone are the sped up beats that mangle the song out of control (found on Confield (think of cFern, Sim Gishel and the way too intense end to Lentic Catachresis) and the unfortunate end to the otherwise sublime Cap.IV off Gantz Graf). Instead the songs are, generally speaking, patient even as they are intense.

A good way to tell if someone's been listening carefully to the album is if they review and suggest there was 10 seconds of silence before the first beat - there wasn't! It was quiet - if you never heard it, then I think your headphones are too low (this of course is an old trick to get people to set their volume accordingly - like adjusting the contrast on your monitor). Then the beat comes in - its fast, in control and never boring. the song changes momentum a few times and works its way through the idea. Ipacial Section operates in a similar tone - hard beat - work through the idea, get somewhere interesting. The same I suppose can be said for a number of tracks on the album, such as the haunting Pro Radii or the enchanting Augmatic Distort - the latter starting off incredibly heavy and fast but ending on a worderful even keeled note. The melody of that song in the interim is well worth the wait - like pen expers of confield, its a song structure trying desperately to break through (or at least put order to) the noise around it - clever.

The second half of the album is a bit weaker, but the sound production in The Trees is phenomenal - truly making the brain dance. Sublimit is a hot, and fun closer.

To those who say that autechre are just doing more of the same - I don't get it, is the music about the novelty or the unfolding of the ideas? If you're just hunting for sounds - I suppose yeah, as they do use several familiar instruments. But noone ever disses a rock band for keeping their kit. This time it seems like AE had fun with their instrumnets and came out with a consistent, measured and engaging album. Finally - play it loud on headphones - its rewarding.

My brain exploded on April 19th 2005
What can I say? I must have gone through this album 15 times since I bought it (on the day of it's release), and I still can't put my finger on the reason why I haven't yet thrown it out the window.

First off, this album is no more listenable than a thousand marbles falling down a set of steel stairs, yet, I keep can't stopputting it on, because for some reason, it is highly rewarding. Melody is nearly absent, for the exeception of fermium, and maybe a few short parts of other songs, but here, melody is not what one must look for.

I think that the major point made by this album, even if this may sound like a very bad point, is the incredible talent that brown and booth are gifted with. The main recurring thought that I had while listening to this album is just how amazingly sharp and precise every single blip and bam is.

Booth, I think it was, said in an interview that Untilted was the album that took them the least time to create, yet it sounds like they spent 15 years working on it.

I will attend their concert in Montreal tonight and I hope that it will help decipher Untilted for me. I know I like it, but I want to know why. ... Read more

Amazon.com

It's an enchanted world that Múm inhabit. Conceived in a remote Icelandic lighthouse, Finally We Are No One is an electronica album that conjures up hazy, half-remembered memories of childhood, both magical and eerie. The obvious comparisons are with Boards of Canada and Múm's compatriot, Björk. But as with their superb 2000 debut, Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK, Múm make a music that's far too original to be easily compartmentalized. So analog keyboards hum alongside muted digital glitches, and "proper" instruments--accordions, cellos, melodicas--flutter in and out of the mix. The overall effect is of a modern kind of folk music. It's gentle, almost-fey stuff, but the quartet (including twin sisters who appeared on the cover of Belle & Sebastian's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant) never slips into anything like polite ambience. Instead, the 11 pieces are like extracts from a particularly vivid dream journal, especially when the Valtýsdóttir sisters sing in their peculiar gurgling, infantilized way in the epically unfurling lullaby, "The Land Between Solar Systems." This is an album that leaves you longing for shady childhood experiences you never knew you'd even had. --John Mulvey ... Read more

Reviews (48)

lovely night-time record
I wasn't too sure about mum, but I thought I'd give it a go, thanks to the numerous comparisons with Boards of Canada, Minotaur shock and DNTEL. I wasn't dissapointed. I could tell you all how it evokes memories of childhood and all that, but I won't, even though it's the only record in my whole collection that has actually done that. If you're looking for a late night or very early in the morning album, full of melancholic and reflective songs then this would be a perfect buy. I will say, if you're not used to singing with your electronic music this album may be a bit shocking, I certainly didn't warm to it right away, but after a couple of listens I managed to get the feeling that I was listening to St Etienne out of my mind and began to really enjoy the vocals too.

and it's about a million times better than all those 'chill out' albums too.

the land between solar systems
The closing track on this astounding effort sums up the feeling of the album accurately as the listener is taken to "the land between solar systems" before being brought crashing through the clouds to the solid sufrace of the Earth.

Dreamy, atmospheric, surreal, enchanting. These are all words you're likely to hear describing the sophmore album from this Icelandic quartet. Yet, none of them will do justice in describing the sheer beauty of this album.

If you liked the first single, "the ballad of the broken birdie records" from "Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK", you'll soon fall in love with the lush vocals on the lead song "green grass of tunnel" and "we have a map of piano", a hypotic melody that follows "green grass of tunnel" on the disc. Solid beats are provided by "don't be afraid, you have just got your eyes closed", "k half noise", "i can't feel my hand anymore, it's alright, sleep still", and "now there's that fear again", all of which are augmented by the dreamy soundscapes of "behind two hills,,,,a swimming pool", "finally we are no one", "faraway swimmingpool", and the stunning closer "the land between solar systems."

It's difficult to create a follow-up album to a solid first effort, but mum has outdone themselves by creating an album that fits together as a whole, instead of being seperate pieces glued together as it was on "Yesterday Was Dramatic."

If you have yet to hear the latest Icelandic export, do yourself a favour. Insert disc, lay back, relax, and enjoy.

Jason

not bad, but no boards of canada
ok, so this cd is pretty good. but it doesn't hold a candle to anything by Boards of Canada. i actually found it quite boring. there are a couple good tracks. but this cd is not in my rotation. Music has the right to children is.

Absolutely Stunning
"Inexplicably beautiful" is the best I can do to describe the amazing sophomore release from Iceland's Mum. Scattered with simplistic melodies and enchanting vocals, Finally We Are No One grasps the listener from the first track and spins them through a completely different musical universe. Unlike anything I've ever heard, Mum perfectly blends synthesizers and pianos. It's amazing to see the amount of growth from their debut album (Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK). Highly recommended for anyone interested in beautiful, entrancing Icelandic music.

he grabbed my thumb and led me away from the accident...
While expanding my IDM/electronic collection, I always overlooked Mum because I was never really big on Sigur Ros and the samples here on amazon didn't really do anything for me. When I had every Aphex, BoC, Four Tet, Autechre, Prefuse, Squarepusher (etc...) album, I hesitantly decided to pick up a copy of 'Finally We Are No One'.

When I got home and listened to it, I was blown away. There are few albums ("Music Has the Right..." for instance) that leave me speechless after just the first time hearing it and make me excited to uncover new aspects with each further listen. To start, the samples on this page do no justice to any song on the album. This CD is meant to put on with headphones to get the full effect and just relax and feel the music. The best way that I can explain the music on this album is what you'd get if Four Tet joined forces with Boards of Canada. It has both the dreamy, psychedelic feel of BoC, and the more down-to-earth traditional musical sounds of Four Tet. To me this is great, because with Four Tet's music I always liked the way it was going but it never quite got the job done for me.

Each song is unique and beautiful in it's own way. My favorite would have to be "Green Grass of Tunnel". This song has so many different aspects of beauty, not to mention if you close your eyes you can perfectly visualize every word. The music on this album is just unbeleivable... and combined with the soft, trippy lyrics make for an incredible listening experience.

I recommend this album to anyone who loves Boards of Canada, and especially to Four Tet fans. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

This is a story about a musician named Amon Tobin
Once upon a time, the only video games that had soundtracks worth buying separately were Japanese RPGs.Occasionally, a Western game would come along with a great compilation soundtrack (see the Grand Theft Auto series), but for the most part, music composed specifically for games was unable to stand alone as an artistic work.

Fast forward to the end of 2004.UbiSoft was making the third installment of their popular Splinter Cell series, and the need for some creepy, paranoid music naturally arose.Some inspired soul (whose name is lost to history) suggested that the job be offered to electronic artist Amon Tobin, perhaps thinking that his bass-heavy groovalicious style would adapt well to stealth based gameplay.The Powers That Be agreed, and gave Amon a lot of money with which to score their still-developing game.

When Amon returned after completing the soundtrack, the results were better than anyone expected.CHAOS THEORY struck a perfect balance between spooky ambience and jackhammer beats, often shifting rapidly between the two, but throughout it all there was an undeniable sense of beauty which did not exist in spite of the chaos but rather arose from it.Indeed, this chaotic beauty led many who listened to make comparisons to another artist, Aphex Twin.

But CHAOS THEORY was much more than an Aphex knock-off.Amon had put UbiSoft's money to good use, hiring an all-star lineup of studio players to make the soundtrack the best it could be.These studio session gave CHAOS THEORY a very organic feel that is usually missing from video game soundtracks, and was definitely absent from Aphex Twin's 2001 album, DRUQKS.

The album started off with "The Lighthouse," and while it wasn't necessarily the best track off the album, it was still pretty darn close, with a jerky bass riff that immediately created a sense of paranoia in the listener.It was the perfect setup to an album which cultivated a wide range of emotions, most of them disturbing.CHAOS THEORY never really let up on these emotions, instead, Amon simply switched from one emotion to another, from paranoia to panic to uneasiness and back to paranoia, often within a single track.

All involved with the project were so pleased that it was decided that Amon's soundtrack would be released several months ahead of the actual game.The reason for this was simple: where most consumers hear music in a game and then would desire to purchase the soundtrack, hearing this soundtrack actually made people want to play the game.Reviewers across the land encouraged everyone they met, even those with no interest in video games, to purchase the album, and all who heard the free MP3 of "The Lighthouse" provided on amazon.com were more than willing to fork over the cash to hear the rest of CHAOS THEORY, with the result that Amon Tobin became obscenely wealthy, and nobody payed any attention to the drivel that MTV played anymore.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Let Down
Amon Tobin, in the course of five months last year, became my favorite musician on the planet. Discovering his albums one by one (in a disjointed order) was such a delight that they were the only albums I listened to for weeks on end. I eagerly waited for word to come from Ninja Tune about when his next album would be released, and had a countdown when I finally had its January release date.
Months later, I am still somewhat disappointed. I was highly intrigued with the concept (especially seeing as how he would be the perfect candidate to score a futuristic sci-fi world-from-hell movie), but once I listened to it several times, the gimmick still stunk: a score for a computer game just does not translate into a full-lenght album. Granted, I haven't played the game itself, so I can't comment about how the music fits into playing it (though I imagine it would work rather well). You can still count on Amon to create an amazing soundscape with only samples (and here, live samples), but whereas his first four masterpieces took you on a real musical journey, this one is more monotonous, and arguably better fitted for a video game than the others would be. Here's hoping his next album is much better - what am I saying, of course it will be!

In 1 word Awesome!
Having always been a fan of the Splinter Cell games, I never really noticed until last night playing Chaos Theory, how good the actual music from the game was. I listened to the soundtrack and could not believe how awesome it sounded. Music for video games has evolved so much. I am a huge fan of this kind of music as well so kudos to Amon Tobin!
This soundtrack is put together very well. It does not sound corny or anything it sounds really great!

very well done
this sound track is very well done especilly like the little guiter riff in the Lighthouse

BRILLIANT
This CD is incredibly immersive.I listened to some of Tobin's earlier stuff and thought, yeah it's cool, but it's missing something.It's all here.He put an amazing group of international musicians together, and it shines amazingly.Tobin mixed, conducted, and produced it.Amazing talent.The drummer is amazing, especially on Ruthless.My favourite track is Kokubo Sosho Stealth.It's dark, has nice drum and bass, and harmonics.This is just like HALO 2.Not as good without the music.Now we just wait for the game. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A must have for Postal Service fans!
I didn't think I was missing much until I got this single, its as or more addictive than the album.Worth every penny just for "Be Still My Heart" and the remixes give the other tracks an incredibly fresh sound and feel.If you love Postal Service you will LOVE this single! Cheers.

geez, theyre still putting out singles from that album?
chances are, if youre looking into this, then youve already heard the postal service and have heard the full album, including "we will become."

"be still my heart" is interesting; its a new track that happily bounces and jostles along. its good, but one cant help but think that its not quite as solid as other tracks on "give up". catchy? yes. anything to get excited over? not really.

the styrofoam "nothing better" remix is the highlight of this single. the style doesnt stray very far from the traditional production style of ol' jimmy tamb., but it just sounds so good that its welcome. though its not as bouncy as the original, the chillness factor warrants it at least a few listens. and for some reason it reminds me of "idioteque".

the "we will become..." matthews not scared remix is the obligatory remix that leaves you scratching your head. the production is minimal -- fuzzy ambient noises and a guitar strum that is repeated over and over. interesting, but it left me wondering when the loops would vary or when another element would be introduced.

then the song ended.

so there it is. a song youve heard a million times, a bouncy new song, a good remix thatll allow you to "revisit" a great song, and an abstract remix that might be good to have just to prove that youre different than any other kid who heard the postal service a year after everyone else did (most likely by downloading the album).

When our bodies finally go
A band like the Postal Service produces singles easily -- their trip-hop is fresh, sweet and wistful, as well as being wickedly catchy. And Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborell (Dntel) were in top form in the wistful, lyrically weird "We Will Become Silhouettes."

A flowing, strange story-song, "We Will Become Silhouettes" tells what happens when for some reason, the air causes cells to "Divide at an alarming rate until our shells/Simply cannot hold all our insides in,/And that's when we'll explode/(and it won't be a pretty sight)." Interpret that as you will, but the apocalyptic whimsy of it is irresistable.

A new song follows it: "Be Still My Heart," an enchanting little ballad with rapid percussion overlaid with organ and synth. "Nothing Better (Styrofoam Remix)" is a fair remix that is off in some parts (what is with that fizzing noise?) but retains the plaintiveness as the original. And finally there is the laid-back "We Will Become Silhouettes (Matthew Dear's Not Scared Mix)," which is stripped-down and fragile-sounding.

"We Will Become Silhouettes" is a bit of an oddball song, on an album full of songs about loneliness and lost love. Lyrically, it sounds like one of the Flaming Lips' more mainstream songs. Not that that's a bad thing -- it adds a sense of strangeness and fun to Postal Service's debut. It certainly reflects in the cover, with a rather startled-looking young man surrounded by people who are fading away.

This single does a good job of also showing off the kinds of music that Postal Service can do -- the title song is poppy and smooth, while the second is sort of synthy-drummy. What is even better, the remixes are good. Most remixes cloud over what made the song good in the first place, but Postal Service's are well-done.

"We Will Become Silhouettes" is a solid single, especially with the well-done remixes and extra song. It'll probably leave you humming, "And we'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go..." ... Read more

Amazon.com

Geogaddi, like Boards of Canada's 1998 debut album, Music Has the Right to Children, drifts its way into consciousness, rolling a fog of dark-hued psychedelia over slow-burning, lullaby melodies. Having led a reclusive existence in their Hexagon Sun studio, shunning interviews and live shows in an effort to escape the shrill, loud praise that accompanied Children's release, the enigmatic Scottish duo has stayed focused, creating another tour de force in the process. Geogaddi opens with no fanfare, with the bare hum of "Ready Lets Go" blossoming into the soporific, hypnotic chimes of "Music Is Math". But for the next 65 minutes, it's clear that while BOC move slow, they do so with the power of shifting glaciers. All their old influences--thenoise-as-melody drone of My Bloody Valentine, the brave futuristic synths ofNeu!--remain, but more than anything, Geogaddi is about the vivid sense of warm melancholy that lingers when the music fades out. It's another slow-burner, but Geogaddi is as utterly essential as its predecessor. --Louis Pattison ... Read more

Reviews (110)

I've been forcing myself to like this album
i've had music has the right since it was released in england back in 98. i thought it was not only groundbreaking and incredible but a true piece of modern music history. much like everyone else, i picked up a bunch of similar artists like the amazing mum cd, dntel, arovane, etc...and most of it has been excellent.

i waited for geogaddi for years and when i played it for the first time, i knew my expectations would never be reached. i wanted a progression of all the best parts...the analog synths, the warm techno sounds...what i got was 23 tracks of mediocrity. its as if the cd is a replica of music has the right with no progression, darker elements and weaker tracks...track #18 is probably the greatest boards track ever, a 1 minute synth that is so beautiful and there are several good tracks but overall, its not something i expect to listen to much.

chalk this one up to another case of the common sophomore slump for electronic artists (see basement jaxx, goldie, air, rae and christian, and soon to be dj shadow)...

Dark and unsettling, yet excellent
It took me quite a few listens to start to enjoy Music has the right to Children. Even after a few dozen listens, it still gives me this creepy feeling, as though someone is watching me.

I was both anxious and panicked at the thought of listening to their new album, Geogaddi. There was a lot of hype surrounding this album, but it's not diappointing in any way. It still has that same uneasy feeling as MHTRTC, yet the sound is much more, how should I put this, organic.

While both albums are dark and methodical, Geogaddi stands out as less mechanical and slightly more approachable. Well, as approachable as a BOC album can get. It's definitely not an album you can put in a CD player for some friends and expect them to like it immediately. It's just so poignant and involved. I just don't see how it could possibly be used as background music for whatever you're doing. It deserves careful and attentive listening.

My personal favorite is Alpha and Omega. The mix of smooth percussions and what sounds like a distorted flute is unsettling, surprising even. The entire album is wonderfully uneven, with smooth pieces and equally rapid ones mixed chaotically. A definite must-have.

Good Music at first...
Just like my longer review for Music has the Right to Children. Their music is good but has references to the occult, satanism, hypnotism, and brainwashing. Look it up on the net.

The Devil Is In The Details
Boards of Canada are often criticized for not being innovative, just exploring the depths of their own "trademark" style. I can argue with that. They have been developing their sound for over 20 years(believe it or not, Marcus And Mike were about 10 when they made their first attempts to compose music in a primitive form of what they are doing now). On Geogaddi they spent 4 years of making, choosing 23 songs(the last of which silent) from about 90.
Geogaddi is a well-made record, but somehow in the reverse way. You can hear this throughout the album - every tune is somehow damaged, perfect in its imperfection. This is not a chillout record(the term chillout in fact could not be used to describe anything BoC), it is a difficult and disturbing listen. "Play twice before listening" - this is a good piece of advice if you feel Geogaddi is a rip-off.
It is composed basically of short-length tracks and full-length ones(I mention those second because they seem to be dominated by the sometimes irritating interludes. Listening to this album feels like a tough experience("geo" means Earth in ancient Greek, "gad" means running and "di" means two - running twice around the Earth?). Some of the interludes are quite pleasing, though - my favourite is Dandelion.
The full-on tracks are also quite disturbing at times. The Boards seem to have grown up a litte more than on MHTRTC - more paranoia, more subliminal messaging(with some references to the Branch Davidians, most notably on 1969).
As a whole, the best tracks here are Music Is Math(nice tune ended by a weird noise), Sunshine Recorder(the percussion here is incerdibly well-crafted), Julie And Candy(a mess of a symphony, made mostly with recorders), 1969(pop-music BoC style - my friends seem to love it so much, not knowing its lyrics "Although not a follower of David Koresh, she's a devoted Branch Davidian" - references to Amo Bishop Roden), The Beach At Redpoint(a good example of tabla drums used, the bad example provided by Alpha And Omega, which is a little too long), The Devil Is In The Details(the focus being not really on the details, but on the rather minimal music - the riff is based on a mathematical equation), Dawn Chorus(think Moby's Porcelain, distorted and rough, but somehow even catchier with the vocals). The last peak on Geogaddi is You Could Feel The Sky - a minimal track that doesn't really stand out among the other, more complex sonically numbers. It contains the already famous reversed voice sample "the God with hooves".
Corsair fades slowly into Magic Window, and the album stops at 66 mins, 6 secs. A smart move.

a cd for dark tribal rituals deep deep in the woods...
I am willing to take the Boards of Canada as seriously as they take themselves. A lot of people talk about the mood and atmospheric effect of their music instead of the actual content becasue all the meticulously crafted and sonically tweaked ingredients that the Boards mix into the brew are meant to produce a unified effect. This album is kind of like the last one, and you will not be surprised by anything from the first time you see the case to the first time you listen to it. Even though it has been four years, there are still a lot of short filler tracks (but not weak filler, sometimes they're the strongest tracks) and crunchy hip hop beats. But this cd is darker and deeper than Music Has the Right to Children. There an astonishing number of creepy hidden samples buried and layered into the tracks. You Could Feel the sky, besides being a strong song by itself, is filled with dark satanic undertones. I could talk about other strong tracks; I have my favorites like everyone else, but little on this album could be considered bad. The highly stylized nature of this group's work is entirely consistent in all their work, so if you dig their other stuff, pop this in your walkman, and take a long walk in the woods in the middle of the night... ... Read more

Reviews (5)

ok
Like I said I only vaguely heard one person talk about the involvement with porn. Even though the fact that someone has a religious preference does deal with intelligence, the fact that someone tries to express messages or "various stuff" including "I'm a God-darned Satanist, and, if I wanted, I'd be in [t]his business too" (Alpha Omega). Save your comments for the forums.

Inspired Analog Soundings
BOC use analog or analog mimicry to make interesting music that at times sound like old 70's/80's soundtrack's to corporate video promotional videos or old Moog type music for b-movie sci-fi and it works very well. The themes seem to center around the dreamlike wonderland state of children as their voices are featured in some samples. Interesting chill out trip hop that I found myself listening to again and again. I must investigate them further.

the breakthrough album
I cannot but laugh at the review of the "music fan from USA" - it has nothing serious as an arguement against the music, in fact:
- BoC's "involvement with porn" is actually the sample on Sixtyniner on Twoism - a man talking about his first time, in fact the text is rather romantic; they have sampled porn movies for some songs, but it is wrongly suggested that this is what they did on Gyroscope on Geogaddi. So, basically, this is their "involvement with porn" - not making porn movies with the famous Super 8 camera, and DEFINITELY NOT on the CD cover, which is a classic;

- BoC use various stuff to make their music more interesting, they implement mathematical formulas, the golden ratio and other things that take a while to be done - so their songs are carefully and precisely produced, with subtle details that add MEANING to the music;

- references to "the birth of the satanic church, hypnotism, brainwashing, and cult movements" can only be taken seriously by a person whose intelligence is... ok, you get the point. Giving one star to this album is ridiculous - this is one of the best records ever made, and its double nature - the child-like innocence and the paranoia of adulthood is in the core of its brilliance.

Good Music at first...
Well I thought the CD rocked at first. Extremely interesting music. I liked most of the songs on there. But the legal note in the song "One very important thought" talks about censorship and protecting our constitutional rights. It got me curious why someone would censor music like this. I searched on the internet and didn't find much except somebody saying something about their involvement with porn (Maybe on the CD cover ???). But What I Did Find was that almost all of their CD's are riddled with references to the birth of the satanic church, hypnotism, brainwashing, and the cult movements. Most are completely invisible to the human ear. Don't believe me? Look it up for yourself. The devil is in the details.

A blend of enjoyable organic-sounding chillout music
Softer, subtler and more organic-sounding than Autechre and Squarepusher, this production by Boards of Canada provides the perfect blend for some nice background music to chill out to. Staying away from anything remotely similar to an ambient sound, the Scottish duo elaborates around some minimal loops without ever becoming too noisy or industrial, ocasionally adding some voice loops on top, to craft a piece of music that is fairly unique in nature. With longer songs (in the 5-to-6-minute bracket) intertwined around short ones (no more than 2 minutes at a time), the album gradually melts in your mouth, while you enjoy some good company and let the lights of your day be slowly dimmed. ... Read more

Album Description

Reissue on Play It Again Sam America. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Finally re-released! Yes!
Allow me to introduce you to Richard D. James (alias Aphex Twin, AFX, and a slew of other inscrutable pseudonyms), a charming bon vivant from Cornwall who is known today for his delightfully blithe eccentricity and iconoclasm. Before he played at clubs using sandpaper on the turntables instead of records, however, and before that hilariously bizarre "Come to Daddy" video, he made Selected Ambient Works 85-92, and by doing so basically singlehandedly created contemporary electronica.

I have no easy explanation for why Selected Ambient Works is as good as it is. Here's what I've got it down to: this music is possessed of a remarkable spontaneity and unpretentiousness. The best talents always made their work seem like play, like it came effortlessly to them, without taking themselves seriously. The songs on this album are like that. They are marvelous in their simplicity. It's as if Aphex Twin sat himself down and peeled off great song after great song with complete abandon. It's the work of someone who simply loved making sounds - in fact, you can tell when you're at a sound AFX liked particularly, since he tends to linger on his favourites and extend their playing time. That's not a flaw. The sounds are so good that you'll want to linger on them as well.

On this album, Aphex managed to take many a cliche of electronic music and give them all a completely original, unworldly quality. Most of the songs are built around groovy, but more or less conventional dance beats; however, they are bathed in soft feedback and melodies of unearthly beauty. The end result - the waltz-like "Xtal," the exultant "Pulsewidth," the eerie "Hedphelym," the blissfully wincing "Ageispolis," the flight above- and underground of "Green Calx," and so on, and so on, and so on. Electronica is often accused of being emotionless, and more often than not rightly so, but Selected Ambient Works is anything but that. This is beautifully emotional music; it's the music your subconscious plays in your sleep. It's music that for all its simplicity has a richer vocabulary than language.

I find myself at a loss for words. I don't want to use this as an opportunity to practice my adjectives; I only want to get you to purchase this record. Aphex Twin's achievement was aped by many much-touted "electronic wizards," most of whom fancy themselves musical geniuses because they can slap together a beat and a bassline on their computer in their parents' basement, but of course bettered by none of them. James himself never did (though he came close in some later songs such as "On"). Then again, it might not even be possible.

musical genius
When I bought this CD, I was familiar with Aphex Twin as someone who twiddled with weird and shocking noises to produce something that didn't exactly sound like music, but was so interesting and flat-out crazy that one's attention was instantly captured (despite the headache and ringing in the ears that inevitably followed).

This is a very different Aphex Twin from the one that I was familiar with. The album is atmospheric, subtle and intricate - entirely unlike the watered-down Muzak sound that so horribly plagues most so-called "ambient" music out there. Actually, "ambient" is a bit of a misnomer; most of the tracks have a subtle, but persistent beat, so perhaps "intelligent techno" would be a better term. If you like Orbital, Boards of Canada, Future Sound of London, then you will love "Selected Ambient Works 85-92". If, on the other hand, you are a dance-happy trancer who walks around with lightsticks, then you probably won't have much fun with this ablum.

a little twisted
Just great. I am a fan of his music for quite a while and all of his records are special in their own way. Tracks with a little twist only RDJ can add. Sometimes a bit sinister, but thats ok for me! Most of his tracks are sertainly refreshing and energy boosting. A philosopher teacher once said: "to enjoy and appreciate the quality of sertain aspects (of whatsoever) you have to have rotten spots besides it". In case of some of the tracks ("ventolin" (medicine for asthmatic patiens) for example in which you hear a sample of a person hyperventilating), annoying bleeps, cracks and sounds are added in such way that when they fade away in a track you almost feel a releef....a contrast between serenety and rotten (no offence)

The Nicer Side of Aphex Twin
Another one from the Radiohead camp, I am. I decided to see how my favorite album, Kid A, was influenced by Aphex Twin. While I hear some influence, Richard D. James' later albums have the more experimental edge I was looking for.

While there isn't much in line of traditional song structure here, this album has a real something special not present in most electronica. While not actually ambient, Selected Ambiant Works finds a niche comfortably between IDM and techno and kicks back. Fans of IDM will enjoy the very interesting and enticing atmosphere and beat progressions and fans of techno can dance themselves limp. Very rarely can an (almost completely) instrumental electronic album be so appealing to both intelligent and dance music fans, especially with no real lyrics to ponder.

Perhaps it's hard to imagine dance beats with substance for the uninitiated, especially coming from a hip-hop and art-rock background like mine, but I really do enoy this album. While it's a fantastic chill out album, I can kick back, close my eyes, and actively listen to this without being bored whatsoever. I give it 5 Stars...for me it's something fresh and new, like nothing I've personally ever heard before.

Not a Truly Ambient Album, But a fantastic diversion....
Although not strictly an Ambient Album, this is definitely a much quieter affair than 'Richard D. James', usual eclectic offerings. By mixing elements of minimalist techno, with traces of Electronic ambient.....this feels more at home, as an Electronica Album, rather than the subtle soundscapes of true ambience. Nevertheless, this is ultimately a superior Electronica album, as there is something here for any fan of intelligent Electronic music. True!!, the album does start with the first couple of tracks such as: "Xtal" & "Tha", taking their cue from genuine ambient craftsmanship, and halfway through the album slight elements of minimalist techno are introduced, but by the time the Jaw dropping "Ptolemy" has wandered into the your subconscious......the changeover from minimal techno through to Electronica has firmly taken place. "Selected Ambient Works 85-92", has too much of a club-orientated bass-line to be an authentic ambient album, but Judged on this work alone!! Richard D. James's, TRUE craftsmanship, ISN'T in his usual genre of 'Experimental / idiosyncratic' Techno. ... Read more

Album Description

This collaboration between Ben Gibbard (Death Cab ForCutie) and Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Figurine) combinesBen's sweet-as-pie vocals and Jimmy's soaring electro-popsoundscapes, making for sublime listening. This speciallypriced single is a teaser for the full-length that was dueout in February, and includes one album track, 'Such GreatHeights', an exclusive Postal Service track, 'There's Never Enough Time', and two covers of Postal Service songs, 'WeWill Become Silhouettes' (performed by the Shins) & 'SuchGreat Heights' (performed by Iron & Wine). Both covers areexclusive to this release. Sub Pop. 2003. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Rises to such great heights...
Hit indie band Postal Service is a marriage of trip-hop and indie-rock's melancholy. And nowhere is that better shown than in "Such Great Heights," one of the most likable songs from the debut album "Give Up." Two Postal Service songs, two covers -- a definite must-see for fans.

It starts off with the shimmery trip-hop "Such Great Heights" ("I am thinking it's a sign that the freckles/in our eyes are mirror images and when/we kiss they're perfectly aligned...") and slips into the lower-key, murmuring "There's Never Enough Time." Then we get a cover by the Shins, a catchy cover of "We Will Become Silhouettes," finishing up with Iron and Wine's slow, sleepy cover of the title song.

Both the song from "Give Up" and the new song are the sort of sweet indie pop that Postal Service is known for, with Jimmy Tamborello's (Dntel) sweet voice and Ben Gibbard's (Death Cab For Cutie) electronic shimmers and flourishes. The covers are also nice, especially since the Shins and Iron and Wine give individual touches to them: The Shins choose a sound heavy on acoustic guitar, while Iron and Wine have guitarwork so slow and soft that it seems like a totally different song from the upbeat first track.

Fans of the quirky indie-trip-hop album "Give Up" will want to check out not only the stuff by the Postal Service, but covers of their work too. A solid release.

The kind of mail you'd like to recieve
What can you say about this release, other than espouse and praise the songwriting gifts of Death Cab for Cutie's frontman and singer, Ben Gibbard. A seeming departure from the aytpical indie rock stylings of his more recognized band, The Postal Service isnt that much of a musical leap and seems like a natural progession for Ben, whose experimentation with lo-fi and synths can be seen in many All-Time Quaterback and early DCFC songs. With the help of Jimmy Tamborello of Figurine, The Postal Service create songs reminiscent of early 80's heros New Order, and the Human League, except of course, argueably better. Highlights of this Cd Single are the reworkings by fellow seattle scensters The Shins and the heartwrenchingly tender remake by iron and wine, stripped bare and acoustic Ben's words take on a whole new meaning in the voice of Sam Beam, the force behind the one man, Iron and Wine. This, and the full length release is a must have for any fan of either group, and will surely make many best of lists for '03 ... Read more

Reviews (166)

I'm glad to be alive....
Happy, sad, beautiful, gorgeous, scary, strong, full, rich, pationate, delicious, lush...It is, it was and it will be...
These are some of the words, thoughts and feelings that come to mind thinking of this.

Sometimes something so fantastic and wonderful comes along in life, it just has to be experienced, or life just wasn't what it could have been. That's what I can tell you if your wondering about getting this.

I love everything by 'The Twin', and after hearing just about all of his stuff, I liked this at that time but didn't love it yet because of 'RDJ Album', 'ICBYD', and others taking up the majority of my music time. I just couldn't get over the melodies.
I digested all of this now and I wish that I took this in first, in all of its' glory. Go buy it, it will be the best money you'll spend on an EXPERIENCE rather than just "some tunes". Not once have I got so many visuals, thought about so many things, or just simply enjoyed music so much.

I recall a conversation with my friend that has splendid taste mind you, about when an artist is going to come out that will strike you as brilliant. I thought that not since 'The Beatles', 'Pink Floyd', etc. has there been artists that will strike you as brilliant. The time is now, with 'Aphex Twin'.

Take this album in for what it is. Cherish it. You will be rewarded. Like being in love, eating wonderful food and drinking wonderful wine, or any other great experience, this album will make you feel glad about being alive......Peace.

Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Selected Ambient Works Volume II was my introduction to Aphex Twin after hearing Trent Reznor praise this musician. The influence was undeniable. If you enjoyed "A Warm Place" from Nine Inch Nail's The Downward Spiral, SAW II is simliar, but let Trent stick with industrial. Because Aphex Twin has set the definitive album of ambient music and no one could possibly hope to conquer. SAW II doesn't move forward, it just sort of floats in this restless limbo. Time slow down and it feels like entering some holy sanctuary personally. I get eerie chills and the ground seems to drop out from underneath me. I think I actually go through physical paralysis when I listen to this album. Nonetheless, I find people interpret the music in wholly different ways which is all the more amazing to have a piece of art so abstract. People have called it egotistical or pretentious, but the problem with art these days - music, film, and most forms of entertainment is that it isn't egotistical or pretentious. It's all too "middle-of-the-road", humble, don't wannt scare the horses fodder. So call it what you want to. This album is full of endless possibilities just waiting to be discovered. Play the discs seperately, simultaneous, start one a few minutes after the other...experiment, it all seems to swirl and blend together beautifully. This isn album to be experienced alone and in complete silence. This isn't party music or jeep bumpin' beats so recommend it to your friend, but don't play it with him or her sitting there. If you are someone who is open-minded and not afraid to try something new or believe music is ART (in every sense of the word), doors to new possiblities, life changers - get this album. If you have come to believe that music is nothing but entertainment categorized into your Top 40 chart hits or whine about which member of group/band are better looking, then do yourself a favor and stay away from this album.

wait...
This is an incredible album, but not all of the songs are worth it.
Aphex Twin elitists (I am one, believe me) would insist that every song is incredible because Richard made them, but this is honestly not the case.
He's made albums (ahem drukqs)where some tracks, though works of art, weren't the masterpieces that Mr. James is capable of.
About 60 percent of the tracks on this cd are truly worthy of RDJ, therefore the user should make himself a one disk compilation using a CD RW program. I suggest the following tracks as essentials
From disk 1 tracks 1, 3, 4, and 6
From disk 2 tracks 1, 2, 5, 7, 8
and if you can get it from a file sharing service, the unrealesed "stones in focus" song is excellent. Enjoy the good tracks...

The Most Perfect Album I've Heard
I own hundreds of cds from all kinds of genres, yet I have never heard music speak so clearly to me as this Aphex Twin album. This stuff simply can't be categorized. I guess the term "ambient" fits best, but its really a case of no lable being sufficiently decriptive enough to describe what is here. There is no pretense in constructing these sounds to fit a certain musical style. That's why I respect Richard D James' vision so much. No matter where you are, what you are doing, or how you are feeling, there simply is something for any kind of person on this engrossing, 2 disc set. I suppose the only people that won't like this are those looking for instant results, or gratification. You know, the short-attention span type. Still, I'm completely convinced that even the most easilly distracted or bored person would eventually fall under the spell of some of these mesmerizing mood captures. Not songs, mood captures. From compellingly primal evocations to the serenely cerebral and, frankly, settings from seemingly unrecognised, alien-like sectors of the human psyche, this album, more than anything else I've ever come across (Brian Eno's amazing 'Ambient 4: On Land' would possibly equal this depth if it had the sheer variety that's on these 2 discs) captures what it is to be human in sound. The seemingly impossible was achieved here in 1994. That's the highest praise that I think that I could ever give to any music. I simply can't imagine this music ever becoming dated sounding. This exists outside time. Thank you, Richard.

great
Just great. I am a fan of his music for quite a while and all of his records are special in their own way. Tracks with a little twist only RDJ can add. Sometimes a bit sinister, but thats ok for me! Most of his tracks are sertainly refreshing and energy boosting. A philosopher teacher once said: "to enjoy and appreciate the quality of sertain aspects (of whatsoever) you have to have rotten spots besides it". In case of some of the tracks ("ventolin" (medicine for asthmatic patiens) for example in which you hear a sample of a person hyperventilating), annoying bleeps, cracks and sounds are added in such way that when they fade away in a track you almost feel a releef....a contrast between serenety and rotten (no offence) ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Wow!
Why are Icelandic musicans so creative? With the exception of Beastie Boy-ripoffs Quarashi, musicians in Iceland just seem to do things right. From Sigur Ros to Bjork to Mum, they just know how to invoke emotions hidden deep inside like no other. Maybe it's because of the cold, sterile nature of their surroundings they feel a need to explore and communicate through the warmth of emotive, intelligent music. Or maybe there's just something in the water over there. Either way, Mum's new album Summer Make Good is a gorgeous voyage through the oceans of serenity.

Summer Make Good opens with "Hu Viss - A Ship" and "Weeping Rock, Rock," a song reminscent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven and sets the pace for rest of the album-ominous and brooding yet offering a small ray of light. This anchor of hope is provided by Kristin Anna Valtysdottir's tender vocals moving in and out like small waves of tranquility while treacherous floods capsize you to the ocean floor.

It's no coincidence these songs sound more like melancholic water lullabies than the jubilant ditties found on Finally We Are One and Yesterday Was Dramatic Today Was Ok. The songs were written in a remote lighthouse in Galtarviti and then recorded in an empty weather station and a lightkeeper's cabin below another lighthouse. Sounds from these eerie locations are dispersed throughout Summer Make Good creating a level of natural atmospheric bliss amongst spectral electronics.

While Valtysdottir does sing in English, like fellow Icelandic musicians, Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros and Bjork, there is no need to know what is actually being said. The vocals are used more as an instrument than as a poetic device. Emotions are evoked without any sad tales of broken hearts and slashed wrists-just soft whispers spoken in the most innocent, delicate soprano voice.

The ghost album
This is by far Mum's spookiest album. This one I refer to as the 'ghost album'. I love the oceanic theme and overall haunting atmosphere. The howling winds and crashing waves evoke a profound sense of loneliness and fear. This album also features new interesting sound textures and more minimal orchestration than 'Finally...' and a lot more eerie baby-like vocals. The only disappointment is that it's only about 45mins long. I was hoping the would be at least one of those tracks which extends up to 12mins or more. I love those.
The music conjures mental images of a greenish ominous sky like in 'The City Of Lost Children' and many blurred apparitions (mostly women and children).

the longest, most pretentious sea chanty in the world
I love the first Mum album. It is genius, there is no doubt about that. Their second album was good. Some highlights, some blooper reels. This album is really quite awful. It is ridiculously monotonous in mood and ambience, and it depenends heavily on some of the band's worst musical elements, such as the singing (which is absolutely unbearable after more than a few moments), and clumsy live instruments (which are uninteresting, and poorly composed). I saw them perform in Boston a few weeks ago and had endure twenty plus minutes of crap from this album before they played anything decent. What an utter disappointment. By far, the let-down of the year.

mildly intriguing
mum's Summer Make Good creates the same moody, dark and childlike atmosphere that made Finally We Are No One so good. However, there's a greater focus on real instruments instead of electronic elements, an alarming trend that currently seems to be taking over the electronic music scene (see two lone swordsmen's from the double gone chapel or funkstorung's disconnected). The electronic elements I loved so much that popped, bubbled and percolated are almost nonexistent on this release. Even the vocals have a different feel, forced into the forefront on many of the tracks with a stark, jarring and almost frightening quality to them. The ethereal harmonies of Gyda and Kristin are sadly missing. Instead, we're left with minimal electronics that hum and reverberate around a bevy of acoustic instruments and Kristin's sparse vocals.

Hu Hviss- A Ship, Weeping Rock Rock and Nightly Cares start the disc off with the promise of something exciting just waiting around the bend. A sense of anticipation is created as you wait for the blissful climax, the one track that sums up the entire disc, the one track that gives you goosebumps but sadly, when the disc closes, it is anticlimactic. Summer Make Good is a fairly even listen. Most, if not all, of the tracks are interchangeable and almost indiscernible from the next. Nightly Cares, the first single and rightfully so, is the only track worth its weight in salt.

It's hard not to compare this with past efforts because their last two were brilliant. This falls short of past brilliance and one cannot help but think that it has something to do with the departure of one of the twin sisters. Now, instead of running on a full creative tank they're running ¼ empty. Even the inclusion of guest musicians can't fill the void that is evident with the departure of Gyda.

Summer Make Good is not remotely close to emotionally touching me in the way that Finally We Are No One did. At best it is an interesting listen. I can appreciate it for what it's worth but at the same time I'm left longing for something more substantial.

Enter Mum territory once again
First off, I'd like to comment on everyone who claims this is a "slower" (and therefore, more boring) album. I find this album no different in the variety of tempo as in their previous releases. With that being said, any Mum fan who fell in love with "Yesterday Was Dramatic..." MUST get this one! And I'd also HIGHLY recommend getting the limited release version (available at amazon.co.uk...5000 copies). The limited version comes with a book containing drawings by the band which eerily complement the atmospheric quality of the music. I'm very glad I waited for it's release.

I'll admit, when I first listened to "Yesterday Was Dramatic..." I absolutely HATED it. About 3 years later, it made it's way to probably my 2nd favorite album of all time. Strangely, I have no recollection as to how this came to be. I suppose every "click", "blip", "snap" and "woot" was implanted in my brain. "Smell Memory" to me (and many others), is a standout track on this release. However, I was somewhat disappointed after the release of "Finally We are No One". It is still definately a worthwhile release, and shows progress from the previous. The first half of the album caught me, it nearly always lost my attention through the second half. It seemed to have "lost" the originality of the instrumentals in "Yesterday Was Dramatic...".

"Summer Make Good" still possesses a mature "fairytale"-like quality, as in Mum's previous work. This IS the Mum I fell in love with, and my first time listening was a joy. Many of the tracks start with slow ambiance and "build-up" to memorable, complex layers of melodies and rhythms, with a more "grittier" overlay. "Summer Make Good" contains the old-world instrumental quality (but more developed), remniscient of "Yesterday Was Dramatic...", PLUS the distinctive vocals like that in "Finally We are No One".

Unlike so much of the mundane, contrived music we are surrounded by in this world, Mum still manages to focus on the raw essence of music. Overall, I'm very pleased that Mum has moved in this direction. They continue their vividly "antiquated" sounds, though ironically contemporary at the same instant. "Summer Make Good" is like entering a storybook you read as a child, sailing on a ship to the past via the distant future...while never growing a day old.

See them live! ... Read more

Amazon.com essential recording

If techno ever does become the sound of young America, don't expect Richard James to be its poster boy, deserving though he may be. A native of Cornwall, England, James is obsessed with the mechanics of music making: As a kid, he took apart and reassembled the living room piano. Under the names Aphex Twin, Polygon Window, AFX, and other aliases too numerous to mention, he showed that he could make entire tracks with the sounds produced by tapping on a Coke can. Like the indie rockers of yore, he revels in his marginality because of the creative freedom it gives him. His full-length U.S. debut, Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994), includes some of the most serene sounds this side of the Orb, but his favorite hobby is the not-at-all-blissful pastime of driving a Daimler Ferret Mark 3 tank through his parents' backyard.

None of his recordings have captured the competing impulses to lull you to sleep and blast out your eardrums as well as Richard D. James, his third and best album. As the title indicates, James has turned inward for inspiration, painting aural pictures of real and imagined scenes from his west country childhood. "Goongumpas" is a fanciful, playful tune that wouldn't sound out of place on the soundtrack to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. As his adventures with the family upright indicate, James was a bit of a devil even as a child. "Beetles" is the sound of a boy frying bugs on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass, and "To Cure a Weakling Child" shows flashes of the sort of sadism found only on preschool playgrounds. If you still doubt that young Richard developed early on, the romantic Nino Rota-style strings on "Girl/Boy Song" are just made for passionate seductions, and the tune appears in three mixes, each one hot and hornier than the one before.

The raucous undercurrents of even his calmest tunes and the sources of many of his most common sounds are what link James to the rock tradition. With Richard D. James, the artist solidifies his position as an electronic music mastermind who has earned a spot beside such well-respected innovators--whether or not he's destined for stardom. --Jim Derogatis ... Read more

Reviews (115)

Just a note:
Richard D. James Album is the first ten tracks of this album:

1. 4
2. Cornish Acid
3. Peek 824545301
4. Fingerbib
5. Corn Mouth
6. To Cure a Weakling Child
7. Goon Gumpas
8. Yellow Calx
9. Girl/Boy Song
10. Logon Rock Witch

When bringing the album to America, the record companies decided that 32 minutes was too short for an album and added on the (entertaining, but IMO inferior) 5 tracks from the Girl/Boy EP.

11. Milkman
12. Inkeys
13. Girl/Boy Song [£18 Snare Rush Mix]
14. Beetles
15. Girl/Boy Song [Redruth Mix]

Those five tracks are BONUS TRACKS - they are NOT part of Richard D. James Album. Please consider this when reviewing the album.

As for my opinion, RDJ Album is a masterpiece of Drill n Bass, which is the term for the lightning quick, spastic drumming that is so prominent in this work. Note that this rather up-tempo drumming isn't always intense...it can actually be quite soothing (For the best example of this, see Flim from the Come to Daddy EP). For this, I couldn't do anything but give it 5 Stars. Once again, Aphex Twin has released something completely alien to my ears and I love it.

Absolutely Amazing.
I recently purchased "I Care Because You Do" and this album and already I'm addicted to the work of Richard D. James. Although this album is somewhat short, it still packs an immense impact on your ears.

Songs like "4" sound like he took music from the nintendo game "Zelda: The Adventure of Link" and completely rearranged it and added some fast, happy beats. "Peek ..." is my favorite song by far, however. I can't explain it except that it is chaotic and beautiful at the same time - which I can only imagine is hard for any elektronik artist to acheive. "Corn Mouth" is insane - enough said - but I do like it. "Cornish Acid" and "Fingerbib" are great as well - and "Milkman" is HILARIOUS. "Logon Rock Witch" is a compilation of noises and bings, bongs and rings. It's cool. "Girl/Boy song" is cool - but actually, it's one of my least favorites. Sorry.

Also, the import version of this album ends after "Logon Rock Witch." The American version of this album has added the "Girl/Boy EP" after track ten which includes tracks 11-15. I hope that that clears up some questions. Also, to find out why RDJ is a genius - play this music on a disc player and put in headphones. When the albums over with you'll know why he's a genius... but - only if you have an open mind.

way too overrated
the sound of this cd is incredible. Aphex Twin made it off of his analog studio but where did he get this sound. If you read the back of squarepusher's "Feed Me Weird Things" Richard D. James gives him all the credit. I love this cd but i don't like the fact that all of his songs are under 4 minutes. He couldn't hack it. Here he is doing drum loops on an 808 through a filter bank while squarepusher has cruddy equiptment making the most out of it and doing 6 minute long drum solo's. Thats talent.

Richard D. James: A Genius Of Electronica
I bought this excellent CD a long while ago, and I still love this album. Even though it falls short compared to his earlier works (ex. Selected Ambient Works 85-92), this frenzied fusion of ambient, drum n' bass, drill n' bass, and some hardcore techno elements make this album a must buy. But this album should be heard only by people who are accustomed to the Twin's sound, otherwise newbies might like it, but think, "Good Lord, this is crazy!" It's such a shame that A great country like America is bogged down by (in my opinion) foolish, pop-rap. Techno should get a much bigger recognition. It's about time people listened to more competent music.

My feet, my arms and my ears....ARE MELTED OFF!
I was introduced to the Aphex Twin after I saw the videos on the Chris Cunningham DVD...and was blown away. I couldn't breath after I heard and saw the "Come to Daddy" video. I knew after that, I had to find all of his music. This was the first album I bought because according to most, it is his best. Some people call him a musical genius, perhaps even the next Mozart. I believe it. Richard D. James and his self-titled album are spellbinding. He is a true visionary. James' songs not only have amazing drum and bass beats but have heart and soul. Each track connects the listeners with a different aspect of his psyche and even his soul. I cannot express how much his music has touched me. The Aphex Twin is one of the most influential musical talent that exists on the earth today. Each track is terrific but these are the ones that stand out to me:

4
Fingerbib
To Cure a Weakling Child
Girl/Boy Song
Logon Rock Witch (Most original musical composition I have ever heard)
Milkman

It is a must buy for those who wish to experience the masterful voice of the Aphex Twin. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Although Autechre's Sean Booth and Rob Brown are firmly rooted in the British hip-hop and electro scenes of the early 1980s, their music is experimental, mathematical, and precise; electro is used merely as a starting point for further exploration of synthetic sounds. On Incunabula, their contribution to Warp's Artificial Intelligence series, the roots of their sound are laid bare. Electro beats are tranquilized and obscured, shifted into alternate time signatures, and used as anchors for repetitive synth hooks and dense layers of effects, resulting in a sound that is exquisitely cold and mechanical. The title, which means "beginning," couldn't be more appropriate: as the years passed, Autechre's music became more dense and oblique; hence, a quick listen to "Incunabula" is essential to decoding the plot. --Matthew Corwine ... Read more

Reviews (48)

At their most elegant and melodic
One of their first releases, this was released as part of Warp's wonderful 'Artifical Intelligence' series.

It's the sound of Autechre before they got harsh and too robotic. What most people call 'classic Warp', this would sum it up. People say electronic music sounds too cold and distant. Sure, this album is defintely cold and distant, but conversely it's also one of the most beautiful ambient electronic albums available. Though it sounds machine-driven, it sounds beautiful. It's proof that machines make sweet music too.

On here the exquisite 'Bike' is just beautiful to listen to, and 'Basscadet' with it's clashing, stuttering beats and manic handclaps is easily proof that Autechre could make both challenging and beautiful songs in one.

My favourite Autechre album.

Halcyon + on + on
Autechre's debut album gets excellent reviews for good reason. Entering the UK charts at #1, it also was a well-deserved commercial success. Still, there some distinct musical differences to Autechre's later-era output. The rhythm constructions are more fragile, subdued, and fluid, and tracks like "Bike" and "Lowride" even expose Autechre's hip hop roots. "Incunabula" comes up with very beautiful and aesthetic melodies which never seem to be trite, formless, or trashy. Rather allied to '70s electronic pioneers like Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream, "Incunabula" is also a work with concept character. From "Eggshell" on, Autechre take you on a plesant, neverending journey through time and space. Listen to "Windwind" and imagine a moonlit mountain range covered with shimmering ice and snow. I never thought that electronic music could have such an emotional power and quality. This is excellent trance music without the boredom of many other new age or ambient records. Unlike many of Autechre's other efforts, this album is palatable for everyone, even for people who usually don't care about techno music.

excellent dive into autechre
My favourite Autechre tracks are the more accessible and melodic ones, like Eutow off Tri Repetae ++ and Lowride featured here. If you think Autechre is a hard listen(or unlistenable), check this album out. Lowride shows a nice hip-hop influence, a funky piano and a catchy melody - my favorite here. Autriche and Bike are also nice and tuneful.

Their best disc.
If you're new to their music, start here. Complex, mathematical and presicse, "Bike," "Autriche" and "444" are my favorites, but the entire album is amazing.

Autechre's more melodic approach to music started here...
Autechre's debut album is worlds away from the precise Glitch & fractured Techno that they went on to become accomplished producers at. This is an album of stark metallic sounds that sound conventionally at odds with the melodic song structures, that are entirely instrumental. Something else worth noting is that each songs gradually unfolds and uncompresses itself, moving between brooding arrangements and rhythmic drum pattern backed by synth & organ tones. It's strangely compelling in the way that over the course of the frequent six minutes plus tracks, that you'll find yourself growing in appreciation with each strikingly precise track. Think a more detached and synthesized alternative to 'Board of Canada' and you'll not be far of. This is galvanising, Cerebral ambient techno music, and along with the sophomore release "Amber" would mark Autechre's more subtle compositions before their successive albums slowly moved into more (although equally accomplished) 'Glitch' electronica....unquestionably recommended. ... Read more

Album Description

Four Tet is Kieran Hebden, and he has released eight albums between his solo Four Tet work and band efforts as Fridge.Rounds is a beautiful montage of shuffling percussion,piano, guitar and folktronic excursions. 10 tracks. Domino. 2003. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

makes Wesley Willis look like Dom Deluise
An innovative and diverse electronica album. Incase all these other reviews haven't informed you yet, Four Tet makes their music from obscure samples of everything from jazz to gamelan to folk to ethnic to glitch hop to ambience and everything in between, often fused together to form some cross-cultrual form of electronic world jazz or something. THe result is a rich, beautiful, intoxicating, evocative collection of ineffable music that stands in a league of its own making. It definately stands up as just as good as the post-rock instrumental scene, right up there with Do Make Say Think and Godspeed You Black Emperor!, but in the same sounds nothing like them. If you're a fan of THe Books, check them out, or if you've heard of Four Tet first, check out Books later. This is the future of electronic music. Also check out Manitoba, Third Eye Foundation, Prefuse 73, and her's some random artist who is nothing like any of them---Wesley Willis.

Not as good as rave reviews: Not enough 'there' there!
I bought this CD because I enjoyed the two cuts included on two different CD comps as published by the British music mag 'Uncut.' For some reason its editors chose this album as one of the tops for the year 2003. I humbly disagree with the choice. The reason is that I'm sorry to say that the two best tracks on the album are the ones I already own. If you listen to the sound samples you will find instrumental music that is spare, eery, and well, chilly. I know that there is a whole subculture of music fans that are enamoured by this form of musical expression. I find that I like it but in small doses. Thus I recommend this album only to people who can sit through an entire CD of this trance-inducing music and warn away people such as myself who, either from a lack of concentration skill, impatience or a fondness for red meat need something more than 50 minutes or so of gauzy if pleasant ambient music.

BEAUTY, BUT PURPOSE?
This piece of music flows through speakers like perfectly crafted clouds of dark candy coating. Its delectable, intoxicating, and haunting, but you feel as if this aural feast is lacking in the building blocks. The simple joy of something beautiful is infused within these tracks. It is a cold, frosty, somber joy that is not unlike Nick Drakes folk recordings. The old, "life is dark, and I'm sad but isnt that tree wonderful" kind of feeling. His sounds shimmer, and overlay like a child's view Steve Reich. The abstractions in sound are wonderful, the dissonance is eloquently stated, but the anchoring of these abstractions within a simply gorgeous progression is a bit of an easy sell. Brian Wilson did it with the Beach Boys, as did Dave Axelrod. But to use beauty as a listening marker in a piece of music that relies so heavy on pulses and glitches is an easy way out. The atmospheres created by Four Tet are undeniable, and the level of taste in tone and sound is way above par. Suffice it to say the guy knows his way around a record collection. As a stately bit of 21st century electronic pop it funtions a high art. But the importance of this recording is not immediately recognizable when projected against the new century's diverse musical landscape.

Cheap Tortoise rip off
Wow! Four Tet sounds much like Tortoise, except not nearly as good. If anyone thinks Four Tet has some shred of decency, go pick up any Tortoise album and be amazed by the difference.

THIS IS MY FOUR TET!!!
After getting "Rounds" from Four Tet I must say that I'm still trying to process it. "Rounds" tends to meander a bit from song to song, but the entire set is interesing enough to have me grooving with "Hands" and "Spirit Fingers" to chilling me out with the beautiful cuts, "Unspoken" and "Slow Jam". The feel of "Rounds" is somewhat esoteric, and the production sounds almost amateurish and incomplete, but all in all, this one will satisfy the IDM crowd and chillout fans alike. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential recording

The first Orb album was entirely new when it appeared: a low-key dancerecord, with echoes and swells more than up-front tunes, stoner-level dub bass, and all sorts of samples and sounds--seagulls, film clips, astronaut voices, bits of disco--fluttering through the mix like hallucinations. Essentially a techno album for tired dancers, it's held up nicely over time, thanks to its intricate, dreamy sonics. Beyond the classic "Little Fluffy Clouds"--a set of interlocking synth hooks and loping percussion, held together by a cut-up sample of Rickie Lee Jones talking about the skies of her youth--there are lots of mellow delights here, particularly the blissful reggae groove "Perpetual Dawn." --Douglas Wolk ... Read more

Reviews (78)

Interstellar overdrive
The Orb's first album provided a blueprint for the 'electronic listening music' of the early-'90s, cultivated by artists like Autechre and The Black Dog, and labels like Warp and Swim. Still, you won't believe it how much the sound of this album is inspired by '70s space rockers like Pink Floyd, Gong, and Steve Hillage. And indeed, The Orb themselves have always claimed that they were big fans of '70s progressive rock music. Even "Little fluffy clouds", the Orb's best-known track and the only pop song of this album, is actually a cover version of "Counterpoint", a tune by avantgarde composer Steve Reich. Typical for ambient records, there are occasional dull spots on this two-disc set, but you shouldn't forget that ambient music originally had been designed as background music. "The Orb's adventures.." virtually pioneered the concept of applying the aesthetics of '70s ambience to '90s techno with all its technical possibilities like sound sampling, sequencing, and processing. And for me, the 18 1/2-minute mega-piece "A huge ever.." (there's even a longer version available on the "Peel Sessions" CD) is still the embodiment of great, well-thought, and refreshing trance music. Admittedly, if you want to have lush melodies and clubby rhythms in your ambient music, I'd recommend you to buy Autechre's "Incunabula" or Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 1" instead. If you're keen on disturbing, hyperactive ambient soundscapes, check out releases by Main ("Hz", "Firmament II").

Trust me, Orb is great.
This album is up there with the greatest, A Hundred Days Off, Drukqs, Two, Chiastic Slide, Brothers Gonna Work It Out...

That type of stuff. I must say, this music is way ahead of it's time to have been released in 1991. (And just remember, the tracks weren't all made in the same year, before this album came out A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain had a single.)

Let's start from the beginning.

01. Little Fluffy Clouds:
Hmm... Trancy, dancy, and acidic, yet happy.
This song is OK, but it gets old fast.
02. Earth (Gaia):
Wheee! Now THIS is sampling. Nice beat... Good synths, pulls together as a great song, the only con I can think of is it's too long.
03. Supernova at the End of the Universe:
Ok, you want Orb? Listen to this track.
The whole buildup is just brilliant, the drumtrack is just brilliant, and the length is brilliant.
They couldn't have hit it bigger with this one.
04. Back Side Of The Moon:
Long and drone-like, just the way I like ambient.
This track would SEEM like it's too long, but it ends up being ok in the end.
05. Spanish Castles In Space:
Eep. Well umm, this song I must say gets a little annoying... Way too long, but it IS very great, don't get me wrong, it just gets old... FAST...

Disc 2:

01. Perpetual Dawn:
Yes, the original.
Reggae magic in action... This one is for those "parties" that college students love so much. ;)
02. Into The Fourth Dimension:
Ahhh, is there no end to The Orb's greatness?
Again, great buildup, the sampling is awesome, couldn't have done better.
03. Outlands:
Honestly, don't throw things at me for this; what's the deal with this track? Why does everyone think it's so good?
It's OK, but I wouldn't consider it "The best track on the CD."
It has a good amount of nice drums, and some mystical sounding synths that I LOVE.
Check this one out.
04. Star 6 & 7 8 9:
Now THIS is more like it! Yes, this is the REAL best track on the CD.
Beautiful synths and bass, plus it gives off a great feeling of Nostalgia.
05. A Huge Evergrowing Pulsating Brain Th...[Live MK Mix 10]
Heh. Long name.
Long song, this is a buildup of noises on top of a brilliant 8-note riff.
Quite relaxing, there isn't too many drums, so put it on when you are trying to fall asleep.

All in all, the CD is great. Buy it, indefinatley, and enjoy it well.

A good album from electronica's best days.
The Orb weren't the first techno band, but they were techno's first major artistic success. Their predecessors confined themselves to the dancefloor, and released their work on the twelve-inch singles most suitable for that realm. The Orb, however, adopted rock's emphasis on the album as one cohesive statement, a collection of songs united by common themes. In fact, Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, their 1991 debut, is a double album running for almost two hours.

The Orb were not a musically inventive band. The beats on this album are pretty pedestrian, and the melodies are incompetently minimal, three or four notes apiece at best. Even the production sounds kind of grainy. However, The Orb had excellent dramatic instincts. They made use of a large collection of samples, lacing their simple rhythm tracks with bits of classical music, monologues in foreign languages, rushing waterfalls, ringing church bells, and other sundry snippets of sound, to create the appearance of a detailed and enigmatic sonic world. They also knew when to restrain themselves and ease on the percussion, to establish moods and themes instead of trying to get by on pure pounding. Lastly, they understood the limitations of their production, and tried to make it sound organic, with shambling live-sounding drums, while their contemporaries were deliberately trying to sound artificial. The Orb even used a few actual guitars, rarely found in early electronica.

This zesty brew made for quite a few good tracks. "Little Fluffy Clouds," the first and shortest song on the album, shows just how important samples were in Orb tracks. The song has a pretty standard house beat set to a sample from the TV show Reading Rainbow of someone reminiscing about her childhood. A low-key keyboard melody creeps in, and suddenly, the song becomes a compelling story about how "we lived in Arizona, and the skies always had little fluffy clouds...the sunsets were...purple, and red, and yellow, and the clouds would catch on fire...you don't see that here, but you might still see them in the desert."

Electronica owes a lot to reggae, more specifically to the "dub" production techniques pioneered by reggae artists. In the liner notes to this album, Orb frontman and brave physician Dr. Alex Paterson thanks reggae legend Burning Spear, and on "Perpetual Dawn," the track that opens disc two, the Jamaican connection is made clear by one of those good-time staccato reggae guitars playing that good-time reggae rhythm. There's not much more to say there, but it is the album's most instantly memorable and catchy moment. "Spanish Castles In Space," the track that closes disc one, is the Orb at their most relaxed, featuring some acoustic strumming and watery effects in waltz-time, with no beats. As with most Orb tracks, this one's musical core is weak, but it manages to create a pleasant feel that's quite nice to just drift to. "Into The Fourth Dimension" sounds better than it probably should, through judicious use of one sample of a choir singing "Miserere" and another of a lovely violin solo from classical music.

The last track on the album is a nineteen-minute monstrosity with the charming title, "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld." The music in this track, however, has little to do with brains or ruling, but evokes pristine scenes from nature with great clarity. One time, it so happened that I walked on a grassy, rocky shore by a sea. There were forests on both sides of me, rock formations behind me, endless water ahead of me, and not a soul in sight. So, I reclined on the grass and spent some time watching the waves, underneath a completely white sky. This is exactly the scene embodied by this track; nearly beatless, it's built around a clean, calm, majestic sounding keyboard melody, played relentlessly for all nineteen minutes, but gliding in and out of different keys from time to time, while some kind of male choir sings in the background. Detail is added by the sound of rushing water, shifts in volume, and numerous samples. The track derives some immediacy from being a live recording, all nineteen minutes of it. It's certainly a great way to end.

The success of this album basically kick-started the "electronica revolution" of the early nineties. Unfortunately, it did The Orb little good. After releasing another album in 1992, they got mired in label troubles for three years, and in that time, the electronica crown had been seized forever by bands like Underworld and Orbital. Worse, those bands were better producers and musicians than The Orb, so even before the advent of jungle, Paterson and company's sound became out of step. They tried to adapt to the changing times, but fickle fortune no longer favoured them, so this album remains their biggest contribution to music. Though it contains two or three uninspiring tracks, its best parts have aged pretty well. Anyone with an interest in electronica wouldn't do badly to get it.

ça a qd même vieilli!
Je suis un peu déçu par cet album... c'est morne, le son est pas top... ça traîne dans les longueurs... bref ennuyeux! mais bon il faut se mettre à l'époque aussi! ça à qd même 13 ans!

Demolishing
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld succeeds with ego crushing absoluteness.

Recommended, from the bottom of my heart, to every sentient being in the universe. Alex Patterson and crew are the masters and this is their single greatest work. Buy it. ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

Amon Tobin's mixing of jazz noir with breakbeats on Permutation resulted in one of the most infectious electronica discs of 1998. Using hard-bop drum samples, extended horn passages, and a constant groove, Tobin succeeded where others have fallen short: he captured the essence of jazz and made it ready for the dance floor. Thoroughly enjoyable and swinging. --Jason Verlinde ... Read more

Reviews (48)

absolutely positively undoubtedly excellent
i had first heard Amon's music in the éS skating movie Menikmati. at first, i thought the music was too good to be true, and it almost is. i rushed out, bought Permutation, and listened to it. WOW!!!!!! this stuff is amazing! since then i've bought every Amon Tobin/Cujo album, and absolutely loved every minute of every one! his skill of, not making music with instruments, but making music with ...music... is absoutely amazing, and his work must be extremely difficult... well, my personal faves on Permutation are Bridge, Sordid, Nightlife, Sultan Drops, and Toys. If you buy this or any other Tobin CD, be prepared to be blown away... he's amazing!

This is it.
Yes, this is it. Possibly my favorite album of all time. Amon Tobin is without question my favorite music artist and this is his best work, in my opinion. Supermodified is soooo close to capturing that title, but for some reason I like this album a little more. All of his work is incredible though, and all should be listened to.

I like the album because it takes me to another world. I like how 'Like Regular Chickens' sends a shiver down my spine once the first chords echo at the one minute mark. I like how the bass on "Bridge" picks up and makes me feel like I'm in a car chase in the 1940's. When "Sultan Drops" starts playing, I can imagine myself in the desert. "Nightlife" is all over the place, starting off in a Wild West Saloon, then taking you through some insane carnival at night. I've not been able to find a more addictive beat than the one in "Sordid". I'm not insane, the music is.

Amazon.com called this one of the best albums of 1998. I call it one of the best albums of the 90's period, and easily one of the finest 'electronic' albums ever. I say electronic because the music is made with samples, but it is so much more than that.

If there's one negative thing I can say about this album:
After you listen to it other music will seem, how do I say this... less satisfying.

Woah... Slick stuff
Amon Tobim - what can you say about him? Whether it's his stuff on Ninja Tune that you're diggin' or his stuff under Cujo, one thing's obvious from the get-go - the guy can make one heck of a beat. This one, Permutation, has stood the test of time for me because I picked this one up around when it came out and after about 5 or 6 years, I can still pop it in and it sounds pretty fresh.

But those beats... they kick! From the begging track which displays some heavy beats and jazzed sax's mixed in you get a pretty good idea of what the vibe of this is going to be. Its definitely dark, sometimes eerie but the most eerie parts are the "lighter" sounding cuts like "Night Life" - which has an interesting crash to it - dig the flute in there! The way it speeds up is vintage Tobim. The pure Tobim fans might not have been so thrilled to hear "Sordid" on TV; it was on the BMW X3 commercial circa Jan 04. But there are so many good tunes here, that's only one of a few gems.

HIGHLY recommended. Can't believe it took this long to review it... good cd but it is sooooo heavy. And hey - the last track on this CD can be found with lyrics on Bebel Gilberto's album called Tanto Tempo as they redo a bossa nova classic: "Samba De Bencao". No doubt Tobim laid the groundwork and it was a perfect marriage of the new and old school sounds of Brasil. But be warned if you're more into Oakenfeld, Sasha sort of DJ's this is not in the same mold... not by a long shot. But if you dig this, you might (I emphasis might) also dig Buscemi's "Camino Real".

Classic evolution of Jazz
Call it drum n' bass, trip hop, whatever...but in essense Amon Tobin is without question a jazz musician. Sure, he uses electronic equipment, like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock encouraged in the 70s, but who can deny that Amon Tobin's music is not innovative, creative, and original.

He first came to my attention under his moniker Cujo in 1996, releasing "Adventures in Foam" on Ninebar Records. Rereleased in 1997 by Shadow Records it introduced the world to it's new ruler. 1997 also saw the release of his Ninja Tune debut, "Bricolage". "Permutation" is his 1998 offering, and possibly the album that forced the underground music industry to see that he was indeed here to stay. Incompassing jazz, hip hop breakbeats, drum n'bass loops, samba rhythms, and a load of otherworldly sounds, this brazillionaire created what is arguably his best work to date.

To go thru a list of tracks on the album would destroy the point. "Permutation" is not purposed to be listened to in tracks, but as a complete body of work. From the beginning we are pulled into his world and not released until the end, and some of us, yes some of us, have yet to be released. Myself included. "Permutation" is a masterpiece. 'Nuff Respect.

Breathtaking
One of the few idm/drillnbass artists i can stand. To be honest I wouldn't even throw him in with that crowd, Tobin is something completely different. His arrangement are more densely layered than his contemporaries. He also relies more heavily on jazz and hip hop to build the platform for his unique drillnbass style. This isn't one of your typical bedroom DJ's who throw albums together in 15 minutes (cough squarepusher cough). Tobin has crafted every track here with painstaking detail. I can hear something new every time i listen to this album. While every song on Permutation is amazing, "Sordid", "People like Frank" and "Toys" really standout for me. ... Read more