[EzExZeRo7497]

May 15th, 2014
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Copia by Eluvium

After a long and exhausting week, I do want to sit back and relax. So why not relax to music that's meant for relaxing? Eluvium is a prolific ambient/drone project, with a fairly eclectic collection of albums. Static Nocturne is my first album from him and it is a very noisy drone. It's like watching a storm at full force at midnight, truthful to its album name. Copia however, is a bright yet sombre ambient album.

This album is like watching the sun rise after the end of everything that you've went through. It's very relaxing and you reminisce on everything that matters in your life. Indoor Swimming at the Space Station portrays this picture quite well. I see myself looking at the edge of a hill, just letting everything go. It's a wonderful experience, although it does move a little too slow at points. I personally think that it's little more cleansing than what Stars of the Lid can do, ISatSS really soothes you more than generally bright drones.

The album does take a darker turn with Seeing You Off the Edges. While there's still some light in the track, it's no longer prominent. Not all of your memories are euphoric, in fact the ones that you mainly remember are tragic. The trauma you get is just as bleak as you've remembered. Some memories are more traumatic than others (through louder sounds), but you try not to falter. It hurts to dig deeper, but it's something that you have to embrace. This track to me, is your effort to overcome your tragic past. It's not really something that hits home, but it's a pleasant listen.

A problem with the album is that little is done with the tracks. These tracks are indeed beautiful, but most of the tracks rarely move in atmosphere. When it comes to tracks so lively, I do expect some occasional change. As it is it feels looking at pictures rather than scenes from your memories. It doesn't apply to all tracks, of course. I'd want to see more variation in tracks like say, Indoor Swimming At The Space Station. But there are tracks that do move slightly, like Ostinato. Tracks like those are pretty pleasant and the slight movements do hold my attention. I feel that more variation in emotion would be nice too - the only melancholic track here is Seeing You Off The Edges. Every track show the same picture with some modifications here and there. Not that it's bad since the picture is pretty, but it gets boring after a while.

I've heard from some people that the album is very cheesy/uninspiring, but I don't see the uninspiring component. Other than the modern classical pieces (Prelude for Time Feelers), I think these atmospheres are relatively fresh. It's definitely not incredibly unique (a la Koner or Basinski), but they're not that unoriginal. Maybe it's because I don't listen to much ambient like this, but I doubt it. As for the "cheesy" component, I guess I can somewhat agree. Take Reciting the Airships, for example. It's very very beautiful, but the constant uplifts just feel... cliche. It detracts my enjoyment a bit, but it's not that trite. For ambient like this, corniness is to be somewhat expected. There aren't many ambient tracks that create unbridled serenity without going too cliche, if there are any at all. Copia isn't even the worst offender, so I'm not sure what the problem really is.

I just think people care too much about uniqueness when it comes to music. It's always nice to have an "uninspiring" album done right for once. Needless to say, I do like this album. There's no denying that Copia has flaws, but the pros do outweigh the cons, so...

Album Highlights: Indoor Swimming In The Space Station, Seeing You Off The Edges, Hymn #1
Track Average Rating: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 7/10
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Hard Normal Daddy by Squarepusher (recommended by xVaLoRx)
Alright, sure. Squarepusher is the drill and bass project of Tom Jenkinson. He's one of the pioneers of DnB, along with Venetian Snares and Aphex Twin. Hard Normal Daddy is his second studio album and his most popular. Admittedly, I've been turned off by Squarepusher for a while, which is a bit of a mistake. His sound is pretty unique. Go Plastic was the first album from him I've listened to, which was generally a mixed bag. I was quite intrigued by tracks like Tommib, but was underwhelmed by others like My Red Hot Car. From what I've heard, Hard Normal Daddy is considerably different. We'll see...

Interesting, so it's a combination of jazz and drill and bass. Coopers World is energetic for the most part, keeping you on your toes the entire track. Unfortunately the track doesn't get any more intense, but the jazzy section are pleasant. Actually, the variation in this is pretty good. While it doesn't rip your face off, it does keep itself interesting with very nice progression. Not bad, though not my cup of tea.

The album as a whole is rather playful, as playful as Aphex Twin's Richard D. James Album. However, this album feels more focused and interesting. The jazz elements in some tracks are a neat addition to compensate for its lack of complex noisy structures. It feels like a combination of Love As A Dark Hallway and Richard D. James Album now that I think about it. Not the most pleasant combination, but it works.

It's not always playful though, Rustic Raver is quite loud. While I think it is quite remarkable in structure, it doesn't faze me. It's not forefront enough. It's a little too tame, I really wanted the track to be a lot more experimental. It reminds me of some works from Venetian Snares - works which I also think need more force. This just doesn't do it for me, although the structure is neat. Anirog D9 does this much better, although simpler in structure. It's way too short though, lasting only 71 seconds long. It doesn't have enough time to progress and grow, which is saddening.

I could talk more about each individual track, but I'll refrain from doing so. Overall, the diversity in this is fantastic. Each track creates a different atmosphere from each other - some that stand out more than others. While I can't speak too highly about the quality of each track, it is a respectable effort.

The biggest problem for me is probably the production. The thing about The Flashbulb's drill and bass works is that the execution is very crisp. He might not be the most experimental nor interesting in terms of content, but the sound quality makes up for it. Unfortunately, Hard Normal Daddy (and Go Plastic to a smaller extent) sounds quite thin. It makes all of the tracks very underwhelming as a whole. Chin Hippy would've easily been a phenomenal track if it weren't for the bad production. It's fast and insane, but it's a bit distant the entire time because of the production. This seems to be more prominent when the drill and bass elements were introduced though.

It feels a little uninteresting while listening to this all the way through as well. While I did say that it's varied, not every track is interesting. It becomes increasingly harder to concentrate through the album after Coopers World. The louder tracks aren't loud enough and the jazz elements do get bland after a bit. By the time Male Pill Part 13 was playing, I was pretty sick of the jazz sections. Not because they weren't interesting, but there's too much of it in the album. My attention does wade quite considerably, so the album's enjoyability goes down as it goes on. It doesn't help that there isn't anything that stood out particularly, either. Maybe if there was something quite noisy (a la Dishevel from Kirlian Selections), that'd make the album more interesting.

Feels like an album that's weaker than its sum of its parts. Some of the individual tracks work quite nicely by themselves. It's just that as a whole it becomes a very tiring experience. But even then, there aren't any tracks in this album that I'd listen to again. I like this more than Go Plastic, however. It's more consistent in quality.



Album Highlights: Coopers World, Chin Hippy, Rebus
Track Average Rating: 2.92/5
Overall Rating: 6/10