All That Must Be - George Fitzgerald

Track list:

1. Two Moons Under
2. Frieda
3. Burns
4. Roll Back
5. Siren Calls
6. Nobody But You (feat. Hudson Scott)
7. Outgrown
8. Half-Light (Night Version)
9. The Echo Forgets
10. Passing Trains

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2018

Another "A" insert here, and this one a real punt as I have no other touchpoint for George Fitzgerald. This was a recommendation when I was buying All Melody, and I heard a couple of samples on the storefront, said "sod it" and chucked it into the order. I've not listened to it yet, either. What's it like?

It opens with some street sounds, but they give way quickly to a synth-led structure creating a crucible like space for a top end that is... really odd. Words fail me, so moving on it garners a videogame soundtrack feel. The strange indescribable sounds aside, it has has something, but perhaps its thrust doesn't really sit well with me for a studied listen.

Reading up a little as the second track kicks in, it seems that Fitzgerald is much more club focused than I would have thought from this offering. My intersection with dance music is slim, but I have a fair amount of low-key electronica and that's where my head went when I heard the marketing samples, and why I picked it up on a whim. I suppose the fact I'm listening to this after dark on a Saturday means I got the timing right, but I am so uninterested in the club scene, and was similarly so in my youth. However my view of what gets played was skewed by that which made the radio and TV back when that mattered. This doesn't seem to share a lot of DNA with that guff from 20 years back.

There's more soft sounds, there's less repetitive "banging beats" and more growth within the tune. Crucially there's no paper thin plastic vocal on this either. I can't see how you'd dance to this, it just appeals to me in a more reflective way. But then I couldn't dance to anything, so what do I know?!

Where there are vocals, they are the weakest part of the compositions. And for all that I am finding the tunes to have some interest, they are also dragging. Roll Back has only just started, none of the three tracks before it are over-long and the whole disc is only 44 minutes but it feels like I have been going a while. So it's fair to say that I'm not falling wildly for it on first exposure. With that said, I'm not bouncing off it either. Any repellent effect that I get from the vocal segments is made up for by an interest in how he's constructed his loops and beats.

It's the most purely electronic, sci-fi-esque beeps and blips that appeal the most. They carry a familiarity from 10s of game soundtracks over the years, without being that at all. I have a frame of reference for it, even if it is not a reference the artist was consciously calling on (not that I would know). I can picture neon-lit streets of future dystopia, pulsing space-station bars, ship-stealing heist missions and more. I think this is why the vocal sections throw me for a loop; the music of my references rarely contains those elements.

Perhaps what surprises me the most is the volume level. It's not amped right up, but pitched lower. This allows for some more subtle sounds to be fused into the mix without getting swallowed whole. It's a world away from late nineties and early 2000s radio dance tracks that I recall (perhaps through stereotype-enforcing goggles, to be fair!). 

There are times when it flies closer to those themes, though thus far even the most egregious of them has been mitigated by the general volume level and the low contrast between elements. 

I think Outgrown must have been one of the samples I heard online, there's a keyboard line in there adding a nice bit of melody. It's a little bit swallowed in the hailstorm of electronics and the constant halo of the structural pulses, but it's there as a little beacon of calm, and the overall effect is nice, even if the track is probably a little busier than I would like in an ideal world. This listen is the last act of the day, a day in which I have been productive but felt completely listless away from the moments of key activity. 

There are two tracks to go and having just seen off what I suspect is the weakest offering on the album I am not expecting much from them beyond carrying on the general ambience of the disc. I can't say this is going to jump into regular rotation or become a favourite, but it's also not been an instant rejection either. There are enough soft edges here to make it good for reflection, switch off and relaxation, even when it is at its busiest. In time I might want to cut the more vocal-heavy tracks back, but I think even they deserve at least a second listen.

All Melody - Nils Frahm

Track list:

1. The Whole Universe Wants to Be Touched
2. Sunson
3. A Place
4. My Friend the Forest
5. Human Range
6. Forever Changeless
7. All Melody
8. #2
9. Momentum
10. Fundamental Values
11. Kaleidoscope
12. Harm Hymn

Running time: 73 minutes
Released: 2018

So another insert here, as I decided I did want to follow up on investigating Nils Frahm after the collaboration with Ólafur Arnalds. The first disc sold me, even though I was disappointed by the second.

The first, short, intro tune starts with ~10 seconds of silence. In a sub-2 minute track that's a significant chunk of time. I can see how and why silence might be used in structuring pieces, but I do wonder about tacking it on to the start or end of the track. In a live performance it might set tone and expectation, but on record? Not so sure.

This is a long disc and I have got up early on a Sunday to make time for it. I failed to find the right energy to do it last night (wash out all round, alas) and am trying to set that right. Soon I have to go off to do a huge shop (for two separate households) and then play dutiful son for a while. Yesterday was cleaning mold from windows that hadn't seen a cleanse in too long. Life's full of fun, eh?

It takes a little while to kick in, but Sunson has the pulsing staccato electronics that endeared the first disc of the Frahm/Arnalds collaboration to me. These kind of rhythms and patterns appeal to me a lot, I wonder why? A constant reference point, perhaps, or a subconscious connection to the heartbeat? I don't think "pulse" is a bad term for it at all. Over the top of this there are wandering pipes. I am reminded a little of Vangelis of all people. There is a little bit of a throwback vibe here. Then, about two thirds of the way through the track just stops. This is better use of silence, a reset, reformulate. The theme that comes back after the break is immediately relevant to what went before but framed very differently, so the quick enforced quiet between the two presentations allows for that relationship without the change being jarring or lost.

I find this hard to place. There's more going on in the pieces than perhaps I expected there would be so it's less immediately relaxing than I anticipated. Finding the words to describe where it would sit is tough. 

Vangelis probably is my best touchstone or reference point, despite this being less synth heavy, because of the variety. There are similarities in the structuring of the tracks and themes moreso than the actual sounds. Even the use of space, such as in the nice keyboard melody on My Friend the Forest, has echoes of the Greek. Actually here I feel there are actual melodic reflections of Vangelis tracks too, albeit with a more stripped down sound. The next track then veers off in a different direction, with taught trumpets that remind me of Scandinavian jazz, but with a slow tempo that, in combination, is really quite disturbing and hard to listen to.

By contrast, when Frahm brings out the keyboard, he has a nice, light touch, surprisingly so.

Is the title meant to be ironic? All Melody starts with anything but. Sure, a tune emerges from the electronics as it moves forward but it is not immediately melodic. My point of reference here dives to Ben Prunty's soundtrack for sci-fi roguelike FTL, a frustrating little game scored perfectly to enhance its tension.  Here the track builds a similar sense of edginess, the sound rounds out over time and the crescendo this involves is effective at subtly ratcheting up that dial further too. The track evolves as it goes, whilst always maintaining that tense aspect. 

You know, I totally missed a change of track there. The electronic rhythm seemed to continue right through with no break, and when you're talking two back-to-back 9 minute tunes...I am liking this mid section of the album though. Pulse, tempo, and tension. Ambient or electronica can be waffly and vague, purposeless. These three elements give it form and structure, give something to get your teeth into, something to lose yourself in, rather than simply losing track of the tune. 

I am losing track of this though... my mind has checked out, seeking refuge in nothingness as an antidote to the day ahead. I look forward to the day when I don't feel put upon, but I don't know if my mind will ever let me get there. We're almost through the album now, Kaleidoscope and its messy approximation of wind chimes and devotional singing is a but jarring. The low vocals on their own are nicely curated but the sounds layered over them are less appealing. It seemed as though the track got better in the latter stages of its 8 minute timeframe but to be honest I think I blocked out the bits that were less immediately accessible to me and concentrated on the part that I enjoyed

Overall this has been a strange listen for a number of reasons. The music itself is certainly one, but the timing (starting before 9am on a Sunday) is probably the key one, along with cutting away between tracks to get things done. It's not ideal, but then neither is finding a 73 minute block to dedicate when life continues on. I need my space and time, but for my own wellbeing I need to find a way to continue things like this, too... if I am not, it means my energy levels are down and I'm probably in a rut. 

The final track ends with silence, more than 10 seconds worth, but still a noticeable mirror to how it began. Overall I think there are some wonderful moments in this disc but it struggles to maintain the peak quality throughout.