Come From Heaven - Alpha

Track list:

1. My Things
2. Rain
3. Sometime Later
4. Delaney
5. Hazeldub
6. Slim
7. Come From Heaven
8. Back
9. Nyquil
10. Apple Orange
11. With
12. Firefly
13. Somewhere Not Here

Running time: 68 minutes
Released: 1997

I can't remember when I picked this up, but it was long, long after it was released, and solely on the basis of a Massive Attack connection. That said I do have some one-off tracks by Alpha scattered through my collection it seems so maybe they led me to the album. I recall being profoundly disappointed with it and don't think I am consciously able to identify any of these tracks, but now it is time to give it its fair shot.

It's straight in to its first loop, no intro. It's a fairly slow, long pattern and the top end of it is not the most interesting. I have a feeling that this listen could become a slog in at least a couple of ways already. To be fair one of those is not the fault of Alpha; that this is the first full weekend I'll have at home in 3 weeks; that I've spent most of the day thus far (and all of the last weekend at home) doing chores, that I've been ridiculously busy of late. But the fact this is downtempo stuff really doesn't help.

Downtempo isn't necessarily bad, far from it, but it does rather lead to a sleepy atmosphere, and when tired that has a knock-on effect. Paying attention for close to 70 minutes of this will test my wakefulness, regardless of what I think of the music. So far, so little. Second track, Rain, has a vocal that sounds pretty phoned in over a similarly bland loop as the opener. The repetitiveness of it is a major drawback - both in terms of my staying alert and in terms of how enjoyable the track is. The loop itself is too strong, too forceful, too central. The variations that really should be making and breaking these tracks are subservient to the structural pieces rather than the other way around. It's all a little turgid, a little stolid and a little guileless.

It probably also doesn't help that I think I am coming down with something... can't keep my throat clear, so I am on the whisky to try to burn whatever it is out. That kind of discomfort and grogginess doesn't make the glacial pace any more palatable though. Three tracks in and I am sorely tempted to write off the whole lot and be done with it. The third is the worst yet - a 7 minute long trudge with nothing of any interest. The vocal is uninspired, the backing seems to alternate between two long-held notes ad nauseam.  Yawn. I am struggling to find something positive to comment on to break up my negativity - I don't like to be too monotonously scathing - but not finding anything.

At least the 7 minute thing is over?

The soporific nature of these tunes is only matched by the sheer boredom of waiting for a couple of minutes every so often for the screen to catch up with my fingers as I type. For some reason Firefox is hanging with a worrying degree of regularity. I really should make the full-time jump to Chrome as FF seems to get worse every week by comparison.

Stopping early is against the spirit of the project. I really shouldn't do it... but I want to, so much, as this is pretty much the worst thing I have encountered to date in my listens. Not worst as in most offensive, not worst as in unlistenable, but worst in terms of simply having nothing to get even remotely interested or excited about. Hazeldub, playing now, is the least worst track so far but even this feels quite poorly stitched together.

A lot has happened since I did my last listen, at the end of a week when I got up a head of steam again. That was 20 days ago. Since then I've been to Moscow for a long week of meetings, and had weeks either side of that in which I have barely had room to breathe, certainly no chance of sitting down to really listen to anything. From that point of view I was dead keen to fit a listen in today. If only the album had been at all interesting. For the sake of not becoming even more of a broken record I am going to stop typing for a bit and really try to search for something to break the monotony of complaint. Fingers crossed, here goes...

There is a nice bit! A break in the pattern as Slim turns in, the vocal is set free a bit and the support goes nice and light. It's nothing special, but in the context of what is around it it's like a droplet of ambrosia.

I don't think I am mellowing to this disc, but at the same time it seems to have got less unpalatable in the last few minutes. I think this is to do with a couple of quieter tracks, background reduced, focus on vocal.  It's not enough of an improvement for me to want to keep any of the tunes yet but it is a noticeable step in the right direction. Here and there some more thoughtful, more impactful sounds are coming to the fore.  Just three tunes and 15 minutes still to go. Somehow I have broken the back of this listen... by largely switching off from one of the core conceits of this blog. I don't want this one to set a pattern.

Thing is, Come From Heaven is not bad in a way that is amusing, that can be joked or laughed about easily. Its bad because it's so mediocre, so middle-of-the-road, so dull and bland that there are simply not enough talking points. Even the improvements in the second half of the run time have been baby steps - from dull and boring to pleasant and boring. I am glad I stuck with it, happy to have had a little bit more life in the later tracks even if it is not enough for me to say any of them are worth holding on to.

The album ends with a slow, dreamy track, spoiled by its duration (7 minutes) and its context. It's a high point, not just because it signals the end, but alas the peak is too late, and too low.

Collected - Massive Attack

Track list:

14. Live With Me

Running time: 5 minutes
Released: 2006

This is a singleton, because I bought this just for Live With Me, having all the other tracks from the compilation on their original discs. This one track made a huge impression on me when I first heard it, combining Massive Attack's core sound with the wonderful vocals of Terry Callier.

The strings have a mournfulness to them, and the beat is ominous. Callier's light but soulful voice offers a counterpart, but the lyrics are possessive, obsessive. It's a creepy track in a certain light - though probably meant from a protective, loving standpoint the atmosphere is darker than that.

I didn't but the single track back in 2006; I bought the whole 20+ track greatest hits for this one song; I scrubbed the rest from my library as duplicates long ago. I don't regret the purchase one bit. Callier's voice sets things off perfectly for me and I rather like the dark moodiness of it all despite the creepier interpretations. I do think it has dated some in the last decade, but it's still a darn fine tune.

Blue Lines - Massive Attack

Track list:

1. Safe From Harm
2. One Love
3. Blue Lines
4. Be Thankful For What You've Got
5. Five Man Army
6. Unfinished Sympathy
7. Daydreaming
8. Lately
9. Hymn Of The Big Wheel

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 1991

Ten years ago this would definitely have been tagged as a favourite. Now I'm not so certain. I pretty much guarantee I'll love it, but it isn't a disc I return to often. I have the original, not the remastered version and I think that I got into this through my brother - not unusual way back when; though he is younger than me he bought more music than I when we were in our teens. To think this is almost 25 years old now... its a true classic, but how does it listen this much later?

Two full albums in a day... I could be listening to this year's Mercury winner (which I need to do some point soon having picked it up, and it being an A), but the only reason I am doing this post now is that I want to hear these tunes.

The bass riff that forms the structure of Safe From Harm is iconic, Shara Nelson's vocal is amazing. Talk about setting a tone in the first 30 seconds. The periphery of the bass is incidental. There's stuff there but that riff is so strong. I have the disc of the samples that inspired Massive Attack somewhere in the future so that I can appreciate the source but there is no doubt at all that this stands as a shining example of how to sample and enhance. At 5 minutes the track feels short, compared with the tunes I listened to earlier which overstayed their welcome. I really should tag this "favourites" after all so I have. It only took 10 seconds to convince me.

Horace Andy appears for the first time on One Love. It never ceases to amaze me how many Massive Attack tunes are made or broken by this man. Either by the application of his vocal, or by virtue of being re-imaginings of songs from his past. There is a cool menace in the track here, and that combination of words is not a natural one. It's funny what the slightly tipsy brain will produce. In addition to wanting, and indulging, to listen to this now, I have a) just watched ep. 3 of London Spy - some very nice scenes - and seen trails for Luther and Line of Duty, two shows I am very pleased will reappear on screen soon. It's been a good evening in that regard.

Blue Lines sees us exposed to early Tricky for the first time, less angry here than on his own stuff. The interplay between the vocalists is nice, backed by a very chilled rhythm. Its a style that is really hard to deliver well - there is almost nothing to it in places. Many imitators since have failed to pull off the heady blend... just recently I branded Abraham lazy and faddish for their light-touch downbeat electronica. This is how to achieve that chillout goal whilst still being engaging. Do it first.

The sweet transition into Be Thankful for What You've Got is a magical moment. It's born from a pointed end to Blue Lines, and the immediate uptake of a rhythm so funky its not funny. Like much of the work that covers Horace Andy, this is not sample so much as cover, which I had never really appreciated. The original is on Protected so I'll compare and contrast in, I dunno, a decade? I am sure I've said on these pages before that I went to uni in Bristol, and in my first year there, after Massive Attack released Mezzanine I stayed late in the run-up to Christmas to see these guys play the Student Union. It remains a fond, if faded, memory. Later, when I was studying in Bath, I used to travel over to Bristol every week to game. On my way from station to location I walked through the parts of the city that spawned the Bristol Sound, and in that way you do, you think you see local celebs from time to time. Don't know if I ever really did though. Thought I saw Beth Gibbons of Portishead in a sandwich shop once too. Hah.

Five Man army comes and goes, a nice groove but really just a fill-in before the undoubted high point of Unfinished Sympathy. This really is a modern classic, a truly iconic tune in more ways than one. I get goose pimples as it starts, that off-kilter tapping, not quite tuneful bells and the sampled "hey hey hey hey". It is the start of the strings and the vocal that really set things moving though. Nelson's voice creams it, soulful and yearning, the strings speaking to loss. There is one moment at 2:24, when the piano comes in for a quick bridge that I always loved. It has less impact now, perhaps because I was so anticipating it. It's amazing the interplay between the percussion, which is tense and snappy, and the tune which is laid back and easy. They bottled something and released it here. 

Daydreaming has never really worked for me - as a concept or a song. The backing track just doesn't quite do it for me. Here the rhythm of it gets overpowering, a loop too far in terms of its impact on the experience for me... its very easy to get sucked into that beat pattern and miss everything else, which is what happened to me just now. Lately changed it up and I suddenly snapped out of a wander. This has the same problem of an over-bearing central hook, but manages it better through strings and another Nelson vocal which follows the pattern of the rhythm in an interesting way.

The album ends with another high point. The Hymn of the Big Wheel is just a gorgeous little rhythm behind a very simple tune, but it owes all of its magic to Horace Andy's vocal. Man, I love the way he sings this. All love, released; free. In truth, re-tagging it as a favourite is probably a bit of a push. There are to my mind four stand out songs on this disc: Safe From Harm, Be Thankful... Unfinished Sympathy and this. It's less than half of the album, but these tunes are timelessly good and elevate an enjoyable if somewhat surpassed effort to something that few discs can really claim to match: genre definition.

The Best Kept Secrets: The Best of Lamb 1996-2004 - Lamb

Track list:

1. Cotton Wool
2. God Bless
3. Gold
4. Gorecki
5. Little Things
6. B Line
7. Lullaby
8. Bonfire
9. Heaven
10. One
11. Gabriel
12. Angelica
13. Til The Clouds Clear
14. Wonder
15. Please
16. Stronger

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 2004

Lamb. Not sure why I have this... probably led to it via other "trip-hoppy" groups. Lamb were never a group I was abreast of when they were current and I have never really listened to this after acquiring it so whilst I have a reasonable idea of what sort of thing this disc contains, I am far from familiar with any of its contents. Depressingly it runs to over an hour, which means it is probably too long since my last post. If not, consider this more evidence of how I prepare the content for this backwater.

...

I wrote the paragraph above as I was setting up this post, immediately on finishing the last one.I predicted a long gap but even I didn't expect a whole month. June was a disaster of small things mounting up, and the early part of July has been dominated by recovering from finally sorting those things out. Hopefully I can establish some kind of rhythm again, though with the Ashes on radio to dominate my listening and a frankly poor run of things to get through before the interesting albums start again I have a degree of self-doubt there. Anyway, enough babbling and whinging, get on with it Graham!

We start with a dingy hook and a light vocal piercing the darkly reverberating space it leaves. I know none of these tracks, so this is a voyage of discovery as well as an attempt to kickstart the stalled project. Structure of electronically produced percussion is added, but the vocal is left to carry the tune on its own for the most part. It's a very odd introduction but not unwelcome. There is something trance-inducing about the percussive edge and darkly swirling sounds melded with it. Not brilliant or inspired, just a bit different and interesting in a way that, say Tricky's Angels With Dirty Faces was not for me. It loses my interest at the end of Cotton Wool by adding fairground-like pipes; ugh. I think the thing this most reminds me of, as God Bless begins, is the tracks that Sinead O'Connor recorded with Massive Attack on 100th Window. Whilst I would not say anything here is as accomplished as Massive Attack at their best, they probably do provide the best touchstone. Lamb are a little more pared back and stripped down though.

My feeling is that these two opening tracks have both been a little too long for their own good, and a glance at the player confirms they are both 5+ minutes, giving plenty of time to get a bit stale despite having reasonably solid core themes and ideas. I particularly like the vocal, much lighter than I was expecting, soft edges rather than a harder tone, and this contrasts the often very stark backing. These tracks are crafted to showcase the vocal component in places and do so effectively. I am not completely sold on the composition and arrangements yet.

Gold continues the trend of being just too long and - frankly - a bit too samey. Now we hit Gorecki, which a quick search indicates is their "signature". Backing of softly applied strings creates a crucible for the singing early on, overworked percussion joining to smear the contrast later. The piece does not work for me... too similar, nothing standing out, same faults at the prior tracks. I feel like I am still on the start line with this listen. The main problem is that whilst the sparse arrangements were interesting up front, there really isn't any long term engagement there, I can find more interesting programming elsewhere. I will say I love the singing but other than that? Patience wearing thin. At least the tracks get a bit shorter from here... hopefully punchier and more memorable too.

Ah, Little Things is familiar - more urgent, a more understandable percussive form to it. Fast, immediate and grungy. As a mood piece, very nice threat and edge to it. Not a comfortable listen but all the better for that. The central section, which drops the voice, is a little bland but without it the skittishness would not be quite the same. The jump into B Line is ugly - the start of the new piece really leaving a lot to be desired and just when I thought it might be getting better it devolves into a sonic mess, a pattern that unfortunately repeats again within the same track.

So far this is not creating a positive impression; I am left with the thought that if this is their best of then what was the main corpus of their work like?!

Lullaby is braver, better. Stepping away from mediocre beats that override as much or more than they support. Instead we have the voice sitting in a well of orchestral strings, the singing bringing the darkness along with a hint of bass line. Maybe this marks a swing in the pieces, as Bonfire seems to be a step in a similar direction, a slight dissonance with the echoing vocal, twice recorded, and atmosphere and tension building. Strings and piano taking over the accompaniment from clicks, whirrs and beats. My complaint, because I have to have one, is that lyrically it is rubbish, losing a lot of the impression that the voice makes to inanity. Shame really, I can see so much that is right in here, but the results seem to be dominated by the bits that are wrong.

I am only half way through. My stamina for this is waning - I have not sat at these keys trying to concertedly type for this long in a while... other than writing up my ongoing Albion game when sessions happen, but that has been as affected by recent events as this blog - not having the mental energy to approach writing up the material amidst a need to keel over after getting in the door. I digress because it feels like Lamb have, too. Heaven sounds like it should have been done by someone else - too light, too floaty - it does not fit with what has been, and does not address my problems with what I have been hearing.

The dark tone comes back with One, and is welcome. I have a fondness for slightly grubby sounds that evoke shady back alley deals, conflicts barely held back and danger in every shadow. I think it appeals to the gamer in me as the dirty darkness is pregnant with potential drama. Alas I am not convinced that there is enough to this to make good use of those themes. Just a little too... repetitive? Maybe. Too derivative? Well what isn't? Hard to put my finger on it. Gabriel, like Heaven ditches that tone and as a result sounds like a thousand and one other songs that I cannot name and have no desire to listen to again. Bland, not bad, everything it does done better somewhere else by someone else.

Is this best of really that bad? Probably not. I think in other circumstances, perhaps in the context of the original albums, I might have had a more positive response to Lamb. Angelica sounds awfully familiar... must be the Debussy sample that has been used elsewhere. Actually I think this track really works, uses the sample well.

The tone definitely seems to have shifted. In place of the darkness and electronica now we have light acoustic ballads? OK then. Musically it is plodding, unpromising to start, but interesting when the thrusting percussion appears unexpectedly... the only constant seems to be the pleasant singing voice. Veering from bland and boring to over-stimulation would work better for me if the two poles were placed slightly closer together. Contrast is good, but this feels more like a bait and switch than a coherent whole.

Wonder reminds me of How Do from Becoming X, so similar is the structure, the lightness and indeed the contrast with most of the rest of the album the song is being consumed with. Its not as good as the Sneaker Pimps track to my mind, and I really don't need both of them. Wonder just feels a little bland somehow.

I am glad to be winding down this listen, less glad to have had my fears for it be proved true. A couple of tracks will be held on to but the majority are for the bin. I really must sort out a better writing position if I am going to keep going with this (and that is still the plan, despite the long hiatus) as my back is aching an hour into this listen. I don't know what to do about that because it's just so convenient having a laptop on my coffee table for general use.

As for the remaining tracks... Please is just dull, bland. Stronger, which will end this post starts promisingly but ultimately does not grow as it could. The electro-funk bass which kicks in for the final third feels like it has warped in from a completely different genre but does at least bring a little more depth and so, maybe, just rescues the song from the precipice of disappointment.

Overall? Yeah, this does not do it for me. Couple of highlights, but mostly chaff. I found the transition in style over the course of the album interesting, suggesting that tracks were arranged chronologically to some degree, and there were good points - be they specific ideas, good use of vocal or whatever - scattered around the various tracks. Overall, though, it just lacks something intangible, never quite up to enough to make it stand out or to raise Lamb to the bar set by their contemporaries or genre neighbours.

Angels With Dirty Faces - Tricky

Track List:

1. Money Greedy
2. Mellow
3. Singing the Blues
4. Broken Homes
5. 6 Minutes
6. Analyze Me
7. The Moment I Feared
8. Talk to Me (Angels with Dirty Faces)
9. Carriage for Two
10. Demise
11. Tear out My Eyes
12. Record Companies
13. Peyote Sings
14. Taxi

Running time: 59 minutes
Released: 1998

Massive Attack have already appeared in this project; this album is from an alumnus of the same scene in Bristol. My first exposure to Tricky was unknowingly through Massive Attack; the first exposure I actually recall was not much liking the video for Makes Me Wanna Die... That said the video I can find online for that song doesn't match the one in my memory, so it is probably another track I am thinking of, even if none of the titles seem right for the memory. 

I somehow missed his earlier solo work, but picked it up later after moving to Bristol for uni. None of the track titles here jump out at me with recognition, and before googling to grab the track list (you don't think I type them all out each time do you?) I had no idea that PJ Harvey appeared on any of his material. So despite owning this, I am pretty ignorant of it. Time to change that.

OK, the first thing I notice is a lot of disruption of the sound. Not sure whether this is a deliberate decision in the creation of the track or an artefact of preparation and presentation. It is most audible in Tricky's voice on Money Greedy; the song itself I find lacking, a dull riff/rhythm combo and not much else of note going on for a whole 5 minutes. The same problem affects Mellow - the music on the track just does nothing to excite me. The whispered, husky vocal is interesting (if indistinct), and provides a USP for the tune, but it is not enough in and of itself to sustain interest.

Singing the Blues is the third track in a row that gives me the same problem. The groove, the hook, the beats - that is pretty much all there is to these tracks, no melody at all. That is not a problem if those things are stellar, but what I am hearing falls short. Repetitive, too consistent, ultimately boring rather than unpleasant. I hope for an upturn as the album moves along but a strong pattern would need to be broken for that to happen. Even PJ Harvey's tones cannot snap me out of the drudgery - her vocal on Broken Homes is within the range of what you might expect but it is saddled with the same uninspired backing, only lightened in places by a harmonic backing vocal. I could simply not be in the mood for dirt and grime, but more pertinently I think what I am hearing is more a child of its time and has not aged well.

Aha, a more interesting track? Maybe. Tricky brings his familiar vocal style to a party with a faster beat. Unfortunately the track is still lacking anything else for these to play off against and so 6 minutes also falls flat for me: the rhythmic pattern can only sustain interest so far. I doubt at this point that I will be keeping any track from the album. Half way through and not even green shoots of change, of any extra depth to the tracks. It just hit me that this is drum'n'bass-like, but with the bass recorded low enough to be barely audible over the drums, and both parts relying far too heavily on a single loop. I am sure there is a lot more depth here than I am giving it credit for, but I just cannot hear it, and the patterns are too dull to draw me in.

I have zoned out; droned out my brain by attending to other things. There is little here of interest to the modern me. The last two tracks are listed as "bonus" numbers, but they feel like penalties. In truth, I doubt I ever listened to these tunes much even when I picked the album up and I will not miss them. I feel like what is here... well, it sounds like the top half of every song was simply forgotten, not recorded, not mixed. Some of the percussion/bass interplay is reasonably good and if there was almost anything else going on over it the songs could be transformed to my ear. Alas, that was not there and my last hour has been pretty much an aural endurance trial as a result.

I acknowledge that I am not the target audience, that my need for a bit more going on over the base provided is my issue, not the artist's, but whilst I am no longer completely ignorant of this album, it was so much not to my taste that in some ways (like having the last hour back) I wish I was.

100th Window - Massive Attack

Track List:

1. Future Proof
2. What Your Soul Sings
3. Everywhen
4. Special Cases
5. Butterfly Caught
6. A Prayer for England
7. Small Time Shot Away
8. Name Taken
9. Antistar

Running time: 73 minutes
Released: 2003

I've been away a bit, not jacked the project in quite so soon. Back from a 5 day jaunt to Scandiwegia to see an old friend and the 4 kids they have had since we last met. Squeezing this in before I am off away again - this time to my niece's 4th birthday party. Life is busy sometimes, just not often.

Everyone (pretty much) thinks Massive Attack peaked with Mezzanine. They are probably all right.* Seeing them play Bristol Student Union just after that album was released is still a highlight, 16 years on.

My memory tells me that there are good songs on 100th Window, which was what followed, but also some weaker material. And the 19 minute length of Antistar reminds me of hidden track nonsense.

Future Proof confirms that initial thought - I have always liked this track. It is dark and brooding, good mood music for an urban or cyberpunk RPG session, with the electronic clicks reminiscent of background static in a slightly frantic percussive manner. The light airy vocal, disconnected from the ominous track enforces that sense of unease; it works for me. We then move on to the first of 3 tracks voiced by Sinéad O'Connor.  I think that, at the time, I did not realise all 3 tracks with female vocals were O'Connor - not sure why. I certainly did not realise at the time that Damon Albarn (credited as 2D from Gorillaz) was involved, but back then I thought Blur were shite and nothing of Albarn as an artist. Times change us. I am not fond of What Your Soul Sings, I just find it really bland - lyrically, vocally, musically, it is just dull. It is also too long, but that makes it feel such a relief when it gives way to Everywhen. I fell in love with Horace Andy's vocals the first time I heard him on a Massive Attack record (probably One Love or Hymn of the Big Wheel from Blue Lines), and picked up some collections of his reggae recordings later on, to find that several Massive Attack songs with him doing a new vocal are pretty much re-recordings. I do not think Everywhen is in that category, but I could be wrong. It plays a bit like a less urgent Future Proof, with an unsettling, dangerous air, a floaty voice and relatively clean sound in place of the more chaotic opener. I would say it is a slightly more hopeful track, but it is hope stemming from darkness all the same, and a rich darkness at that. It is probably the best track on this album for my money, and my instinct is that 100th Window's bolt is now shot.

Special Cases is more O'Connor; it is less dull than What Your Soul Sings and there is much more going on but I still cannot find any love for it. The doomy theme continues, which makes it powerful background sound, but for actually listening to? No thanks. I do not own any Sinéad O'Connor records and do not find her voice doing anything for me, though I do think A Prayer for England utilises her better (or perhaps it is just a better song). As Butterfly Caught starts, I find myself not recognising it which is slightly disturbing, and the first of what I guess will be many such experiences of going "oh, that's not what I thought it was" for this project. Not knowing stuff before I get to it is one thing, but not recognising something I thought I knew is different, unsettling. Like this track (which I recognise once more once the vocal comes in). An edginess and paranoia flow from my speakers, quite at odds with the brightness of the day outside. It is midmorning on a Friday - not the ideal time to immerse oneself in the themes of this record.

My time in Brizzle was right at the tail end of the Bristol sound ("don't call it Trip-Hop") era. Mezzanine was just out and was the end of that era of Massive Attack, Portishead had gone on their long break etc. I also lived in very different parts of the city to those that spawned the edginess. Still, I feel a degree of affinity to the place and the music it spawned even now, when it is a part of my life that is fading in memory - contacts lost, friends rarely seen etc. Listening to these bands brings back those thoughts.

Yeah - A Prayer For England is just a better song. There is purpose in the driving bass, menace even. That links with the urgency of the vocal and the lyrics and the slightly shorter length to produce a much more compelling listen. There is almost a relief when it gives way to the more chilled Small Time Shot Away; chilled, but still dark. More cyberpunk mood music. Albarn's backing vocal is so indistinct that I miss it even knowing it is there now - I mean, it is audible in places, but hard to tell who it is. The last 30 seconds of the track are really weak... continuation for continuation's sake and I am definitely relieved when Name Taken starts. It is another slow dark menace sound, rather than urgent dark menace (this album only has two flavours). Andy is back, again floating over the music angelically, reinforcing him being up there as one of my favourite male vocalists of all time - along with the sadly missed Terry Callier - who, of course, provided the vocal on Massive Attack's Live With Me (along with Paradise Circus from Heligoland, which was used as the theme for the BBC's Luther, the only great tracks Massive Attack produced since Teardrop). I am certainly struggling to find too many other names to challenge those two on a purely vocal level.

Ah, now we're into the dregs. Antistar just started and I cannot find much to like in its opening refrains. Calling the bolt shot after Everywhen was harsh as although the middle of the album is not superb it generally retains a level of interest and is certainly keeping a consistent theme which makes the album as a whole a very attractive keeper. The vocal mellows Antistar a bit, but not enough to make it a good listen; the menace is still there though and I realise that for proper mood music I would want to dump the vocal anyway as it would be a distraction. Too bad.

Right, now to see about this secret track bullshit. It actually starts fairly promptly - which is good - but as I recalled it is just a loopy, oscillating, bassy sound which lasts far too long. It ceases to be interesting almost as soon as it starts and... zzz

* If anything, it was earlier.

The 5th Exotic - Quantic

Track List:

1. Introduction
2. The 5th Exotic
3. Snakes in the Grass
4. Infinite Regression
5. Life in the Rain
6. Long Road Ahead
7. Common Knowledge
8. The Picture Inside
9. Through These Eyes
10. Time is the Enemy
11. In the Key of Blue
12. Meaning

Runtime: 52 Minutes
Released: 2001

So WMP ignores "The" at the start of album titles as well as in artist names when ranking alphabetically; ok. I am not looking forward to this one. I suspect that my taste has shifted enough for me to find this album tedious (and given there are two more to come with the Quantic name on them...), but here we go. It starts with a voice recording intro, so far, so quaint and unoriginal, then quickly moves into the title track which is humdrum, generic electronica. A so-so hook, tinny sounds and occasional voice samples do not make for great interest.

I think I picked this up on the strength of an Amazon recommendation, probably after I fell in love with Bonobo's Animal Magic - an album I still enjoy - because they're in a similar vein. Hopefully my poor impression will be dispelled some and my hostility towards this inoffensive downbeat shuffling might prove to be misplaced.

The problem is not that inoffensive downbeat shuffle is necessarily a bad thing; it certainly has its place. The problem is that it is terrible for actually listening to, rather than providing a convenient low background hum to conversation because so little actually happens to engage the ear. Weirdly this album is likely to prove full of the sorts of tracks I do not skip if the player is set to random, because they work as scenery... just not the sort of stunning scenery that draws you to a place. Each of the tracks is likely to be a touch too long and a whole lot too repetitive to reward paying real attention, whilst having one feature that lodges quite pleasantly in the ear and would have you nodding along as you chat to someone over a glass of wine, or whatever.

The most annoying thing to date (and I am in to track 4 now) is the voice samples - presumably from film or radio. I like the technique, and artful use of such is a feature of some other music that will feature in this blog if I maintain momentum - such as Public Service Broadcasting or Lemon Jelly - but I do not get the feeling that the craft in choosing these samples and matching them to the music is to the same high level here. It is a debut, and I feel that it shows. Every track sounds like it could have been done slightly better by a different artist; the disc as a whole feels like it is constantly missing something. In many ways that is far more mean than is deserved. It is after all not unpleasant, it is fundamentally inoffensive after all. It is just that I am now halfway through Common Knowledge and I do not feel that anything has changed since I hit play, other than it is half an hour later.

There is, of course, a lot more variation to the tracks than I make out. Each one does have a subtly different flavour of inoffensive downbeat shuffle going on... wait, I have just hit one that breaks the mould a little. It's actually a mildly offensive downbeat shuffle instead due to the harshness of snares and a very drone-like overlay. It is just that there is not enough variation within the tracks, nothing that grabs attention and makes you interested in how it plays out or fits with the other elements. Again, this makes it pretty good background music but I cannot help but feel that "good background music" is a goal that any self-respecting musician should shoot for if not explicitly providing a soundtrack or accompaniment piece.

At least the beats have got slight more interesting as the disc goes on and give me something positive to focus on when listening. Unfortunately the melodies have got less interesting at about the same rate, and those vocal samples are still there. As I am being disparaging here, I find it amusing that WMP is actually uprating each track as it plays, by virtue of being left to play right through. I have not got the heart to correct the mistake.

I just hit Time is the Enemy and actually I am enjoying this track a lot more. It is still best characterised as inoffensive downbeat shuffle but there are more layers here, more little things to draw the ear. Beats and melody both have reasonable patterns and there is just that touch extra going on that moves it into the realm of me listening rather than absorbing. It isn't a great track, but it is a good one. Comfortably the best on the disc so far and all the better for not dragging out too long.

I think the real problem with shuffle is that actually it is really hard to do well. I cannot help but think that the percussion on In the Key of Blue reminds me of something. I think it is Three by Massive Attack, but the resemblance is slight. It has kept a higher level of interest than the earlier tracks though, so I feel safe saying that this album gets better as it goes. Meaning closes the album; I feel relieved to have got here; it is classic shuffle, terminated by a vocal sample which actually makes the end feel quite sudden. And welcome.

The 5th Exotic will not be a casualty; the appeal of the shuffle for a shuffled library is strong enough for it to remain. It will never be listened to like this again though. Inoffensive downbeat shuffle has become another unique LastFM tag.

Update: after sitting through An Announcement to Answer and getting through a number more albums, cutting stuff I liked more than this, I have decided to get rid of most of The 5th Exotic, only keeping the two tracks I had something (even mildly) positive to say about.