Come On Die Young - Mogwai

Track list:

1. Punk Rock:
2. Cody
3. Helps Both Ways
4. Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia
5. Kappa
6. Waltz for Aidan
7. May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door
8. Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up
9. Ex-Cowboy
10. Chocky
11. Christmas Steps
12. Punk Rock/ Puff Daddy/ Antichrist

Running time: 67 minutes
Released: 1999

As much as I love Mogwai, I've never really got on with CODY as an album. It has always been down the pecking order for me. Probably because I came to the group late, and picked this up by going backwards not forwards. Still, now it's time to listen properly.

Punk Rock: isn't, but the synergy of the voice with the gentle wandering guitar is better than it has any right to be. The louder moments of the sampled voice track (TV show interview I guess) are less effective, crowd noise is not particularly engaging. It is snowing outside, I have not been sleeping well the past week or so and I have been overly social in that time, too - only one weekday evening and today, Sunday afternoon, to myself. I need that alone time to recharge, and hopefully the next hour or so can contribute to that.

I suspect I will enjoy the listen more than I anticipated when I wrote the intro (a long time back given the sparse postings and need to fill in As and Bs that I bought), and come away with a new appreciation for this record, but still - 67 minutes is a marathon, not a sprint. The listen is putting off consideration of how to handle a complex scenario in the RPG I am running, the washing up and various other things I don't really feel like doing right away, so the gentle meandering of the title track is a rather apt form of procrastination. I am actually pretty familiar with track Cody from the live album Special Moves, which I listened to a lot whilst driving in the couple of years after it came out.

Thus far the tone of the disc is subdued, placid, with a tempo to match. It's really rather relaxing, a long way from the quiet/loud dichotomy or the wall of guitar noise that crops up in many Mogwai offerings. The most interesting factor so far has been the use of American TV soundbites. One actually spans two tracks, linking Helps Both Ways to Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia. This latest tune has the most body of anything so far, but is still in keeping with the easy overall tone.Not having ready up on the album, I don't know if this continues throughout, whether it was a deliberate choice by the band to mellow out, or whether the longer tunes coming up in the second half are more immediately recognisible as Mogwai.

To be fair, I'd like to think that if I heard any of these tunes in isolation without knowing them I would still be able to guess the creators because its not a million miles from their signature either.

I am enjoying this little oasis of calm. I am half way through per the track list, but a lot less than that in truth. The back half contains 4 tracks over 8 minutes and 2 at around the two-minute mark, whereas the first half was made up, generally, of standard radio song length pieces. The first of those long tunes does not shake up the formula, the easy-paced, light melodies. It does introduce some more strident strumming, but still within a slow paced formula. At this point the form is starting to wear a little thin for me in some respects. Whilst I appreciate the overall tone I am increasingly finding my mind is wandering because it is all a little too samey. Then Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up comes in with a weird old voice sample and and being completely out of place - old-timey, slightly off-key piano, and a sort of screeching background. I think that tune has to go.

Three epics back to back now.

For some reason when I see the track title Ex-Cowboy, the cattlemen of the American west is not the first thing that comes to mind. I think instead of Football, and Bloodbowl, of Dallas and Darkside. Perhaps it is an affectation, sport on the brain, influenced perhaps by the silenced snooker on my TV right now? I really like the main riff here though I find myself semi-tuned out because the pattern is set, and the track does not seem to have enough of a crescendo. Of course, it arrives as I am typing that last sentence, a sort of helicopter-blade swirl of sound applied over the top of the same riff at the same pace and amplitude. A screech, a scream, an objection to something.

A nod to earlier, the static the tune ends with is used as a bridge between tracks, and Chocky kicks off with a lot of dissonant sound humming and buzzing around, obscuring a gentle piano intro. I find this to be unwelcome. One tune fades, another rises, and then the fuzz clears and we actually have a piece of music with a discernible structure. A pretty good one at that. There are hints of sounds here that remind me of other songs, snatches of other groups - positive associations. The one that I can't shake that pops up again and again through the track is Red Snapper... I don't recall the track title(s) for the songs I am thinking of though, so I can't explain the reference. Maybe They're Hanging Me Tonight? It's a very different piece, different style tone and everything, but there are echoes here and there, similar sounds used in similarly punctuating ways.

There is a sort of restrained but naked threat in the sound of the first crescendo in Christmas Steps, a sound that had me springing forward in interest and excitement. This is the first really aggressive passage of the album and I like the bolder, brasher sound. The contrast is too late in arriving for me to consider CODY a great album, but this at least provides a great moment. The energy disappears from the track thereafter and it feels like the wind-down lasts too long, but then from a certain perspective the whole record is one c.70 minute come-down with a brief lively moment near the back-end.

The Cinematic Orchestra Presents: In Motion #1 - Various Artists

Track list:

1. Necrology - The Cinematic Orchestra
2. Lapis - Austin Peralta
3. Outer Space - Dorian Concept & Tom Chant
4. Dream Work - Dorian Concept & Tom Chant
5. Entr'acte - The Cinematic Orchestra
6. Regen- Gary Reverend
7. Manhatta - The Cinematic Orchestra

Running time: 79 minutes
Released: 2012

I love The Cinematic Orchestra. There is something about their style of modern jazz that clicks for me. I am not sure that this will exemplify that though, as it is not really a Cinematic Orchestra album - a greater number of the tracks are contributed by others. I don't remember this one at all really, so it's a step into the unknown a little.

This is a collection of 7 long pieces, soundtracks to short films I think. The opening track is the shortest at over 8 minutes, so I anticipate plenty of time to reflect over the next hour and a half. There are 4 tracks in the middle by invitees, but the album is bookended by the Cinematics. Necrology gets us underway with an assertive rhythm-led piece, keys sparkling above it, light touch space forming around it. As we hit the halfway mark there is a more fully formed melody that shares the track with the drum riff, when suddenly both drop out giving a pause for breath, a sense of wonder and reverence. When the tune picks up again, the drum influence is gone for a while; it rejoins, softer than before, still central, but not as dominant.

I have to say, I rather like it. It doesn't have the same instinctive appeal as the works that drew me to The Cinematic Orchestra in the first instance, but it is very much enjoyable.

Austin Peralta's piece, Lapis, is more strings and classical forms. My initial impressions are so-so. Nice enough but not compelling. That feeling persists 3 minutes in, and whilst the track starts to grow it isn't stirring any great emotion in me as I sit with my breakfast and (decaf) coffee. The first point the tune really grabs my attention is 2/3rds of the way through, it goes still, sparse; every note more important for that. Alas, it is dealing with really high ranges, at which I find the strings more of a screech than a pleasant sound. The overall effect of the piece is pastoral. Whilst those straining high notes introduce a tension to it, that tension is quickly sliced through and comes at the expense of me being thrown out of whatever picture I conjured to the tune prior. From there, we head into space...

My first thoughts about this first of two contributions from composers Dorian Concept and Tom Chant are... well, it doesn't really sound that space-like. Devoid a visual to accompany, this feels decidedly less space-like than, say, Mogwai's Atomic does, to pick something I had cause to listen to part of recently. The disconnect between the title and the actual tune grows wider when a horn pipes up and takes centre-stage. Despite that, I find that the tune is sliding by quite fast, certainly not dragging or feeling unwelcome. Unfortunately I miss the rest of the track as I find that I need to fiddle with my bike lights, charging by USB, as I will be cycling later. Bloody USB splitter was only directing any power to one of them, so I had to play about, unplug my mouse and get them both charging that way. Ugh.

Ironically, Dream Work has plenty of the spacey sounds that Outer Space was lacking, an effect conveyed by soft electronic edges to many of the sounds, and a lot more room to breathe around the major themes. For all that, I don't find myself enchanted by it, there are hard edges to a lot of the sounds - the horns in particular - and it is a touch disjointed for me. It feels like the roomy sounds, smooth strings and the staccato horns are all from different compositions that just happen to be overlaid and playing concurrently. This track does feel like it is dragging by the time it starts to wrap up, to be replaced by a 20 minute epic from the Cinematics. I am grateful for the shift.

The opening of Entr'acte is very soft, quiet and understated. When the sound does rise, it is clear that whilst The Cinematic Orchestra might be the artist credit, this is not in the same vein as most of their work. The long drawn out string notes are nice, the sense of space is very much in keeping with their other work, but this is not a lush jazzy sound. This is a mood piece more reminiscent of a Vangelis or a Sigur Rós; I find myself thinking of Soil Festivities in some places, and the general feel of the Icelandic group's quieter tracks at others.

About 6 and a half minutes in there is a shift in tone, it gets a little darker and more tense. That feeling is intensified as we get a creeping bass sound, which is then overlaid by a sort of shredded pulse sound that I cannot work out. Sounds build around this unsettling centre and it swells until we hit a clear call of a note. Then silence. A piano - a melody like To Build a Home from Ma Fleur. Stirring, beautiful. This sits in the middle of the piece, a clear shift from what went before. I don't think this is really one piece in any real sense. The silences between movements belie that. The melody grows into something only to then immediately die out and shrink back. Strings come to swell the overall sound, but at the same time restore that love of the note unplayed, which seems to be a feature of Cinematics compositions.

This time we get a nice crescendo, a real sense of something building up, a subtle groove to the tune, jazz drumming under the classical swell. Oh yes. The top end gives out to frenetic strings as the drums grow in volume and pace. Those strings open out into more beautiful long notes, contrasting with the tight, breathy drums. The latter half of this piece has been top notch... as I say that we hit a snag in the last couple of minutes, as it turns into a twee little ramble then ends on a dark discord. All a little out of place. That detracts from the brilliance of minutes 12-18 in an unfortunate way, but cannot spoil my overall impression of the piece.

Two to go, and another 20 minutes. The Grey Reverend track, Regen, is also credited as a J. Swinscoe (the driving force behind the Cinematics) composition in my file metadata but I have no idea whether this is true. Googling Grey Reverend shows him to be another Ninja Tune artist, a collaborator with The Cinematic Orchestra, and a guitarist. That makes sense as the centrepiece of Regen is a guitar melody which acts as the frame to hang some emotional strings from. The tune meanders along pleasantly but unremarkably, then drops dead at around 7 minutes. It starts again very different, again re-enforcing the idea that these aren't really single tracks. The guitar is sharper, crisper, in this new tune, it stands more or less alone this time, there are other sounds there but they are distinctly second-fiddle and subservient. It is gentle, a stroll, though there seem to be the odd stray notes here and there that make it less comforting than I feel it should be. I don't dislike this piece at all, but at the same time I find it hard to really like, too.

The final piece, back in the hands of the Cinematic Orchestra, is very much movie-music. You feel like the track title is missing the final n, but the piece reflects nothing of Manhattan to me (though I've only been there the once; what do I know) so I wonder if that is meant to be an association we draw or not. The tune is nice, if not enthralling, but I have to admit I find my attention wandering. This has been a long listen and whilst it has been primarily positive, much of it is not the kind of thing you really get into, you know? The tracks are too long for that, and they are cut adrift a little without the visuals they were meant to accompany. As such I feel a tinge of gladness as the final refrains kick in then die down. There is a time and a place for these tunes, and I don't really feel that that is one after the other like this.

Buoyancy - Nils Petter Molvær

Track list:

1. Ras Mohammed
2. Gilimanuk
3. Moute Cave
4. Jackson Reef
5. Puri Jati
6. Lamna Reef
7. Amed
8. Martoli Bridge
9. Kingfish Castle
10. Maddagala

Running time: 45 minutes
Released: 2016

More Scandi-jazz, bought alongside Atmosphères - though I have been familiar with Molvær for longer than Henriksen. I was first attracted by description of how the trumpet was laid on over electronic soundscapes but to be honest since my initial purchase (NP3) I think I may have been picking stuff up based on name recognition and concept rather than any deep appreciation of Molvær's actual material. This will be a good litmus test.

It opens with a heartbeat-sounding throb, but then introduces prog-rockish guitars, the horn lurking inside melodies that wouldn't be out of place in a concept album. The piece picks up some pace about the 2.30 mark and it has a decent life to it, but it is a little removed from anything I could have expected going in. I am starting to wonder whether a trumpet appears at all in this Pink Floydian first tune when I hear a snatch of it, unmistakable. It is not the star though, part of the ensemble here.

As we leave prog-rock behind for the start of the second track, the attention does focus on the blower. This tune is slower, languid, and with a hint of danger. Night time noir music - I have used this description many times by now and I still find it the most easily evocative phrasing for what I mean. Rooted in soundtracks, night shots of cities, aerial or street shots, camera pans - scene setting stuff rather than accompanying the action or showdowns - but definitely reminiscent of a certain type of tension. Jazz is good at this, even when not made by the Americans that come most readily to mind when thinking of Noir. Even when the sounds are more modern than the "classic" noir era would support. I think its fair to say I like Gilimanuk, though the name could use some work.

After a brief interlude we hit a more percussive number, Jackson Reef being driven by a high tempo and heavy on the electronics. The themes that come out dominant are actually slow, low and spaced out affairs, and the contrast between this and the incessant pace set by the drumming creates a decent cauldron before the melodies get a bit of a fuel injection and become more intricate for a while. I prefer the contrast though, and when that comes back the track improves again. About a minute from the end the percussion dies out and we get an outro that feels like a different track. Similarity is maintained in the guitars and the lonely trumpet strikes up to carry us home, outlasting the strands of continuity. It makes for a strange ride of a tune, but apart from the moment where the drums just stop it works quite nicely and organically.

I have, I am sure, mentioned before about my weakness for long, lonely notes. I find that the trumpet is pretty much king when it comes to delivering on this. There is a yearning in the natural timbre of this instrument that when employed in certain fashion or style becomes the dominant and overriding emotion in the piece. Puri Jati has this in spades and I really like it. The tune also manages to hark back to the Bastion soundtrack by virtue of its low-end structures, and that reference makes me smile. The two themes I picked up there should be incongruous in many ways but I find they knit together well. As I consider that, the disc plays on and a slower number lazily reaches out to my ears. There is definite variation on this disc, which is a plus-point... though as I type that the electronics evolve into a high pitched squeak and make for a rather unpleasant end to the track.

Amed is the longest track on the disc. To now, everything has been relatively short and sweet, lending a feeling of momentum even on the tracks with less pace. This one stretches to 9 minutes, and as such I am expecting a centrepiece.

It starts slow, atmospheric, and builds. Mostly bass and trumpet, the former bringing threat and the latter bringing hope. When, about half way through, the guitars and electronics arrive they emphasize the first of these two elements, and it becomes a dark, screechy track, long drawn out screeches, cries for help. The drums and bass pick up speed and the thrumming basis for the piece grows around the electronics, establishing dominance. It has definitely built, and it definitely works as a focal point for the disc. The trumpet, meanwhile, disappeared somewhere along the way; what results is a piece that I like but which could be by any number of purveyors of electronica. Then it all goes quiet, the trumpet returns and we end with a final act that bids recollection, reminiscence. A masterwork it isn't, but it is a good solid epic around which to build the album.

Three tracks come after. The first is short and reverential, Molvær's horn standing alone, with some background static that hints at waves; it's a nice palate cleanser. The next actually resonates with the title of the album, the rhythms here conjouring images of a boat rocking on waves, tipping cargo gently from side to side and making soft impacts each time. Its a lovely effect because whilst the reality of boats bobbing on waves isn't as regular as the rhythm behind this sound, the actual beat pattern carries a feel of irregularity to it, whilst still serving as the backbone for the themes that are layered over it. This might be my favourite track on the disc, and I have only really taken on board the percussion. The bobbing percussion is dropped at the end, along with all themes, for an engine-like rumble that just sees the tune out; this I find an odd choice, and a disappointing one.

The final track feels lighter, pairing the trumpet with a nice guitar theme which gives me a Mogwai-like vibe, albeit perhaps a little more chilled. I can't shake the feeling it goes too long without introducing major variation though, and it all merges to become a little bland as a result. Nice sounds, but going nowhere, if you will. There is a shake up in tone and theme about the midpoint of the track but it feels too late. The tune, particularly the trumpet line, is nice but my brain has already disengaged a little, the smell of food cooking, and the knowledge of work to do.

All in all, I think this is a nice disc, and one I can see spending more time with, but not anything outstanding. Molvær's ideas are interesting and worth exploring, even if they don't always reach that one step further that would turn them to genius.

Atomic - Mogwai

Track list:

1. Ether
2. SCRAM
3. Bitterness Centrifuge
4. U-235
5. Pripyat
6. Weak Force
7. Little Boy
8. Are You a Dancer?
9. Tzar
10. Fat Man

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2016

Is this my first 2016 release? I think so. It's not the first album I've picked up this year but its the first that appears here due to alphabet. This is also my first listen to this as I have yet to own it a week. One song popped up in a shuffle but I've not yet paid the purchase any heed.

First listens rarely offer best value, but I'll head into this one, as I don't yet feel like making dinner. Ether starts rather remotely, not what I would expect from Mogwai, a drone and tinny electronics over it. I guess style has to mix up for soundtracks though, and it is plenty accessible. There are echoes of Vangelis in this first piece as the softly melodic theme arrives, the backing evokes the same sculpted spaces the Greek manufactured for scores such as 1492 or Antarctica. As the piece builds there is a little more evidence of the guitar-based instrumentals that Mogwai are known for, but it never departs from the original course enough to indulge those elements.

The film this soundtracks was apparently an Auntie documentary on the atomic age. Passed me by entirely, but explains the title. I think it is safe to say by the midpoint of SCRAM that this is not a work that I would recognise as Mogwai if I didn't know it was them. It fits into a black hole of a genre of thematic instrumental music... pretty clearly soundtrack material without being easily definable as anything else. I find it loopy, with little hooks to fall into. Patterns take over and run my mind as I fall, trance-like, under its spell. To call the themes dark would be to sell short the night. It isn't insufferably dark though, just predominantly. I have to say I think Bitterness Centrifuge would make a great band name; its a pretty awesome track title and I find it conjuring pictures of emotional chemistry labs. Dystopian future, anyone? This track is slower, more menacing in pace, fuzzy, unclear. Deliberately so, and with a number of different strands competing for attention as lighter top end lines arrive to brighten the overall mood of the tune. I could see this growing on me quite a lot.

U-235 may relate to something of the here and now, but the edgy staccato of the tune definitely has me thinking megacorps and rain, persecution and cyberware. This is dark future RPG music and could just as easily be soundtracking an after-dark incursion into a guarded warehouse looking for some secret and dangerous new technology. Very apt. Pripyat is the number that I have heard once before and it starts now, foreboding in tone, slightly Gothic feel to it. This goes from cyberpunk to sci-fi, and then back. The overwhelming feel of oppression ebbs and flows through this track based on what the primary electric "tune" is doing. A murderous hum around just about every sound on this record would drive you to distraction were it not so clear that it is intentional. A nice light evening does not really suit this, but there we are.

Weak Force has more in common with Mogwai's non-soundtrack work immediately. A much clearer sound and electronics following a pattern which suits them. It is lacking in bold guitars though so it probably wouldn't stand out as a Mogwai track in a shuffle. The piece is possibly the "nicest" so far, but it is also the dullest. The dirty air, drones and other artefacts that cloud the previous tunes are noticeable by their absence, and that absence is to the detriment of the track. It leaves fewer rabbit holes for the ear to draw you down, creates fewer images in my head as I listen. I find myself bouncing off the cleaner sound quite hard, it is out of place, not suited. The opening to Little Boy is much more promising. This has a nice clean melody, but a droning sound is back to frame it, and there is another guitar line layered in there. This is richer, lusher, easier to connect to. The melody is one of loneliness, something I have felt today... its been an odd one. The changeable weather - first bright, then wet, and with the wet a darkness that belies the time of day - has directly impacted my mood, as has my inability to get anything done since 11ish. The morning was great; the afternoon not so much, yet I have had "leisure time" and talked to friends during that time. I find myself too complex and it blights certain aspects of my life. Ho hum.

A more subdued track next, more loneliness, a contrast begging me to close my eyes and risk falling asleep at an inopportune time of day. I don't feel like the album jumped here suddenly, and yet neither did I really have any expectation of, nor notice, it turning to these understated slow and emptier tunes. I rather like the effect, but I suspect that whilst the growling, droning tracks might grow on me, these removed numbers will likely never be better than they are on first exposure - less intricacies to learn perhaps? 

Do you ever think you are drinking too much? I have that feeling all the time, and yet this week as many days have passed with me taking none than taking any, and if any just a single beer. I constantly worry I might be prone to alcoholism and yet only ever indulge in moderation. Just throwing that out there, as Tzar winds down and we approach the finale, Fat Man. Lost and lonely piano melody wandering. It is left I think a little too long without significant company. When it gets companion sounds to wrap itself in and co-exist with the piece comes alive in a very... human kind of way. Alas I find that most of it is just a bit too slow, a bit too sparse, to hold my interest.

I think a second, and third, listen are in order to get the best out of this album - the same holds true for most, lets be honest. First time through, give me the dirty, fuzzy, busy sounds over the cleaner and clearer ones, though. 

Boots Met My Face - Admiral Fallow

Track list:

1. Dead Against Smoking
2. Squealing Pigs
3. Subbuteo
4. Delivered
5. These Barren Years
6. Old Balloons
7. Bomb Through The Town
8. Four Bulbs
9. Taste The Coast
10. Dead Leg
11. The Sad Clown Cast

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2010

I can't remember which festival I saw Admiral Fallow at, I suspect it might have been End of the Road. I was immediately struck by their set and their similarities in origin, demeanor and sound to King Creosote. This of course meant I had to buy up their album when I got home. So I did, and here we are. I don't listen to it much, but I occasionally use Subbuteo to kick off a shuffled playlist; it is the one song I can put any sound to now. I didn't really get on with the follow up album but I am hoping that this will be going back and enjoying a gem that I have overlooked too long.

A wistful clarinet starts us off with a sadness-tinged tune supported by one-note strumming. A strong Scottish accent adorns the voice of our vocalist when he enters the piece, along with drums. The track has built nicely - keys, drums and guitars replacing the woodwind carrying most of the tune. Its a slow, downbeat number, but not overwhelmingly so - there is hope in some of the brighter notes; hope in the context of sadness. I really like the effect, even though the melodies are just recycling by this point.

It is 10.30am on 1 January 2016. I suppose I should say Happy New Year. Replacing the lush sounds of Dead Against Smoking is a lone acoustic guitar rambling through a melody with vocal accompaniment. The pace is higher, emphasised when the drums join in. I am less taken with this tune; the central hook is fine and the execution is alright but it feels as though it is lacking something relative to what went before. A great screech and crescendo adds nothing. Hah, screech is in the lyrics; funny how we pick things up subconsciously - I only noticed after using the term myself. I am so glad when it ticks over to Subbuteo - this song has a real attraction to me. Light guitar hook, wistful air, soft vocal and a less than pretty picture painted by the lyrics - it feels heartfelt and personal, a portrait of a childhood. The structure, spread out single beats below the busy guitar and supported by a background quietly laid behind it all but managing to lift it up all the same, gives a really solid core. It builds suddenly into a crashing, cry for help of an outro; I thought there was a more impassioned plea in the vocal to go with that - maybe I missed it this time, but more likely I misremembered it.

We drop back to guitar and voice for Delivered. I don't think the group are as good when stripping out the depth of sound that we have had from woodwind, strings, keys and drums. This is noodly nothingness. There is, however a great musicality in the vocal... and of course as I type that he goes for notes that don't quite work, giving a jarring sound. Not a great track, but a brief one. The larger sound is back for These Barren Years. I am not taken with what lyrics I pick up here, but there is a nice rounded rumble to the progression of the tune up until the point they start repeating the chorus when I feel that it all falls apart. It isn't interesting enough to support heavy repetition.

The album seems to alternate between big sounds and smaller ones. Old Balloons is stripped back again, a rapid looping guitar hook and piano tune. It threatens to explode into a larger number at moments but has yet to quite manage it. Eventually the electric pickup arrives with drums and it is a relief - not that the opening was bad, but that the promise to expand was not an empty one. The keys become grander in scale with it, carrying the bulk of the tune, and the keys are all that is left once the crescendo has passed and the track begins to build again. I find myself enjoying the piece despite myself when it goes all mental for the last minute. A chorus played with extra intensity, pace and volume and repeated twice is the end of the vocal and the end of the track. The build felt like it deserved that end, rather than in some cases where the explosion of activity feels unmerited.

We have a female lead vocal on Bomb Through the Town, a floating voice over a backing that grows on me as she starts holding notes for longer. The harmony when the regular lead singer joins in is an odd one. It doesn't always work, but when it does it is really sublime. The thing is their disparate voices handle some notes very differently - strain against natural inclinations - but where they are both in range they offset each other nicely, not competing for space. The tune is actually dull as anything. A plodding drone, the only good thing to say is that I only really noticed how boring it is once the vocal was no longer present. I don't know about rediscovering a gem, but this listen is interesting - a bit more thought provoking for me than some recently. For instance, I find myself wondering to what extent ones surroundings influence the creations we make, with this album clearly identifiable as Scottish even without the accents.

Taste the Coast is pleasantly happier, pacier and catchier. Harmonies again in the chorus, a homecoming tale. There is a moment in the middle of the song where the busier elements of the backing drop out and we get a simple chorus with that harmony and it is a lovely little moment. The happy buzz disappears for the lead out. Vocals start repeating a line that had not appeared to date, pace drops, a subdued piano wandering comes in... it all works much better than it should in truth. The same cannot be said of the penultimate track, a 7 minute long oeuvre, the first half of which is disappointingly barren, not much music and a vocal that doesn't inspire. We get a bit more development past the half way mark but it is still staid and plodding. The development is limited, too - I kept expecting it to build further and do a little more to replace the vocal, which has vanished, but we just repeat the same phrase over and over. This one is for the scrap heap.

The bonus track on the end (I don't think it was on the original 2010 release; the album was re-issued in 2011) uses electronics that immediately make me think of Mogwai, specifically tracks from Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will - this album being produced by Paul Savage, who has a hand in producing that record, and many others I own. I miss the rest of the tune whilst confirming that, but while it is a low key ending, it is a far more fitting one that Dead Leg's disappointment.

Interlude: Life is Strange

Whilst not quite a first in talking about things outside of music, this post goes further than when I spoke about playlisting for the RPG I'm running. Incidentally the playlist doesn't make it to sessions anymore as I can't be arsed heaving the laptop over, or pissing about with an MP3 player that probably won't be compatible with the outputs at my friend's house (no Apple for me).

I suppose technically, since I own the game, the Life is Strange soundtrack is part of my library. Since a licensed soundtrack is not available to purchase it is not included in the digital library that I am actually progressing through, only within the game itself, which I am playing on PS4. There is a YouTube playlist which I am listening to whilst writing this piece. Whilst I will chat a little bit about the use of music in the game (generally excellent), this post is an interlude more because I feel a need to write about the game proper and I don't want to revive a long-dead blog to do it. I have mentioned Life is Strange a few times in passing during recent posts, as a competing demand on my time, as something that I have been enjoying and thinking about in the wider sphere of my life. The goal with this project has never been to focus, laser-like, on the music and nothing else. It is, rather, a stream of consciousness merely directed by the music and where the primary purpose is to get me listening to things I have overlooked and trim out material I would not want to listen to again. Stepping away from that to talk about a videogame is a bit of a departure and, suffice to say, not one I was expecting to make. However for better or worse this is now my platform.

For those that don't know, Life is Strange is an episodic game (to date 4 of 5 are out, and I have just completed the 4th) from Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It is an interactive story-slash-adventure game set in the Pacific northwest and focusing around events in one hick town and, particularly, the "prestigious" school institution there. Quotes, because it doesn't really feel like the school is, or should be, so rated. The game is mostly notable for a few things:

1. It does Telltale better than Telltale
2. It has a female protagonist and a majority of the major cast are female
3. Time travel and other magical weirdness, including nods to several genre properties to have trodden similar ground before.

There is a lot more to it than that, but it is the intersection of points 1 and 3 that really makes the game tick, whilst point 2 gives it a distinct flavour to many adventure games. The time travel, or rewind, mechanic means that you can explore different paths for your choices before deciding on which one to go with. These choices are also generally more weighty, with no clear cut right/wrong outcomes, and have more impact on what is to come than in Telltale games, too - or at least, that has been my experience. Judging from the breakdown of choices at the end of each episode I am probably not alone in that view. It also means that there isn't a timer on the decision points the way that Telltale tend to do. There are some time-based events, but the magical time travel girl uses her power to rewind to solve those puzzles and it's not a question of "didn't choose in time, so we'll pick for you".

Before I verge into spoiler territory and talk about the content of the game I want to tenuously justify this post with the music discussion. Put simply, Life is Strange uses music fantastically well. Rather than going down the route of hiring composers to generate them bespoke music, the majority of the LiS soundtrack is compiled from tunes put out by artists or groups you may well have heard of (e.g. Alt-J, Mogwai, José González; the Alt-J track being one of the few that I kept from the disappointing An Awesome Wave), integrated in much the same way that you find licensed music used in TV. Not to do videogame composition down (I bloody love the Bastion soundtrack after all), but this feels like a step forward in two ways. First, to secure the licenses in the first instance by having a product that labels and artists are happy to associate themselves with. In other words the continued movement of gaming towards mainstream entertainment and everything that means - including a more diverse audience. Secondly the seamless integration with the content alongside original scoring, like in film.

All of this builds a really strong sense of place and atmosphere. Some of the nicest moments in the game are found where Max, our protagonist, can simply sit somewhere in her environment and muse upon the events. You can even have her sit down with her guitar and noodle out one or two of the tracks herself. The pieces chosen are often quite soothing despite the game itself not necessarily following suit. In text this presents like dissonance, in context the musical support provides the relief and mental break that you can imagine our protagonist needing to deal with the week that she is having. Also, whilst often soothing, they are not placid tracks, a distinction which is important to the generation of that atmosphere. The Mogwai track Kids Will Be Skeletons is my go-to example there; the title implies something darker than the light and airy guitar melodies actually deliver but there is a murkiness in the bass and percussive structure that provides a tension in the track which stops it just rocking you to relaxation. Or at least in my case. The song is used for the lead up to a particularly sad/shocking moment, a cliffhanger to end an episode. It just works so well and implies that the studio really put some effort in to identify exactly what they wanted to do and how to do it. This is something that always impresses me; as someone who listens to a fair bit of music (I have actually had a chance this week, albeit shuffles whilst working from home more than dedicated listens for this blog!) from across several spheres my mind boggles as to how perfect tracks are identified to accompany visuals. Its something that usually impresses me about BBC documentaries as much as anything else.

Worryingly, this may turn out to be the single longest post here and it's technically off topic. Still, on to the game itself. Here be spoilers, perhaps.

Given this post, it will surprise no-one to find out I love Life is Strange. As a whole it is the best thing I have played in a very long time, despite ostensibly covering US teen/college drama, which I loathe. I think I enjoy Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands more because the humour is fantastically on the button, but I don't think it is a better game. Not by a long chalk.

Episode 1 was a so-so introduction. You get to learn about Max's power and deal with teen wangst and slice of life drama as it starts, but it escalates pretty quickly into saving the life of Max's estranged BFF from her early teens, Chloe. Chloe is a real love her or hate her character, I suspect. I fall squarely on the second side of that, finding her willful stupidity hard to relate to and harder to like. Max I found almost as hard to like to begin with but she grew on me with later episodes, becoming a bit more assertive and less self-pitying. The episode as a whole is pretty much all setup - people, places and the events you will investigate as the plot thickens. I was enticed enough, but not wholly sold.

Episode 2 changed that completely. Whilst navigating around Chloe's epicentre of drama and crazy, which is driven by one of the main plot threads, the disappearance of her friend Rachel that you are investigating, you are also dealing with the deep depression of one of Max's college friends, brought on by bullying and, it turns out later, much, much worse. Kate Marsh is by far the most sympathetic character in the game, and set up to be so really well. The "Jesus waits" type is often the butt of the jokes in college-set media and Kate is positioned in that role. However the game starts with Max as an outsider of sorts too, meaning Kate is by far her most relate-able classmate which sucks the player in. The inevitable progression of the bullying is really powerful over the two episodes and it had me standing up for Kate at every turn, seeing where it was going.  There's a moment in the episode where Chloe rants at Max if you choose to take a call from Kate instead of being all about her (Chloe and Max having fully reconciled not speaking for 5 years during ep. 1) which is, above every other stupid or crappy thing Chloe does, the moment that defines her character for me. I took the call in my playthrough, of course, and didn't even consider rewinding to see the other path.

That right there? An example of how good the game is. It gives you all the tools to fully explore every decision you could make, but then is written in such a way as to produce strong emotional "fuck yous!" to the idea of doing so in places.

The episode progresses and has, thus far, the stand-out ending. No matter what Max does to be good to Kate over two episodes, the rest of the cast outweigh that with their dickishness and Kate, having been the victim of being drugged, has some out of character actions filmed and exposed. She's suicidal and there is an incredibly powerful scene where you - sans rewind having blown your limit to stop time and reach Kate - have to talk her down from the rooftop before she jumps. It can, apparently, go both ways. I got the better result here and would have been pretty emotionally devastated if I had not managed to, more praise for the writing.

See the thing is: the main cast is used really well. This may be an adventure game, but all the most important choices relate directly to other characters or conversations, not objects or investigations. The focus is on navigating the social maze more than the puzzle of what happened to Rachel or what is going on. At least early, anyway. Yes - there are more puzzle-like sections, and these are my least favourite pieces of the game. In episode 4 you are pulling together clues and it's just dull gameplay... its a fair bit of a letdown after the conversational choices earlier. The majority female cast is well realised and most of the time talking to people is fun and interesting. You can, it seems, change a lot of lives in a few conversations. Which, obviously, is OTT for real life, but adds weight to the interactions in the game and focusing on this is a really neat change in tack from most games.

Kate is not the only character who can live or die in different story paths; apparently there's a thread where one of the less savory characters (and note, none of the main cast are nearly as two-dimensional in the good/bad person sense as they first appear) can die as a result of Chloe's actions (which are guided by you as Max with her rewind or "don't do that it sucks!" power). These characters aren't central to the primary plot strand then, but thus far I have seen enough to suggest that, unlike my experience with Telltale games, the paths are truly divergent with several different end states. The main plot might conclude similarly every time (or not, but I would guess it does) but the surrounding details feel substantially more weighty.

Anyhow, after the excellence of episode 2, the third installment was just about able to keep pace. Its crowning moment was Max learning a new use for her power, rewinding to when she and Chloe were kids and saving Chloe's dad from the traffic accident that killed him, predictably establishing a completely different timeline. Whilst there is some weirdness about original timeline Max suddenly then "waking up" in the present day of an alternate timeline with only memories from the original sequence of events, this was a completely unexpected shift in the game. It is made poignant in the extreme by finding out, at the end of the episode, how the change played out for Chloe. The game gets really good at emotional gut punches, and holds that over twice for the start of episode 4. I almost had to put down the controller and walk away when the (now paraplegic and getting worse) Chloe asks Max to overdose her with morphine, despite the fallback of a rewind power. I almost had to do it again when, knowing she has to go back to her own timeline you have to sit through Max experiencing the scene where Chloe sees her dad for the last time once more.

Hell, the writing in this game is so good, that reading a synopsis of certain scenes is enough to produce a strong emotional response. 

Episode 4 ratchets up the tension and the creepiness of what is going on. Real human ugliness, not just magical oddity. This move was not unexpected - after all, someone driven to suicide by having been drugged and abducted, and a young woman missing both point to some very nasty goings on. My problem with the game comes right as the final cliffhanger where that darkness is now applied directly to your protagonist in a way that strongly suggests a very limited way to avoid it. The final cutscene has an antagonist spike Max with a needle and her fall down woozy. This is followed by shots of the scene where you found out just how dark things were earlier in the episode. I hope its just appearances because, well... torture horror is not my thing, y'know. Whilst I am fairly certain Max gets out of it somehow, I'd rather not have to go through it first.

Anyhow - I have written far too much in this piece already, and I still need to find time today to listen to more John Lee Hooker to not stall the library run through too far, so I'll draw it to a close there and simply suggest people do themselves a favour and look up episode 1 on whichever platform they prefer, then plough on with the others if taken by it.

The Bends - Radiohead

Track list:

1. Planet Telex
2. The Bends
3. High And Dry
4. Fake Plastic Trees
5. Bones
6. (Nice Dream)
7. Just
8. My Iron Lung
9. Bullet Proof ... I Wish I Was
10. Black Star
11. Sulk
12. Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 1995

A classic now. 20 years old. I caught High and Dry on shuffle on my MP3 player whilst travelling to (or from) Greece and I remember thinking then that the song holds up well, so I suspect the same is true of the album as a whole. Time to find out.

I haven't tagged this as a favourite because, to be honest, I have hardly listened to any of these tracks in a very long time, that chance play above aside, but as soon as I hit play I am reminded that whilst I am always searching for new stuff, or cycling through other artists, there is something here. This is Radiohead at their most accessible, many might say best (personally I am torn on which release I prefer). Yorke's voice, the helicopter-blade like whirr, the rumble... Planet Telex brings everything back. 20 years, eh?

The truth is that I did not immediately get Radiohead, it took the osmosis of hearing my brother's copy of this album from his room next door a lot for the quality to sink in and have me go get my own. I want to say it was the melody of High and Dry that sucked me in, but it could have been the edginess of Just; I don't remember that clearly. The title track is all nasal whine, harder guitars than I remember. It really is a long time since I listened to this. Somehow Radiohead are a group that have never made it into the pile of discs I carry round in the car. Maybe I thought I had moved on, but that's just crazy talk... you don't move on from enduring quality.

It is a bit of a struggle to think what to write on this listen though. What can I say about this disc, these tracks, that hasn't been said before and better by others? High and Dry started just now and its given me goosebumps. Again. Something about this track strikes close to home even now - whilst two decades have passed, I retain some of the same vulnerabilities that I did as a teenager. They are perhaps not on display as much, and more adroitly handled as an adult but some triggers can bring them back and music has always been very good at poking holes in any facade that I might try to put up. The best strikes at you emotionally and I feel some of those strikes very acutely. Nostalgia this ain't - there is no fondness looking back on some of the memories that these tunes stir. Fake Plastic Trees is forever associated with one of the biggest emotional "bangs" that I have ever experienced, a difficult day with an explosive conclusion, pouring rain and an inner turmoil that took me a goodly long time to get over. Its funny to think that this morning, before I sat down to do this, I was trying to remember which track that was and couldn't, yet as soon as it starts playing...

Yeah, I have a lot wrapped up in this one, but its all history - maybe that explains some of why I do not listen to it much anymore though I have certainly never consciously avoided it. Looking back now is weird - for as much as it brings back strong impressions, emotions and feelings I am detached from them, in a better place despite the flaws I share with my younger self.

Ah, Bones. I couldn't hear this track in my head from reading the title - but now its constant rumble is ringing in my ears it is welcome. I like tracks like this that snarl and roll. I never got into all-out noisy thrashing of metal, grunge or any of those harder, rockier movements but crafted loudness like this retains a feral appeal. I think this track appeals to the same part of me that loves the noisier end of Mogwai's output, for instance. For tunes like this, if your ears aren't still hearing the track 5 minutes after it finished then what's the point? I never had much time for (Nice Dream) and had pretty much forgotten the course of the song, which is better than I remembered.

That intro - just so immediately, viscerally, appealing; combine with the self-deprecating/insulting lyric and mix. Just is still a heady cocktail of thoughts, but listening now I hear the composition of the second verse for what feels like the first time. The chorus, the bridge, these sections are the takeaways. The blandness of the accompaniment to that second verse has always been excused by the power of the rest of the track, so intoxicating. Less so this time through, it is not as strong a song as I recalled.

That is not something I would say for My Iron Lung - this song I think has got better with age. Of all the tracks on The Bends this best hints at where the band were going and where they came from all at once - the early career in microcosm. I don't have enough of the reviewers chops to explain why in a way that would convince anyone who did not already hold the opinion, but there is something about the contrasts, the wailing intro, the down and dirty midsection, that give me that impression.

Now this will be more interesting for me; I pretty much always passed on Bulletproof so I come to this track colder. I suspect that 20 years on I will like this more than I used to. The hooks underlying the chorus appeal more now - weird comparison time, they remind me of Microdisney's twee-but-angry 80s constructions. I don't think its a great song, but yes - more time for it now that I did have. I can't write more on that though because it's past and gone, and Black Star is pumping out. This was, I think, my favourite track when this album was contemporary. The chorus is constructed in a way that really appeals, tight, constrained and angsty, whilst the verses are more of a plaintive, open sound. I like the contrast, I have always liked contrasts like this in my music and whilst this is not the most stark of differences, it points to an element that I can trace through much of my collection (one high point being The Phantom Band track Folk Song Oblivion from Checkmate Savage where happy-clappy choruses accompany dark, brooding menace in the verses).

Sulk, how I used to live up to your name. Used as a crutch much? Sure, but no more. This time through I am just enjoying the swell, the pulse of the melody, more than the lyric or the harsher guitar in the midsection. I think this may be Yorke's finest vocal performance on the album, personally. And just like that we are leading out. Well, fading out - the loopy guitar on Street Spirit is an all time classic to the point that if I asked you to recall the song how much of the rest of the arrangement would you be able to describe? Not much, I would imagine - certainly I couldn't. I am hearing things now that I really did not recognise from memory at all. Some of the top end, the structure of the percussion, backing strings. I almost wish Yorke wasn't singing over it, and just as I think that, he isn't because the disc is done.

That's something else worth noting - these songs are all, to a one, in that sub 5 minutes "radio friendly" length bracket. None overstay their welcome and the time has flown by as a result. Not really enough time to write much about any of them as they played, and certainly no time to be bored. The album definitely holds up, though I am surprised that Just is the song that does so the least for me, perhaps because I have since found other tunes that scratch that itch better. My takeaway from this? I am not sure really, but it has left me with the nagging feeling that I should not be so quick to discount some of my older physical discs from doing duty on the commute.

Postscript: after publishing this post I was checking other #Radiohead tagged posts on G+ and found a link to this, which is funny enough that I have to share:

Batcat EP - Mogwai

Track list:

1. Batcat
2. Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend
3. Devil Rides

Running time: 14 minutes
Released: 2008

Batcat. I was blown away by the sheer noise of this track on a couple of occasions, once so much so that I misidentified it as something else in a classic case of hearing what I wanted to hear not what was actually there. The other two tracks I do not recall at all, and I suspect it is not worth me keeping two copies of the title track (I have The Hawk is Howling, too) but we shall see.

The start is electric, but it is not until the snarl of the theme and the percussion arrives that the wall of wailing noise really establishes itself. This recording of Batcat seems to lack some of the edge that I associate with the album version... maybe I am mistaken about its volume and power, I will get to find out eventually, but this is definitely very slightly unfamiliar. I listened to The Hawk is Howling a lot when it came out so that is a surprise to me. Still, the basic structure is the same - five and a half minutes of constant roiling noise that smashes you in the face and pins back your ears. Every so often a more tuneful passage is incorporated into the mix, but this is a track not at all about melody. Cacophony, controlled aggression. I like it a lot as a change from my comfort zone - not much of what I listen to has this much sheer volume to it.

Track two is, I guess, meant to be a funny title. I might have seen it as such a few years ago, but now not so much. The idea it conjures is amusing, the unnecessary misogyny of chucking in "slut" is not. I am all for insults but... As for the tune? Much more melodic than Batcat, softer and tuneful in a way that does not really seem to gel with the violence of the title. There is no sense of the urgency of a chase, or the sorrow of a breakup here, though there is an awful hanging note to end which is held for far, far too long. Maybe that is meant to be the regret/remorse? Devil rides is stripped back musically, but has a vocal. The tune is pretty neat (reminding me more than a little of a couple of other Mogwai tracks the names of which escape me just now) but the song I have less time for. Or, well... the singer. His voice has a horrible edge to it that rubs me up the wrong way. I am pretty sure it is not one of the group, but someone brought in for that song, since Mogwai's other vocal tracks do not engender that sense of unpleasantness.

Anywho - no deletions just yet. With my ears still ringing after Batcat despite the two songs since, I will wait and compare the versions when I hit the album proper.

All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone - Explosions in the Sky

Track list:

1. The Birth and Death of the Day
2. Welcome, Ghosts
3. It's Natural to Be Afraid
4. What Do You Go Home To?
5. Catastrophe and the Cure
6. So Long, Lonesome

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 2007

I am not sure I have ever listened to this album properly before. I used to have it in my library twice, once ripped, once gifted, but removed the duplication a while back. I have vague inklings of not getting on with EitS in the way I did with Mogwai or This Will Destroy You or, more recently, Jakob, who operate in similar spheres. Interesting to give this a chance again.

When starting the listen, I am immediately turned off by a screeching to the guitar-driven wall that hits my ears. Thankfully the wailing sound abates and more melodic tones emerge, swell then fall before another wall of more gravelly sound hits. I am not really getting on with The Birth and Death of the Day. The melodies are nice enough but not demanding, and the fuller sounds when they come in are less musical than they might be. The percussion is too loud for my liking and overall the tunes when they come through from the rest are just a little too... plain?

Not sure what I feel is missing here... maybe a layer effect? Perhaps the genius line to draw in my ear? Whatever it is I am perceiving this album as somewhat removed from me. Maybe it is just that I do not have a context for the tracks - they are not generating mental images for me, they have not been on the road with me and I am simply less familiar with them than other "post rock" from my library. Whatever it is, I am not getting something from this listen that would, ideally, be there. There are some nice sections in the tracks, but also periods where either I find the sound uncomfortable (like the opening of the album) or bland. Without something to root these tunes and cement them in my mind's ear, they are washing over me and falling to the ground like rain off a plastic mac.

Then we hit a movement in It's Natural to Be Afraid -  from about 4 minutes into the 13+ minute piece - and I hit a bit I like. I can see what people like about Explosions in the Sky... it is very reminiscent of This Will Destroy You (who, coming later, were probably influenced by EitS rather than the other way around). This reminiscence, this familiarity, is engaging. I find I like this track, whereas the two before I could happily leave. I still cannot put my finger on what specifically makes the difference, and the ending of the track ruins the positive impression a little but this will be kept, even if the rest gets junked (as seems possible).

There is a busyness to the keyboard in What Do You Go Home To? which obliterates the calm of the pace and the serenity of the rest of the sculpted sounds. I am not a fan; I can hear some nice lines behind it but whilst the contrast is assuredly deliberate I feel too much is lost in its application to make the track an interesting listen. Actually that might be a thread here: there is generally a little too much going on for my liking. When one player goes quiet, the others do not necessarily follow. Deliberate contrast is imposed in a number of cases. One instrument staying strong or persistent where otherwise we might get some space to breathe. Trying to put this another way... it feels like guys bouncing off each other a little more than constructively working together to construct the final work. That can be awesome when it comes off - and I suspect many folk would see this album as coming off very well.

I do not fit in that camp. The songs here just fail to touch my soul enough and only two will be kept, with So Long, Lonesome being the second. I like title, I like the "chorus" refrain and the rest of the instrumentation does not do any of the small things that somehow unknowingly combined to make the majority of these songs just fall flat for me. I would not say that I think All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is a bad album; it is just one that I cannot find a place for. Other works exist to fill this hole and without that magic something that commends music to my heart, this disc falls short of appreciation.

All Is Violent, All Is Bright - God Is An Astronaut

Track List:

1. Fragile
2. All Is Violent, All Is Bright
3. Forever Lost
4. Fire Flies and Empty Skies
5. A Deafening Distance
6. Infinite Horizons
7. Suicide by Star
8. Remembrance Day
9. Dust and Echoes
10. When Everything Dies

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2005

God Is An Astronaut were another LastFM find, on some kind of Post-Rock station, probably based on Mogwai, though there is not really much resemblance between the two - with this Irish group being much more electro/synthy in their approach. I remember being taken in by, I think, From Dust to the Beyond (on The End of the Beginning) and then just picking up a few albums blind. I have no real familiarity with these songs by name, but I am sure I will recognise a few as they play.

Fragile is an interesting opening, slow and gentle to start with, it feels - and this is something I find myself saying about a fair few opening tracks - more like a closer than an opener. I could not say whether this is just me though, perhaps I look for different things in the first song on an album than others. Primarily I want one of two things:

1. A statement that sets the tone for what is to come; or

2. A slow build that grows into the rest of the album.

 (3. Bloody lists don't play nicely with the image opposite).

The latter is half true here, but overall Fragile has no build - it starts pretty one-paced and one-tone and maintains that slow, low feel throughout. It is far from an unpleasant listen but it just lacks any X factor as an opener. Thankfully the title track picks up the mantle a bit better, and has some real energy about it by the time it comes to close.

As Forever Lost starts I am noticing a pattern here though. The sounds used in these tunes are all very similar. There is distinction between the songs in tempo, volume, etc. but fundamentally they all sound... if not the same then a bit too close together to really enthuse about them. Moreover I think that extends past this album to the other 2 and a half (one is very short) that I have. I am getting a picture of God is an Astronaut as a "do one thing, but do it well" sort of band forming - but it is unfair to judge that description final just 3 songs into the first listen on the basis of my (already documented to be wonky) memory.

Synth/programmed keys, guitars, drums all present. It is a formula that seems to be doing them well and I'll be clear here: for all the over-familiarity of each song there is nothing here that would move me to remove this album from my library. It just feels as though the tunes are a little too uniform for back-to-back appreciation of the sort this blog is about. The combination of the programming with the live recording settles into a regular pattern. The guitars do "X" the keys do "Y" and the drums do "Z". Often - in the case of the keys and guitars, using similar tones and changing the patterns from song to song. This is almost certainly a grossly unfair criticism in terms of the actual process; I am not a music critic just some dude writing a blog with no real experience.

But you know what? I have a sneaking suspicion that what I see as sameness between the tunes is probably a fundamental keystone of their appeal. GiaA are a "safe" band, you know what you are going to get and if you happen to like that, its all good. And how many people today actually consume music in the way that I am doing for this project? I would guess relatively few, which means those similarities becomes less of an issue, less of an irritation. Those similarities though? They make it really easy to identify a God is an Astronaut track in a rotation.

For my part, I prefer the louder and brasher tunes on this album. When the volume and tempo go up the (by now) genericisms of the format and reuse of the same notes fade as issues, getting lost in the more vibrant sounds, the fuzziness introduced by more notation and the energy transmitted through the songs. The slower, sparser pieces - whilst possibly more melodic - allow my ear to latch onto the common theme(s) and refrains more easily. I wish I could transcribe by ear to investigate my own point more thoroughly, but alas that is beyond me.

Wow, this has been an overtly negative post for being about something I like and will be keeping all of... how can I address that?

First the oddity: there are a few tracks here where the smoothness of playback is interrupted near the end of the song. I cannot tell whether this is an artefact of the rip from CD or a genuine article in the work (where perhaps the original track lines were different). I suspect the former, but if so to have it occur 3 or 4 times in one disc when I do not consciously recall every having heard it elsewhere it interesting to say the least.

Finally, to end on a positive note: do one thing and do it well. We could latch on to two different sentiments in that sentence: limitation, or quality.  The rest of this post bleats about the limitation. The quality though? Well, until the last track (which to be honest has a problem with dead air and a hidden track that should probably not exist) they keep track length well in hand, which is unusual in this sort of instrumental rock and there is not a single unpleasant song here. There is a good mix of slower melodies and faster riots and examples of both are sculpted into compelling soundscapes and catchy loops that will stick in your head and be recognised whenever they pop up again. It takes real craft to be that immediately identifiable in a field populated by everyone and their dog using the same tools to sculpt the same material.

It's just that you will never be sure which statue you are looking at.