Need I honestly embellish some bullshit reason for you to stick this methanized-or-mayhap-robotized pop classic somewhere in that unsightly wreck you call a collection? Really now? *laughs maniacally whilst not so subtly sneaking away to somewhere with better whiskey*.
Synths galore from every hipster's favorite 80's group...and it'll throck your socks off.
4AD debut of an unbelievably promising female artist who has taken Montreal by storm over the last few years, Gяiмεs is a surreal moniker that incorporates everything from New Wave to New Age to K-Pop into a buzzing wonder of pop inventiveness that rivals everyone from Blondie to The Jesus And Mary Chain in psychedelic posturing.
With all that in mind, Visions is indeed eclectic and an early contender in 2012's AOTY war. The flavors inside are endlessly delectable: opening single 'Oblivion' is very much in line with classic Cocteau Twins while a gorgeous 6-minute deep cut like 'Skin' takes Enya's late 80's New Age-lite to a level of immersioncraft that borders on the inexplicable. Yet beyond all that there is a distinctly modern dancefloor songwriting edge to the musical process at hand, particularly in the dubstep dreamthump of 'Nightmusic' and a beautiful albeit bizarre take on J-Pop meets Quarterflash fusion in 'Visiting Statue'.
As inherently retarded as a tag like "post-pop" seems in the greater scheme of things, this is one of those rare albums that seems to fit such a label's elusive critera. Its the sort of misfit music that doesn't fit comfortably in any era, the sort of soniconcoction that could only be made in the shadow of an insatiable Information Age where all barriers vanish in a puff of neon lights and button clicks. Astonishing.
Japan's most well-known musical export in many a circle, and a helluva pianist to boot. Sαkαmoτo-san has had his hands in pretty much every genre known to man since his beginnings as a fiery young keyboardist behind electro-New Wave pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra, and his aforementioned solo career is a rather formidable beast to tackle for those unprepared for the sheer amount of quality that is apparent from his decades of output.
The mid 80's caught the avant-garde pianist at an interesting phase in his career: he's still screwing around with synths and modulators and other such artificial constructs, but he's fucking around in such a way on 1985's Espεяαиτo that he comes across as the ridiculously uncanny middleman between King Crimson circa Discipline and Brian Eno at his most spontaneous and adventurous.
More of a curious set of mood pieces for the multifaceted than a specific collection of songs that tell a story, define a purpose or something to carry the Top 40 for yet another pointless week, Espεяαиτo is very much a product of its time that happens to fit into our own era with a curious, even eerie, sense of relevancy. Knab it!
Japanese piano/beat oriented techno with a tendency towards the cinematic and picturesque. Probably too smooth for clubs, but it sets a fine mood if you just want to kick back for awhile. As the title infers, there's a lot of piano here, so be prepared for that going in.
Post-rock meets neo-classical meets Deep House meets jazz, with plenty of style, beauty and substance to spare. Guaranteed to liven up your latest social occasion!
I can't say much for the opinions of those who consider themselves well-informed, but Secede is probably my single favorite individual in the IDM/ambient-electronic spectrum and in a class all his own. He doesn't cut releases very often, but when something does rear it's head it tends to blow most of its competition out of the water, such as the tremendously splendid Tryshasla from 2005.
Bye Bye Gridlock Traffic is this musical magician's 2003 debut, thirteen exercises in organic, nearly unbelievably deep soundscapes that never cease to relax nor entertain. Favorites would include the glitchy phantamagoria of 'Crave & Fall', 'Return To Island CX' with its sparkling keyboards that morphs about a quarater of the way through into some kind of world-trip hop beatfest, and firmament treading 'Outran', a dream amidst many brilliant visions lost in the night sky.
To be blunt, what gets me the most at the end of the day is how Secede succeeds, effortlessly at times, in holding onto a certain human touch to his songwriting, whereas various IDM superstars making their names through Pitchfork and the like appear to struggle violently to obtain a semblance of that very same thing. Hell, even half a trip in this record makes it so I can't even remember what I enjoyed in his more well-known competition to begin with. Scary!
