What's a Listening Log? Well, the idea is quite simple. It's a weekly segment that consolidates all the mini-reviews Dozens Of Donuts has given on RateYourMusic over the past week, split between the Past and Present. A straightforward grading scale has been put in place, ranging from A+ to F-, with C acting as the baseline average. There is no set amount of reviews per week, just however many I get around to reviewing. And don't expect week-of reviews. I wait one month - with at least three listens under my belt - before I rate and review an album. Enjoy!
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The natural evolution of Four Tet's sound is a wonderful thing to admire, even if I'm not particularly a huge fan. To know his foothold in Microhouse, then to see the delicate, weary, infantile steps of Folktronica on Pause and Rounds helps to ground Four Tet as an Electronic producer indebted to human emotion. His most recent project, Sixteen Oceans, proved this infallible dedication with blotted nostalgic points settled comfortably in lingering and wistful Ambient. 20 years removed from his debut and, while the style continues to expand, his purpose remains the same. Pause carries that same M.O., using Glitch-flavored Folktronica much in the same way as múm, Manitoba, Daedelus, even The Books, to conjure sentimental comfort as a last ditch effort to reclaim 90's geniality. Despite the pressing IDM with an uptempo pace, Pause never feels antagonistic or unsettling or claustrophobic. It manages to correlate the easy listening of Ambient with a backbone that welcomes return listeners.
Aesthetically, Pause's childlike demeanor and antique frailty successfully emulate an age of adolescence with a loving, communal family. I'm reminded of my summer days spent with my cousins at my grandma's house, a 100-year old, worn-down brick home filled with countless untold stories. There were crawlspaces connecting second-floor lofts, closets inside of closets, and a basement so mucky and abandoned we weren't allowed inside. Pause elicits that naive sense of comfort, like playing iSpy on a shag carpet pranced and plodded on by families generations old. Tracks like 'Tangle' and 'Hilarious Movie Of The 90s' accomplish this most concretely, though we can include the outlier 'No More Mosquitoes' as well, if only for the sudden sprout vocals shewing away summer's ultimate pest. Pause does get a tad too aphotic at times, removing myself from a personal nostalgia unfettered by gloom, but that's no fault to Four Tet. Tracks like 'Parks' and 'You Could Ruin My Day' are such examples of this sterilized perspective on the past, adequately-enjoyable but not all too engrossing. While no song on Pause stands out in terms of quality, the closest has to be 'Glue Of The World.' What's initially a rather textbook first half gives way to a gorgeous outro, with knotty-fingered acoustics cycling around a drum loop that elicits such purity one can't help but reminiscence.
C+
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On Territory, The Blaze includes something Electronic music largely misses; the human element. In the process, a whole new style of emotional plight emerges, thanks to some wavering, pitch-shifted vocals that treat each passing line as if it were the end of the world. There's a slight resemblance to Alternative R&B here, due to the seductive nature and nocturnal atmosphere (not unlike a House version of The Weekend), which could pose a new, exciting direction for the genre currently lurching in the mire. Territory is Dance music for those having an existential crisis, using the climatic tactics of, say, LCD Soundsystem or Fatboy Slim to accomplish liberation. It also, in truth, only has two great tracks. But boy are they stunners.
'Territory' and 'Virile' is where the consensus lies, as the rhythmic tempo of the former falls in line with Jon Hopkins' euphoric approach, while the latter weeps harmoniously over a simple and affective keyboard loop. They're both lovely works of Deep House, with preference falling on the latter. 'Virile' is a song that'll reach decades, as it has that timeless je ne sais quoi one can't easily mimic. As for the rest of Territory, it's admirable and complimentary, but not all too engaging. 'Juvenile' is likely the worst here, with a sporadic beat that's more irritating than pleasant, while 'Sparks & Ashes' acts as a satisfying closer with, perhaps, the EP's best vocals. A truly unique experience that's as mesmeric as it is affectional.
B
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2018 | Deconstructed Club | Listen
DISSONANT CULTURES FIGHTING IN THE COLISEUM
In no realm does Queen Of Golden Dogs make sense. On his third LP, Vessel presents a jarring duality between New Age hyper-vigilance that denounces moral code for abrasive confrontation, and faint, destitute Modern Classical that cowers at the sight of hardship. It's a battle of culture, of class, of desire. Two polar opposites forced together, like an experimentation gone awry by a mad scientist. Does it work? Ironically, the extremes on each end pull themselves to a middle ground that's, largely, average. While I certainly appreciate the artistic ambition, outright denying norms even for the associating Electronic genres it finds itself affiliated with (Deconstructed Club, IDM, Trance), the contentious behavior Vessel institutes rarely achieves something grand and prophetic.
When it does, Queen Of Golden Dogs reaches a zenith both unheard and untethered. See: 'Paplu,' the bonafide centerpiece of the record that is, almost unanimously, seen as the best track here. Stretched to lengths nearly double the second longest track, 'Paplu' powers through pandemonium, like a montage found in a medieval film's final skirmish. It is relentless, pulverizing, and oddly enough, quite hopeful with playful synthesizers akin to Blanck Mass circa Animated Violence Mild that scale to industrial heaven. It's the moment of uprising for machines enslaved by man, and though tracks like 'Argo' and 'Glory Glory' hint at what's to come, nothing comes close. Which is where Queen Of Golden Dogs' main problem lies; the discrepancy in quality and context.
Despite the intriguing inclusion of Modern Classical, the two opposites hardly intertwine. Unsurprisingly, the three times they do ('Fantasma,' 'Paplu,' and the stomach-curling closer 'Sand Tar Man Star') all achieve success in doing so. But others, like 'Good Animal,' 'Arcanum' and 'Torno-me eles e nau-e,' offer little in the way of enjoyment beyond the context clues that these are moments of respite for a royal family ignorant to the insurgency brewing. They fit the tone, but fail to offer an engaging backbone. Perhaps purposely so, given the dull, safeguarded livelihood of those Vessel's attenuating. Still, disparity between levels of enjoyment, Queen Of Golden Dogs should be appreciated on artistic ingenuity alone, though the resulting clash could've been greater.
C
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