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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Ever the prolific adventurist, Nicolas Jaar's 2020 has been filled with personal diversions for the eagerness of crafting art. 2017 - 2019 was a continuation of his Against All Logic alter ego, this time with less nuance and more explosiveness, veering into the territory of Tech House. Cenizas languished around explorative Ambient, much akin to 2015's Pomegranates just with a greater sense of maturity and dogged wisdom. Telas is something entirely new for the Chilean producer who, previous to this, has always utilized Glitch in modest consumption ('Keep Me There,' 'Flight'), but never as anything more than an accessory. Here, it takes center stage with four tracks reaching double digits, meandering around tethered sound design like a scientist headlong into an experiment, making minor fluctuations in order to achieve different results.
As with most Ambient albums of this nature, variety and purpose is severely lacking. In other words, there's no reason the passages on 'Telencima' couldn't have appeared on 'Telahumo,' or vice versa. Principle seems to be a toxic mentality to have with Ambient music that affixes itself to a niche, for atmosphere resides above all else. There's times - primarily dead center on the two aforementioned songs - where Jaar approaches melody, structure, a greater prospect, only to curtail such desire with a regression to the norm. Instead of evolving such dilly-dally Glitch, elongating towards heights deemed impervious by Ambient musicians alike (Tim Hecker, Fennesz), Jaar rescinds such inclinations by inserting an arbitrary passage to justify length. Similar to The Caretaker's last three projects in the Everywhere At The End Of Time series. Art becomes inconsequential when your canvas, coincidentally or not, is boxed. Despite the length, these songs - and Telas at large - doesn't feel unconstrained or liberated, but rather systematic and predictably-arranged. There are pretty sounds sure, but don't misconstrue delicate sound design with laborious initiative. Especially when it's as cookie-cutter as this.
For better products in the art of Glitch see: Sora's Re.Sort and Ryoji Ikeda's Dataplex.
D+
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2020 | Drone | Listen
CONCEDING TO NATURE'S INEXORABLE DECAY
Yo La Tengo release a Drone album, because why not. At this point, nearly 40 years into their storied career, the Hoboken trio who've outlasted virtually every contemporary they've ever had can do whatever they want. Unlike all their previous albums, which went through stages of planning, writing, and performing, We Have Amnesia Sometimes came about in a natural, nondescript, unperturbed way. Practice, one could call it. Performance art for the mundane. Tranquility in the age of decay. Recorded and released during the COVID-19 pandemic, We Have Amnesia Sometimes plays out like a self-imposed exile to the problems outside the recording studio. It's three musicians, forever in-tune with one another, powering on through the feeling of uncertainty. There's not much more to it; Yo La Tengo have said so themselves. Undoubtedly pleasant, sometimes more often than not ('Thursday' being the highlight, 'Friday' being the lowlight), for a simple project with nonexistent expectations, We Have Amnesia Sometimes offers quite the moment of solace.
C-
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