SAW [Week 64 - "Home of the Strange"]

[G-Man]

Murgur De Fluier

This was a neat listen. I don't have many albums where the lyrics are sung in a different language. I don't need the words sung in English but foreign-language lyrics aren't mainstream in America, so I stick to what I can get. What I got from this album was a good time.

The opening track, "Lasa Lasa, Pt. 1" (forgive me for not having the time to find all the right punctuation marks on song titles), pulled me in. I enjoyed the slow, tribal start and was hooked when it cranked the tempo up halfway through. The chanting is equal parts haunting and riveting. Track 2, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," kicks off with a thumping bass line that sounds like Jack White ripped it off for "The Hardest Button to Button." I was taken aback by the songs witch into late 60s/early 70s rock conventions. It highlighted just how slow some things took to trickle past the Iron Curtain.

I didn't dock points for the band's recycling the sounds of Cream and Deep Purple, however, because it sounded good. If it was fresh for them, then that can't be held against them. At least I don't think so. I'd have to listen to earlier albums to make that determination though. The third track, "Strunga," while good, sucked some of the energy and momentum out of the air.

I ran into a dilemma with this album though. I scored the first Lasa Lasa track on it's own because I felt that it wasn't an introduction to track 2 and it was long enough to stand on its own. The remaining Lasa Lasa tracks forced me to think about how to score them. They are not songs in their own right but, as Rico pointed out, sort of like interludes sprinkled throughout the album. I like them but I couldn't score them as stand-alone songs. So, I ended up scoring the first Lasa Lasa on its own and the remaining four as a combined unit. Somehow, I felt that was fair.

My favorites would be the entire Lasa Lasa component, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," and "Ochii Negri, Ochi De Tigan." Tracks 6, 9, and 12 didn't captivate me like the rest of the album but I was never indifferent. I like the fusion of folk elements and rock instruments. They could have been singing about brushing their teeth and watching anime and I wouldn't know the difference but the vocals have an alluring quality. They aren't a harsh or distracting foreign sound. They have good flow and tone, which I can't say the same for the Fishmans album we listened to at the outset of this listening group. That makes a big difference but I realize that has a lot to do with personal preference.

Overall, this was a solid album. Spotify seems to be lacking, with only three other Phoenix albums in their database, so if I ever do want to wander back into the mystical sounds of Phoenix, I'll have to YouTube some of it. It may be a while if I ever come back around but it would be interesting to see if the sounds I liked on this album continue to please on other albums or if my unrefined musical sensibilities would count this as a one-off novelty.

G-Man Scale: 3.92 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5

[Ricochet]

Murgur De Fluier

This was a neat list-

Hold on.

Murgur De Fluier

Ergh.

This was a neat listen. I don't have many albums where the lyrics are sung in a different language. I don't need the words sung in English but foreign-language lyrics aren't mainstream in America, so I stick to what I can get. What I got from this album was a good time.

The opening track, "Lasa Lasa, Pt. 1" (forgive me for not having the time to find all the right punctuation marks on song titles), pulled me in. I enjoyed the slow, tribal start and was hooked when it cranked the tempo up halfway through. The chanting is equal parts haunting and riveting. Track 2, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," kicks off with a thumping bass line that sounds like Jack White ripped it off for "The Hardest Button to Button." I was taken aback by the songs witch into late 60s/early 70s rock conventions. It highlighted just how slow some things took to trickle past the Iron Curtain.

I didn't dock points for the band's recycling the sounds of Cream and Deep Purple, however, because it sounded good. If it was fresh for them, then that can't be held against them. At least I don't think so. I'd have to listen to earlier albums to make that determination though. The third track, "Strunga," while good, sucked some of the energy and momentum out of the air.

I ran into a dilemma with this album though. I scored the first Lasa Lasa track on it's own because I felt that it wasn't an introduction to track 2 and it was long enough to stand on its own. The remaining Lasa Lasa tracks forced me to think about how to score them. They are not songs in their own right but, as Rico pointed out, sort of like interludes sprinkled throughout the album. I like them but I couldn't score them as stand-alone songs. So, I ended up scoring the first Lasa Lasa on its own and the remaining four as a combined unit. Somehow, I felt that was fair.

My favorites would be the entire Lasa Lasa component, "Pavel Chinezu, Leat 1479," and "Ochii Negri, Ochi De Tigan." Tracks 6, 9, and 12 didn't captivate me like the rest of the album but I was never indifferent. I like the fusion of folk elements and rock instruments. They could have been singing about brushing their teeth and watching anime and I wouldn't know the difference but the vocals have an alluring quality. They aren't a harsh or distracting foreign sound. They have good flow and tone, which I can't say the same for the Fishmans album we listened to at the outset of this listening group. That makes a big difference but I realize that has a lot to do with personal preference.

Overall, this was a solid album. Spotify seems to be lacking, with only three other Phoenix albums in their database, so if I ever do want to wander back into the mystical sounds of Phoenix, I'll have to YouTube some of it. It may be a while if I ever come back around but it would be interesting to see if the sounds I liked on this album continue to please on other albums or if my unrefined musical sensibilities would count this as a one-off novelty.

G-Man Scale: 3.92 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5

They could have been singing about brushing their teeth and watching anime and I wouldn't know the difference.

Right on the mark, though.

===

As I've said, they have three classic albums, of which this was their second. They made even beat-ier music before that and then the next periods got lost in quality and intermittance. Some say their 90s album (concert?) Symphoenix is also honorable, but I simply never explored.

Out of interest, anywhere in the near future, would you be interested in checking their Cantafabule as well and tell me how you found that evolution? Any trivia details you'd need would be provided, of course, though I touched upon it a bit in my review as well.

[insertnamehere]

Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On / 2011 / Freak Folk / 10 Tracks / 39:28

For spooky Halloween times, preferably.

reeeeesubmit

[G-Man]

Hoo boy. Let's just put this out there as a conversation starter:

I enjoyed the final two tracks on Leucocyte. Track 4 was decent too. Otherwise, I was either bored or left disappointed because tracks lacked the crescendo or climax I was hoping for.

Also, was my Spotify flaking out or does track 8 "Ad Interim" feature a low-frequency sound? I didn't hear anything but I'm not listening through headphones. The office is noisy today.

[Ricochet]

Contortion is literally 16 minutes of crescendo.

Ad interim is one minute of silence.

[G-Man]

Ad interim is one minute of silence.

Here's the thing: to me, giving one minute of silence its own track space and track title smacks of pretension. It's silence. It's not created. It's not intellectual property. To treat it as such preposterous. That "track" alone is going to hurt the album's score in a big way.

[Ricochet]

Ad interim is one minute of silence.

Here's the thing: to me, giving one minute of silence its own track space and track title smacks of pretension. It's silence. It's not created. It's not intellectual property. To treat it as such preposterous. That "track" alone is going to hurt the album's score in a big way.

I do not know as much about the album's conception in regards to that minute of creation - one guy is since dead and I never read interview with the other two members about how they conceived what. There is probably some fabrication in it, since I doubt the band literally stopped for one minute whilst recording what constitutes this four (or three, I suppose, if this one doesn't count) track cycle - still, no idea.

Yet I'll disagree with your position from a both general and specific perspective.

One, music is about silences just as it is about audible resonances. To deny that would be to say that pauses and rests are not a part of a musical composition and are not a composer's property in placing them. Of course, there are fewer instances going as far as to create an entire minute of such silence, still it's even so not outside any bounds of how to implement silence in a desired artistical work.

Two, this is not one minute of silence in its own ether, but rather one minute of silence within a specific suite of four movements, if not altogether within an entire record that is, more or less, bound together. If anything, its (sub)title would only enhance this understanding. I offered you, of course, the technical explanation to what the track represents (plus clarifying that there is no low frequency shenanigans going on during it, at least as far as I know), but from an expressive and contextual point of view, a more truthful answer from me would have been "it's one minute of void".

I'd personally rather be more worked up about records with "hidden tracks" wanting me to "wait" sometimes up to 10 minutes to hear them rather than one minute of silence.

[G-Man]

I get what you say about music being about sound and silence but I will argue that music is about sound and silence within a composition. To claim silence as a composition in and of itself is something I cannot agree with. If you want to add a minute of silence, add it at the end of a track (you could do it at the beginning of a track but why start with a pause? awkward). You get the same effect without falling into this very debate we are in. I'm fine with incorporating a minute of silence for flavor and all that but I see no reason to give it its own space, regardless of how clever the "track" title is.

I agree with you about hidden tracks. They may have been cute back in the days of cassette tapes but in the digital age they're just silly.

[Ricochet]

I get what you say about music being about sound and silence but I will argue that music is about sound and silence within a composition.

Which you are listening to. At least, arguably, one called Leucocyte and having four movements.

To claim silence as a composition in and of itself is something I cannot agree with.

I have John Cage on line 1 for you.

If you want to add a minute of silence, add it at the end of a track (you could do it at the beginning of a track but why start with a pause? awkward). You get the same effect without falling into this very debate we are in. I'm fine with incorporating a minute of silence for flavor and all that but I see no reason to give it its own space, regardless of how clever the "track" title is.

But the context here can invite such debate, instead of being a deterrent. Why would it being at the end of a track matter or make a difference between suitable and not? It's a moment within a suite, of pure silence, specifically named "interim", the piece before it slowing to a halt, the one after fading back into a different atmosphere. It's not a track of silence between a ballad and a banger on a indie rock album.

[G-Man]

For me, a soundless track does not a movement make. It doesn't take any skill to add a minute of dead air to a recording. At least field recordings involve effort.

When I listen to music, I want to hear the fruits of the musician(s)'s labors. I want to hear their skill with sound. Silence may not technically exist but what you hear when a performer is silent is not something they can take credit for. They didn't create any of the sounds the environment or the people in that environment made during that pause.

To ascribe meaning to a soundless track or to sit silently as your performance is an act of performance art, not musical ability (my interpretation). It is just not in my nature to interpret international silence as meaningful. I will judge this track as any other track we've listened to, which means it will get a zero and pull down the album's overall score.

[Tangrowth]

As someone who's heard the album probably hundreds of times, I don't consider Ab Interim a separate track, and I would personally feel treating it as such is missing the point. "Leucocyte" is a song/track on its own, as is "Premonition". It's no different to me than Fishmans' "Long Season", which is a 35-minute long song, despite the fact that my album version splits it up into Long Season Pt. 1-5 as separate tracks.

[Tangrowth]

As for my rating, I relistened to it again today, and I'm going to give it a strong 4.5. I love this album.

[Ricochet]

For me, a soundless track does not a movement make. It doesn't take any skill to add a minute of dead air to a recording. At least field recordings involve effort.

And yet, to point out the obvious reference again, 4'33'' has three movements. It doesn't take any skill to sit at the piano and open / close the lid, either.

When I listen to music, I want to hear the fruits of the musician(s)'s labors. I want to hear their skill with sound. Silence may not technically exist but what you hear when a performer is silent is not something they can take credit for. They didn't create any of the sounds the environment or the people in that environment made during that pause.

If an actor has (or chooses interpretatively) to sit in silence for a minute during a play, both he and the playwright will have created something (out of nothing). They don't create any sounds, movements or words in that environment, either. Don't understand why that wouldn't apply to how a band inserted a minute of silence in their concept. The bigger question, especially in this album's case, is whether they had it in the blueprint all along or was manufactured posthumously. I have always partially mused on this, but that, of course, is a topic for the review.

To ascribe meaning to a soundless track or to sit silently as your performance is an act of performance art, not musical ability (my interpretation). It is just not in my nature to interpret international silence as meaningful. I will judge this track as any other track we've listened to, which means it will get a zero and pull down the album's overall score.

If you are rating tracks / music merely by how they sound, then yes, you have nothing to rate here, because nothing is sounding. You could technically leave it blank, but it's your rating system, no doubt.

You don't consider it part of the band's creation, yet you'll rate it and thus downgrade the band's creation all the same. Huh.

[Epignosis]

I'll submit Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water.

[G-Man]

I'm merely interpreting what the musicians present as their finished product. I'd rate the individual movements of a symphony, so why not the individual movements and an arty jazz record? It just so happens that I interpret this one part as unnecessary.

[Ricochet]

That's already different - interpreting what it's for and how you feel about it, as opposed to claiming it's empty space of no creative placement - and it's up to you.

[G-Man]

I've made a determination on this album of the week. I think part of my problem yesterday was I was trying to listen to it at work, which can be a noisy place at times and I try to keep my music low enough that it's not a distraction to anyone else in the office. For this reason, I could not hear some of the softer elements. When I thought all I was hearing was bass and drums, I was missing some ethereal guitar/electronic stuff.

Another problem was the pace at which I was working yesterday. When I need to get work done, I need music conducive to getting work done. I need energy, pep, and a driving beat. This album had none of those qualities for the state of mind I was in at the time.

I listened to some of the album last night with my headphones on and it was a better experience. I think I'm going to leave this one alone until Friday and Saturday night. My wife will be away at a women's retreat, so I can throw the headphones on and hear the album in full. Still annoyed by the fat that they gave track space to dead air though, if it even was air that they recorded.

[Tangrowth]

Savage.

[Tangrowth]

I knew your intense dislike of Kraftwerk and anything similar would come out at some point, Rico.

G-Man, your perspective is understandable, and I hope you don't feel like I was joining in on chastising you for it or anything. I just have learned to treat the minute of silence as a reprieve in the middle of a long song. And even though I can personally listen to the album pretty much anywhere these days, it definitely is ideal to sit back and give it attention in a calm environment I think.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

Mugur de fluier isn't doing much for me. The best I can say is that a few isolated moments the rhythm has grabbed me enough to incite a foot tap, but otherwise I have no emotional or thoughtful response to this thing. It seems to meander for an hour to nowhere in particular, like something without purpose. I'm sure it has a purpose, but it's not reaching my ears. Perhaps the lyrics would shed some light if I could comprehend them, but that's not usually an issue for me with non-English music. 2.5.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

A Flock of Seagulls started strong, but dragged later. It maintained a decent, if perhaps limited formula throughout and I have no real complaints other than it lasting longer than I think it needed to last. That could be called a significant accusation since the album isn't that long, but whatever. I enjoyed the early portion enough to remember the whole product fondly. 3.0.

[Ricochet]

>ornamental folk rock made with a poetic vision is meandering, 2.5
>tin pop rock with one-two-one-two drumming and lyrics in which only one line gets changed, no complaints except one song too many, 3.0

world_eject.exe

[Ricochet]

E.S.T. played in my hometown in 2006. The concert was recorded by the national television and is available on YouTube. I was there.



Some local fans are proud enough to speak of this concert as better than even the Live at Hamburg live recording, though I was never in the mood to make such comparisons (both this "bootleg" and that official live album kick ass, anyway, so big deal).

Until then, I hadn't really picked them up, but needless to say, with a month or so of preparation, then this concert, then digging into their entire discography, I was hooked ever since. They mostly toured here their 2006 release Tuesday Wonderland, which I'll just say is overall a different beast than Leucocyte - more accessible, even - though still with some of the same elements that's at the core of their language.

[Tangrowth]

I am beyond jealous. Would have loved to see them live. So cool.

[Tangrowth]

Listening to A Flock of Seagulls again myself, I think I'm going to downgrade it to a strong 3.0. I do agree it can be a bit patchy, though "I Ran" is still my least favorite -- don't care much for it. Still an enjoyable listen for what it is though, but I feel it as mood-dependent and flawed enough to bump it down a bit.

[G-Man]

Listening to A Flock of Seagulls again myself, I think I'm going to downgrade it to a strong 3.0. I do agree it can be a bit patchy, though "I Ran" is still my least favorite -- don't care much for it. Still an enjoyable listen for what it is though, but I feel it as mood-dependent and flawed enough to bump it down a bit.

[Tangrowth]

Lol, I assure you my reassessment is my own; I've known that I feel very differently from Rico on synthpop for years.

[G-Man]

A Flock of Seagulls

"The 70s and the 80s? You're not missing anything, believe me. I've looked into it. There's a gas shortage and A Flock of Seagulls. That's about it."
-Austin Powers

For me, much of this album is ear candy. The older I get, the more nostalgic I become for the unadulterated fun inherent to a lot of 80s pop. This album falls lovingly into that category. A Flock of Seagulls may be a lyrically-flawed band but their music is engrossing and enveloping. It doesn't just sound big (a la U2).

This album also sounds deep, three-dimensional if you will. It surrounds you like an environment. It's a lot of studio trickery that couldn't be replicated in a live show (though nowadays you probably could add all the atmospherics) and some people take issue with that. I don't mind it. I like getting lost in the textures this album lays out on the table.

I listened to the UK version via the YouTube link I provided. It begins with "Modern Love is Automatic," a song that sounds out of place anywhere but the beginning of an album. From the very start, you know you are listening to something very rich and dense. The driving beat gets your feet tapping and the ending of this track segues perfectly into the next. "Messages" sounds like a companion piece to "Modern Love is Automatic," so much so that it borders on samey but that beat cannot be denied.

"Messages" concludes with a drop and fade to silence, which segues perfectly into the almost sinister intro to "I Ran," a staple of 80s pop lists and a song that has all but become a caricature of what 80s synth-based New Wave looked and sounded like. I have a personal attachment to this song, so I love it, even if it isn't the strongest song on the album. This creates a near-perfect opening trio of songs that makes me want more.

Unfortunately, the UK release of this album is very front-loaded. "Telecommunication" is corny, "Standing in the Doorway" has a bizarre intro that chews up half the track, "Tokyo" feels out of place with the rest of the album (funny, seeing as I insist on people listening to the UK version of the album), and "Man Made" is all Matrix-like in lyrical content but not a toe-tapper. They're all adequate tracks but nothing that makes my ears perk up and say "yeah!"

My favorite track on the album is "Space Age Love Song." The high and low synths soar and swirl around inside my head. The lyrics may not be deep and they're certainly repetitive but the vocals melt in with the music. This is 80s pop perfection for me- the kind of song that you fall in love to at the roller rink. I also scoop up "Modern Love is Automatic" for being a great opening track and "I Ran" for the aforementioned personal attachment. I also would take "D.N.A." with me because it's another roller rink pop confection and a terrific instrumental.

A Flock of Seagulls involves a fair amount of unconventional song structure- long intros that hog up almost half the track space and an absence of strict verse-chorus-verse formula on a few tracks. As a fan of Meat Loaf, I'm not scared off by unconventional song structure.

It's far from perfect but I think it's a great example of early 80s poppy new wave. The band may be lyrically stunted but, to my ears, they are strong musicians. They aimed high and scored big with a sound that was adopted by many bands that followed. The strength of the first half of the album resulted in a higher score that I predicted. The bar is now set high for my SAW Top 10 albums.

G-Man Scale: 3.98 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5

[JaggedJimmyJay]

>ornamental folk rock made with a poetic vision is meandering, 2.5
>tin pop rock with one-two-one-two drumming and lyrics in which only one line gets changed, no complaints except one song too many, 3.0

world_eject.exe

A lyrical comparison is impossible when I can't understand them. The former album just didn't strike any chords in one listen. Maybe it would with repetition. Maybe it'd get worse. Music tastes are random.org.

[JaggedJimmyJay]

Submitting:

Joanna Newsom - Ys / 2006 / Folk / 5 tracks / 55:41 / Available on YouTube

[Ricochet]

Submitting:

Joanna Newsom - Ys / 2006 / Folk / 5 tracks / 55:41 / Available on YouTube

Ayy.

[G-Man]

We can has new poll?

[Ricochet]

No need. There are only five new submissions.

[G-Man]

Shouldn't we still be allowed to vote on the order?

[Ricochet]

There's doing that or just following the order in which they were submitted. Idk, it was my understanding that we could just roll with it, when we don't have to decide on five from a bigger pool.

[Tangrowth]

I'm cool with whatever you guys think is best.

[Ricochet]

Two views on my AFOS vid lol.

[Tangrowth]

Really an incredible review, Rico. You did it more justice than I could have. The album has served a similar purpose for me over the years, but I couldn't ever quite articulate my love for it in the way you did here. It's really hard to believe now that it's been nearly 10 years since Svensson's death.

I think I'll be spinning it again starting right now, in fact.

[Ricochet]

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Prom (or homecoming ball, whatever) scene.

Background music.

I saaaaawwwww yoooour eyyyyyes...

[Ricochet]

I'll be at work till late tomorrow, so gonna change to our next submission tonight.

Week 31: Woodkid - The Golden Age



Submitted by [mention]nutella[/mention]

Available on YouTube and Spotify, most likely

Also, for those who submitted the five new albums, if there are Spotify links available, please provide them (now or when those albums will come up).

[nutella]

whoa, didn't realize spotify links automatically embed. well there it is

[nutella]

Leucocyte - 3ish? I definitely appreciate what it is but I enjoy some parts of it a lot more than others and some of it just drags on/doesn't hold my interest much.

[speedchuck]

Good news! It looks like I'll be changing jobs in the next month or so. And I'll be able to stream music at my new job!

[Ricochet]

dew eet

[G-Man]

Leucocyte

I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be, a jazz person. I have such a limited background with jazz (A Charlie Brown Christmas and having listened to every Miles Davis album for another musical project) that you might as well call me a jazz outsider. That keeps me consistent with a lot of the albums we've listened to. I'm an outsider to a lot of the stuff you folks like, it seems, so please bear with me once more.

Track 1, "Decade," gets this album off on the wrong foot for me. It's sounds nice but it's slow and directionless to me (perhaps that's a thing with jazz that I will understand with time). It's also very short. Is it an intro or a stand-alone piece? I considered it a stand-alone, as it shared nothing with the track that followed. Track 2, "Premonition I. Earth," was both interesting and frustrating at the same time. The entire piece is a slow build, so much that I (with my boorish rock and roll sensibilities) didn't feel like there was a true climax. In my notes, I likened it to boiling a frog- it adds and builds inch by inch but with all the additions and subtle changes, there wasn't a clear and distinct energy transfer- no kicking it up a notch to bring it all home if you will. I liked it but I wish I could have loved it. Track 3, "Premonition 2. Contorted," sucked the energy back out. Perhaps this was a comedown track after "Earth." It was just slow-jam meandering with not my kind of energy. Adequate and pleasant but not engaging for me.

That was the story of much of the album for me. A lot of arty or meandering music that's better than anything I could ever hope to write myself but also not much that appeals to me. "Jazz" struck me as the most conventional piece on the album but it had zip and a few flourishes that kept it from feeling generic. It wasn't until the "Leucocyte" cycle that I perked up in a big way.

"Ab Initio" pounds at your brain. Is it electric guitar I hear? I'm genuinely curious since I don't see guitar listed on any album credits I dig up. It evokes a sense of danger and desperation but also builds in a way that satisfies for me. Believe it or not, I did not give the faux-track "Ab Interim" a zero like I said I would. I gave it a score just below indifference for reasons already stated. I think it disrupts the flow of "Initio" into "Mortem" too much. There's enough of a fade out to just roll into the next track.

"Ab Mortem" and "Ab Infinitum" are certainly companion pieces because of their similar sound and they way they blend together. This one-two punch was very beautiful. There's a little bit of distortion and a large expansive quality that suggests a vast and lonely landscape. Call me a nerd, but the first thing that popped into my head was the cosmos. With the droning elements and the reverberant echo at times, these two pieces sound as if they could be a sonata for the Voyager space probes. It's calming and yet sad at the same time.

If I had to take three tracks with me, I'd snatch up the "Leucocyte" cycle (minus that wasted minute of course). "Premonition I. Earth" comes close but something still feels incomplete. "Jazz" was also a strong contender but it lacks the distinctive personality of the "Leucocyte" cycle.

If you cut out "Ab Interim" and its dead air, the album would have hit 3.6 out of 5 (a B+ for me) on the strength of the "Leucocyte" cycle alone. But alas, that artsy fartsy bit of triviality holds it back. As an amusing consequence, this album came in just a notch or two below Original Sin, which ought to just thrill Rico.

G-Man Scale: 3.44 out of 5
Rico Scale: 3.5 out of 5

[Ricochet]

As an amusing consequence, this album came in just a notch or two below Original Sin, which ought to just thrill Rico.

oh you

To be pedantic, I think 'Decade' is stand-alone, in that it is not related or of the same fabric as 'Premonition', yet is an introduction (to the next epic track and to the album by default), since it's too short and form-less to count as either "a composition with its clear structure and message" or "a fully developed/improvised jazz composition".

Dan Berglund plays solely an amplified/electric double bass - unless I am sorely mistaken, but he has never changed his instrumental role within the trio, throughout their career and discography. So what you're hearing on 'Ab initio' is the bass sound played and distorted in such a way, that it comes off like ragged guitar slashes.

[Tangrowth]

As an amusing consequence, this album came in just a notch or two below Original Sin, which ought to just thrill Rico.

oh you

To be pedantic, I think 'Decade' is stand-alone, in that it is not related or of the same fabric as 'Premonition', yet is an introduction (to the next epic track and to the album by default), since it's too short and form-less to count as either "a composition with its clear structure and message" or "a fully developed/improvised jazz composition".

Dan Berglund plays solely an amplified/electric double bass - unless I am sorely mistaken, but he has never changed his instrumental role within the trio, throughout their career and discography. So what you're hearing on 'Ab initio' is the bass sound played and distorted in such a way, that it comes off like ragged guitar slashes.

I was always under that impression as well.

[G-Man]

First impressions of Woodkid:

-Sounds like a dude version of Adele but with less vocal range and passion
-Vocals seemed overpowered by the music at times
-The big orchestral sound gets a little samey by 2/3 of the way through
-Nod of approval for the artist being one of the composers for all the orchestral music and not just writing the vocal parts

[G-Man]

I've listened only once so far this week. Lots of things going on at the office plus planning for the girls' birthday party this weekend will result in me falling behind with this.

[Tangrowth]

So... I was not a fan of Woodkid, to put it lightly. G-Man hit the nail on the head for me by saying 'dude version of Adele'. That was very similar to the impression I had. And I really don't like Adele. This just isn't my thing. I can at least say I liked it better than Adele, but that doesn't mean much. The album shifted between being tedious and actively irritating me, more so the latter unfortunately. I'd give it a 1.5. I won't say more because I don't like being negative about albums. Sorry.