"Old man in a teahouse," the original version, is an almost chaotic blend of samples taken from many places, pinned down by ambient chords and a strong, dance-y beat. There are a lot of disparate elements, but somehow it is never disconnected. The flow is always quick and constant, with guitars and other instruments and voices popping in and out. It should be a complete mess, but it is not. This is my favorite song off the single.
Next up we have the "Semi-dub." This strips away the frenetic blend of samples in order to create an ambient composition that is more subtle and slow. It also showcases some beautiful cello playing from Wisconsonite Heather Anderson. I think this version would have benefited from a few more samples here and there, but it is still exceptional.
And now we get into the long, long tracks.
"Weightless" is nearly nine minutes long. The ambient chords from the original play over and over until they are lost into a haze of echoes. Odd backward sounds play in the background. After fading out, the ambient chords return with more clarity and definition. Blips and bloops slowly overwhelm the track.
I feel that this version suffers from being too long with too few ideas to carry it to the eight minute mark. It's good background music, but it can be tedious to listen to.
"You Know?" begins with those ambient chords again, which are growing somewhat irritating after fifteen minutes. Some strong beats, fast plucked instruments and the cello again make this mix much more worthwhile than "Weightless," though I still feel that it does not contain enough elements to fill its six minutes.
"Del Fiume Po," the final track, is somewhat more energetic and makes extensive use of the cello. It's nice, but after four tracks with the same melody it feels a bit rehashed.
Conclusion: The original song is the best track on this single, but some of the others are also worthy of you attention. Excellent cello playing and use of samples, but needs more variety overall. Half an hour is too long to be playing the same chords and loops.
Rating: 4/5
Variations at OUIM.net - Synthetic
VBR MP3:
2 comments:
The album is basically a maxi-single.
so I agree that it isn't ideal to play all tracks at once. I usually play track 1 (by Norbert Croonenberg), track 3 and track 5 for the widest variety.
yeah - I agree the maxi single format isn't really that good for listening all in one sitting. It's more a "pick your favorite" kind of release format.
And I share the sentiment, that some of the versions of this maxi single are better suited to just being played in the background, rather than attentive listening. That isn't a bad thing, it's just a different type of music for a different purpose.
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