God moving over the face of the waters

Now, challenges like these, where I revisit specific time periods of my life, tend to be really great. This week I go back to the year of 2002. First quarter of that year, I start working at a big box retail store, and though I first start as a cashier, by the end of the Summer I was working in the music department. That year, in and of itself, proved to be a tumultuous one for me. By year's end, the relationship I was in with the mother of my son would finally come to a close, and though it brought us both a great relief, it also brought doubt and the shadow of loss with it. One thing that really helped bear all that was the acquaintances I made throughout that year, a select few of which would translate into deeper friendships. 

See, a bunch of us who worked there had a ritual, one that would happen at least once a week, but often more often than that. We'd leave work around 10:30 p.m. and then make our way up to the bars, and get hammered. All the while, we'd be talking about random shit, having fun, and trying to get lucky. There's one guy in particular who I became really good friends with, and through him I got to know a lot of music that was well out of my wheelhouse. Though by that time I was listening to E.B.M. and Aggrotech, and Future Pop and all that synth goodness, he was much more into a more ambient type of music. Rui, who I mentioned in an entry a good while back, listened to - and made - types of music in the electronic realms that I wasn't very aware of. And because we lived fairly close to each other, he'd always give me a lift back home when I was way too drunk to go anywhere. Anyway, it would be during these homeward trips that Rui would play these really cool songs, and I lowkey envied this motherfucker for having such an awesome taste in music. Man, those were good times indeed. Even when I was retching my guts out over having drunk way too much, and the poor guy would then have to clean vomit from off his car. Well, here's a selection of acts that I listened to back then or got to know about  on account of good old Rui! 

Day 271 - Photek - 'KU:PALM'
Here's how I break this album down : there are - for me - three very distinct phases to this album. First phase is tracks 1-5, which range from the pretty good to the 'eh, just kinda there'. Then comes phase two, tracks 6-9, which are mostly bangers, including the standout track 'Munich'. Everything here is pretty fucking good. Then comes the last phase, which has three very forgettable vocal pieces. Instrumentally, they are sound, and should they have been wholly instrumental, then good God damn, this would have been one for the ages. But alas, none of the vocal performances were really that good. I'll give it a 7/10, but this could have gone a bit higher if not for those pesky vocals tunes.

Day 272 - Einóma - 'Milli Tónverka'

I loved their debut record 'Undir Feilnótum' to death, and though this one came only one year after that first record, I was never aware of it. This one I found to be very much on the front-loaded side, meaning that I enjoyed the first few tracks much more than I did, say, the middle tracks. The first few I think almost could be the soundtrack to a sort of cyber noir thriller, and those were pretty good. Then in the middle it gets somewhat more abstract, and I didn't enjoy those tracks as much. It does pick up a bit in the end, though it ends in somewhat of a semi unpleasant maelstrom of cacophony.

I dunno, I liked some of it and others not so much. It felt like it was somewhat lacking in cohesion. It gets just a 6/10

Day 273 - DJ Shadow - 'Action Adventure'

I almost selected DJ Shadow for my hip-hop entry a while back, because that's how you see him labeled, though I myself never saw it. First track I heard from this guy was a track called 'You Can't Go Home Again', and it would have been in one of those early mornings me and Rui and a couple of other friends would spend, sitting in his car while he played the coolest songs ever. That song - and especially that song - remained inside my mind throughout that year. I knew that my then relationship was very much on its last legs, and to this day I vividly recall approaching the door to the house we lived in, knowing that very soon it wouldn't be my home anymore, and while I stood there, uncertainty gripping me to my very core, that song was playing on my MiniDisc player - yes, I was one of the lucky few who had one, so it seems. 

I haven't followed his work in many years, and I actually always preferred his work with UNKLE. If I was looking for something like 'You Can't Go Home Again' here, then it's nowhere to be found. There are some good tracks here, the first five or six make for some solid listening, but they're followed by a bunch of boring/lackluster tracks. It ends on a more somber, ambient note though, which may well be the best part of the album. Unfortunately, there's nothing here that would make me want to come back to it often, if ever at all. It gets a 6/10, and that's mainly because of the last few tracks.

Day 274 - Autechre - 'Plus'

Now that I think of it, Einóma was - along with something I really enjoyed, but can't for the life of me recall what it was called - a recommendation from a guy that worked with me and Rui. I wasn't super close with him, but we got along fine, and I know that one of his favourite bands was Autechre. I might have listened to something by them back then, I don''t know. Maybe I did. But be that as it may I figured that since it fits the time period I'm revisiting, this would fit very well. And, you know, in my day I listened to a lot of electronic music, from E.B.M. to synth-pop, aggrotech, gabber, ambient et al, and my mileage does indeed vary a great deal in what I can enjoy and in what I can tolerate. Things that veer towards the abstractly experimental, with no semblance of sense whatsoever behind what is being offered just grinds my gears.

There was a hilarious bit in an episode of 'The Office', where Gabe is hosting a party at his house, and eventually he boasts about his musicianship. When asked what he played, he simply replies 'Oh! I like to create soundscapes. I imagine one instant of a song, expanded to be the size of the universe.', and though this isn't quite that, it's annoying on levels of pretension that just baffle me. There are - certainly - some pleasant bits. I'd say the bests songs can be found among the last four, excluding the last one which was just atrocious.

You know, for a record called 'Plus' this is one hell of a minus. I'll give it a 2/10

Day 275 - Boards of Canada - 'Inferno'

Some twenty years ago I met a gay guy who was really into me, and flattered though I might have felt, I just don't swing that way. But he was talking to me online, and because at that time I used to DJ a bit, he was always sending me songs, recommending new music to me. One time he was telling me about a band called Of Montreal, a band that I never managed to quite get into. And I replied something along the lines of 'Oh yeah, I've listened to some of their stuff before. Like this ambient electronic thing, right?' and he poor kid just looked at me and shook his head. Of course I was confusing Of Montreal with Boards Of Canada. 

Now, to be fair, I don't think I'd ever listened to more than a few tracks in isolation here and there. Never a full record. And this one, boy, at 70 minutes long it just felt like it had plenty of filler. It also had some really great songs - yes, ambient-y, atmospheric ones - but goddamn, it could have been pared down to 40-45 minutes max and it would have been all the better for it. Maybe release those filler tracks as a second disc or b-sides. But this being what it is, I'll give it a 6/10

Day 276 - Eluvium - '(Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality'
Something I don't really do when it comes to these challenges is structure the bands/artists I chose so that I leave the best for last, and thus I'd always end the week on a high note. When I was still a normal person who was interested in normal things like dating someone, I used to pour my heart and soul into these playlists that I'd curate specifically for whomever it was that held my interest. All this to say that I wish this had been the last listen of the week, and if I'm honest, had this been the last listen of the year then I'd be well chuffed. This one was a remarkable listen : delicate, beautiful, achingly so. It was not only the best of the week, but I'm certain it's easily one of the top 5 listens I've had so far during this challenge. I'll give it an astounding 10/10

Day 277 - Pantha Du Prince - 'Garden Gaia'

My friend Rui, he who inspired me to do this bit of the challenge, he's a very good looking guy, and very stylish in a cool kind of way. On top of all that, he's very intelligent, very interesting and quite creative. He studied cinema, and he writes and draws his own comics. So, with all those attributes, it's no wonder he never lacked for company. We briefly worked together with a girl who absolutely fancied him, and they'd eventually have a short-lived relationship where you could definitely see that the girl still had feelings for him long after they'd broken up. Sometimes I'd meet them, and we'd go for a drink, and then to some club or the other. She drank his every word, her eyes were on him always, and whatever he liked to listen to or watch, she liked as well. 

And yeah, I felt a twinge of envy, and that envy was twofold : I envied his coolness and roguish good looks, and I envied that devotion the girl had for him. I remember that the very last time I saw her - and this might have been some 15 years ago by now, or more - one of the things that she was telling him, and bear in mind that though they had not been together in quite a while, and both were in relationships with other people, an attempt at a friendship was still being made, but she was telling him that she still listened to all the things she knew he liked - and one of the artists mentioned was one Pantha Du Prince.

I remember that Rui had sent me some MP3s before, and though I registered the name somewhere in my mental data bank, and though I'd sometimes listen to some of his tracks in isolation - especially when I was DJing - I just never found the time or the patience or, indeed, the will to go down that rabbit hole.

And to be perfectly honest, the very first thing I noticed about this album is this artwork that's very Roger Dean-esque, right down to the font, and that might have led me to think that this would be somehow prog-ish. Well, it isn't, it's fine electronic music, though hardly original. I didn't much love this one, it had a couple of vocal tunes that somehow reminded me of Depeche Mode, with a little bit of Peter Heppner as well. The last few tracks are the best, by far, but it still didn't make up for an entirely pleasant listen. I'll give it a middling 5/10

Next week comes something that I should have done in the summer. But better late than never, and hopefully it'll be good - and cool!