bipedaldave said:
some things are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. or 2.
the labels Woebster mentioned are basically classic house music in the official canon. deep and otherwise. which is related to Luomo only in terms of genre lineage, and not in any specific ways.
as far as the Present Lover is concerned... it was life changing for me too: it made me realise how an artist I have followed for years across many labels can so spectacularly dissapoint.
everything fresh about Vocalcity had been reduced by the Present Lover to a limp set of predictable conventions not only deadly boring, but offensive in its tacky garishness.
the only thing worse than the Present Lover are the remixes of the title track. what a collection of stinkers (from quality remixers too). when she sings "getting creative with your chops" or some such atrocious piece of lyric it makes me want to puke.
"the only thing worse than the Present Lover are the remixes of the title track. what a collection of stinkers (from quality remixers too). when she sings "getting creative with your chops" or some such atrocious piece of lyric it makes me want to puke."
I assume you mean "Tessio", which appeared in different forms on both albums. The remixes of that (M.R.I., Mathias Schaffhauser etc.) all date from the <I>Vocalcity</i> days except for the Moonbootica one I believe, which is awesome - an unlikely but inspired transformation of the song into a peaktime anthem.
As for <i>The Present Lover</i>, I could write a detailed defence, but I'd be <a href="http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0411/040317_music_luomo.php">repeating</a> myself.
I assume you mean "Tessio", which appeared in different forms on both albums. The remixes of that (M.R.I., Mathias Schaffhauser etc.) all date from the <I>Vocalcity</i> days except for the Moonbootica one I believe, which is awesome - an unlikely but inspired transformation of the song into a peaktime anthem.
As for <i>The Present Lover</i>, I could write a detailed defence, but I'd be <a href="http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0411/040317_music_luomo.php">repeating</a> myself.
I was trying to avoid being spammy, but I interviewed the guy around the time The Present Lover was released, and he had a few interesting things to say (write) about what he intended, how he finds writing with vox, etc. Not to mention his one line response about what inspired the Luomo project, which fits nicely with Tim's review.
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k-punk
Spectres of Mark
Vocalcity deserves all the plaudits it got... I came to it very late, in the grip of depression, very little could reach me, but Vocalcity did.... It seduced, and there are few records more seductive... It struck me as an alternative template for pop, a model for a pop entirely liberated, as Tim suggests, from the testicular dynamics of climax-orientated Rock ... (and, after all the rock model has an influence far beyond the rock genre...) Partly this is to do with the extra time, ten rather than three minutes as standard....
Where I would differ (ever so slightly) from Tim's analysis is in the notion of Vocalcity as foreplay... as if it were only putting off climax rather than opening up a mode of enjoyment in which there was no question of climax at all... the album is a sumptuous suspension... It's not only the tension-release of rock that VC banished, though: it looped Dance's urgencies into permanent delay (in the double sense), oneirically transforming its imperatives into the delicate clamour of Mondrian mists, a city of ghosts, whispers, undulations, reverberations...
After this audio-vapour, this nearly-absent sound perfume, The Present Lover did seem a little too ... Present...
Where I would differ (ever so slightly) from Tim's analysis is in the notion of Vocalcity as foreplay... as if it were only putting off climax rather than opening up a mode of enjoyment in which there was no question of climax at all... the album is a sumptuous suspension... It's not only the tension-release of rock that VC banished, though: it looped Dance's urgencies into permanent delay (in the double sense), oneirically transforming its imperatives into the delicate clamour of Mondrian mists, a city of ghosts, whispers, undulations, reverberations...
After this audio-vapour, this nearly-absent sound perfume, The Present Lover did seem a little too ... Present...
A lot of people bag <i>The Present Lover</i> for its comparative lack of subtlety, but I would argue that the subtlety is simply shifted to a different level.
Against Mark, I would argue that <i>The Present Lover</i> is a more <i>absent</i> record than <i>Vocal City</i>, its attractions more elusive for all that they appear to be more immediate. By superficially acquiesing to the demands of genre, Delay reduces his own craft to a thin, almost imperceptible veneer. And this is not at all simply straightforward acquiesence: the album itself (I won't presume to speak for Delay) is quite aware that sometimes a minimal difference is harder to maintain than a clear difference, and the delicate equipoise the grooves have to maintain (between the inside and the outside of house) produces a thoroughly tantalising tension as a result. This is why I think the remake of "Tessio" is the album's misstep: it fails to maintain this balance and wobbles of course.
But I think that my reading would be difficult to countenance if one saw little-to-no point with engaging with house <i>qua</i> house.
The title of the song "The Present Lover" is of course quite ironic: for all the singer claims that he is present, the object of his desire is equally clearly absent, unreachable.
Against Mark, I would argue that <i>The Present Lover</i> is a more <i>absent</i> record than <i>Vocal City</i>, its attractions more elusive for all that they appear to be more immediate. By superficially acquiesing to the demands of genre, Delay reduces his own craft to a thin, almost imperceptible veneer. And this is not at all simply straightforward acquiesence: the album itself (I won't presume to speak for Delay) is quite aware that sometimes a minimal difference is harder to maintain than a clear difference, and the delicate equipoise the grooves have to maintain (between the inside and the outside of house) produces a thoroughly tantalising tension as a result. This is why I think the remake of "Tessio" is the album's misstep: it fails to maintain this balance and wobbles of course.
But I think that my reading would be difficult to countenance if one saw little-to-no point with engaging with house <i>qua</i> house.
The title of the song "The Present Lover" is of course quite ironic: for all the singer claims that he is present, the object of his desire is equally clearly absent, unreachable.