John Talabot

i know we've had the whole sunshine thing throughout this thread but the (really great) album is kind of teutonic and a bit wintry to me...pional has that icey vibe to his tracks too

Booka Shade comparison is probably on point here in that tracks like Mandarine Girl and In White Rooms were alternately really chilly and teutonic and then suddenly really hands-in-the-air and balearic sounding.

I feel like this album starts off pretty icy and then warms up. Actually a lot of this reminds me of The Field, although much better than The Field because he's much better at doing space and build-and-release.

on my first two listens i'm def in the "wish this was more summery" camp but its growing on me

Really feeling this record so far, still on my first listen. It's funny how summer vibes has become such a theme of this thread - is this because of lex's review? - but it snowed for the first time in Amsterdam today and 'Destiny' sounded perfect on my way to work.

This is greeeeeeeeat. But yeah, doesn't feel that summery to me, maybe just because of the weather outside right now.

I'm finding that there's a lot to take in with this album.

Last Land is the big big bomb. he confirmed for Primavera today, can't WAIT to hear this live in spain :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

this is going to blow up, huh?

yes i think so, not a huge pop way, but will reach a lot of people as it's so strong

*in a huge pop way

the record definitely has a balearic type of euphoria seeping in even though the palette isn't all beaches and sunshine. "when the past was present" and "oro y sangre" are some early faves but tbh i dig the whole thing

some tracks here remind me of the vibes on the gatto fritto album last year actually, which was prob less strong but still p great

the record definitely has a balearic type of euphoria seeping in even though the palette isn't all beaches and sunshine

^^ otm

personal faves at the moment :

oro y sangre
missing you
when the past was present

only got to hear the first 3 tracks earlier, but was seriously impressed at the breadth on display here.

the sound is new, and it's probably the first dance album in years that i want to explore through multiple listens. multi-layered in the best way possible

i'm really surprised at how little i'm feeling this :\

does he play "live"-live yet? doing a couple of free shows w/ Chairlift on school nights this week (and a $ headline on Saturday) and I can't hack it for just a DJ set

the Primavera set is billed as 'live' but i guess it will vary

not feeling this. it seems kinda predictable to me: each track builds pretty much as you would expect; each switch gets flicked when you had anticipated it would. that's not always bad and, in fact, it can be useful in a dancefloor context, but it makes for a pretty dull home listen in this case and i can't imagine dancing to any of it either.

i've downloaded this but haven't felt the need to put it on yet, i keep just listening to sunshine and families

I'm scared to listen to this, the not-sunshine vibes suggested by people in this thread make me worry it won't have the same omgwow factor that all his earlier stuff has had for me.

I'm a bit worried that the album might be too quick to offer up all its charms and it might have worn out its welcome in a week or two...but atm it's exactly what I want to hear. It will be interesting to see how ILM rates it in next year's EOY...

Favourite tracks right now:
Destiny
When the Past was Present
Depak Ine

if gr80's not feeling this album well then I'M not feeling it, either #balearicsolidarity

i like it, i'm just kind of whatever about it i guess

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/27/john-talabot-i-could-go-three-days-without-leaving-the-house/

interesting that he conceived it as a "dark" album

thanks for posting that-- v good interviewee

really getting into this. its such an ~album~

I want to make an album more relaxed, more plain, without many highlights or any tracks that could get more attention by themselves than the full album, and I wanted to have a more intimate sound, more introspective, more dense, a way of defining all these is with the ‘dark’ word.

This is a really good description of the record, but seems like an odd set of ambitions in a way.

Destiny immediately stood out, I suppose mainly because of the vocals. But everything else I've had to listen to several times. I've even had some trouble associating particular tracks with names. It's all extremely detailed and subtle. I like it a lot though!

One thing I find quite remarkable about john tabalot's productions (in general, but the album provides a high-concentrate example) is how they sound so deliberately loop-driven and structured, like you can imagine him walking along a line of machines and calmly deploying each little motif one at a time, and yet... everything builds so naturally and inevitably. It's music which really draws attention (and pays attention) to the architectural nature of dance music, but does so with paradoxical grace.

Reminds me vaguely of the Orbital of the Brown Album and Middle of Nowhere.

Panda Bear-ish vocals on this Journeys song eh?

This is very captivating, deeply into this

yeah, the panda bear-ish vocals take me out of a little bit, i'm getting used to them, though.

Tim F that is a very OTM post.

Reminds me vaguely of the Orbital of the Brown Album and Middle of Nowhere.

oh man i did not make this connection until you said it but this explains a lot of my attraction to this record

So what was John Talabot's previous production name? I remember when he first started producing as John Talabot Sherburne did an article saying how he changed his name so people wouldn't connect the two but I'm intrigued.

Actually it was this article
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1189

Enough time has passed and there's enough interest now that i think the cat can be let out of the bag

had never heard "families" b4 the tracks poll and cant stop playing it

the vibe of the beat on "missing you" reminds me of talking heads' "seen and not seen"

Ha, there's so much on this album that reminds me of other songs. The beat in 'Estui' sounds as if he sampled Tortoise's 'Djed'. It keeps on driving forward, I love it sooo

I should get this.

What am I missing on this album? I've listened to it three times and it's still just not caught me. It's weird when this many people whose opinions I usually trust go absolutely doolally for an album and I just can't hear what they're hearing.

(But then again, I wasn't even that impressed by that song he did with Glasser, and obviously I love Glasser. Feel this may be some contrarian block on my part.)

i didn't care for the glasser remix, either, but i don't love glasser. the remix of "changes", otoh, is amazing.

er, "changed"

ok "destiny" is basically chillwave and it rules

One thing I find quite remarkable about john tabalot's productions (in general, but the album provides a high-concentrate example) is how they sound so deliberately loop-driven and structured, like you can imagine him walking along a line of machines and calmly deploying each little motif one at a time, and yet... everything builds so naturally and inevitably. It's music which really draws attention (and pays attention) to the architectural nature of dance music, but does so with paradoxical grace.

Reminds me vaguely of the Orbital of the Brown Album and Middle of Nowhere.

I see what you're getting at (structurally rather than sonically at least). What this at its best reminds me most of is the Orbital of InSides, especially The Girl With The Sun In Her Head - where you just hear all these loops patiently building on top of one another until they're all intersecting and you get this amazing build almost without noticing it. When the record is least successful is when Talabot abandons this approach and just lets the sounds sit there (El Oeste reminds me of The Field in a bad way).

You can find out his name, former production name and previous club residency if you google it. The only track I'd heard from him previously wasn't like the new works. Kind of electro house / techno mid 2000s influenced by Areal, Sender, Kompakt etc.

My Google skills must really not be up to much.

I think it was a Spanish site I saw it. Anyway, I think I read that he was resident at the Loft in Barcelona and his former production name was D.A.R.Y.L. Hopefully this wasn't a bad thing to post.

Here's a D.A.R.Y.L. track on Factor City from 2006. Factor City is/was a Barcelona based label which, I think the main act were Undo and Vicknoise. Maybe related to Ferenc which did an album for Kompakt..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTJvepR-3wo

Not sure about the Orbital references. Booka Shade I can just about see but fIN is more gothic. One comparison that leapt out at me: "When the Past Was Present" brought to mind early Saint Etienne! Try playing it back to back with "Speedwell", say.

This is a good album but I think it's most successful when Talabot has a vocalist to play off against (interesting contrast to Azari & III here, where I much prefer the tracks on their album that don't have the two vocalists on). The instrumentals are well constructed, and build very naturally as others have said, but sometimes lack a pay off. A notable exception is "Last Land", which is probably my favourite track at the moment.

Both the Pional collabs are awesome. But "So Will Be Now..." is particularly lovely. Are the vocal phrases on this 'sampled' from another song? The lyrics seem v. familiar.

Yeah I think the Orbital references were in relation to structure and approach rather than sonics per se - there's not much here with quite the same sweep as peak Orbital. Booka Shade comparison is also on point wrt building loop by loop but the music isn't really alike either - obviously loads of dance music builds in this way but these two acts (and Talabot as well) are particularly good at it.

Sorry to be a moaner but it needs to be said that D.A.R.Y.L. track above is horrid proggy 'minimal' (i.e not minimal at all) of the worst kind.

Definitely into checking out the Shy Layers live set. Haven't heard of the other two but thanks for the tips.

Jex Opolis is great. Check out last year's Ravines album.

And Eddie Ruscha has released lots of great albums as Secret Circuit and was also half of Laughing Light Of Plenty with Thomas Bullock