Kelley Polar - Love Songs of The Hanging Gardens (Environ CD05)

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The indie comparison I would use it Kevin Tihista, but I don't think many people outside of Chicago would know who he is.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Sunday, 23 October 2005 07:39 (twenty years ago)

is he the red terror guy?

didn't they have a semi-big (indie "big") rec?

― c7n (Cozen), Sunday, 23 October 2005 10:37 (twenty years ago)

anyway I googled and yeah

― c7n (Cozen), Sunday, 23 October 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

This is incredible, everyone on earth needs this album, can't actually believe this! I am actually thinking of all the friends who are going to go crazy for this record and want to invite them around!

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 23 October 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

Instant Classic.

― snowballing (snowballing), Sunday, 23 October 2005 14:01 (twenty years ago)

but I don't think many people outside of Chicago would know who he is.

Ha, I know who he is, in the sense that I've read articles about him and seen his name listed on bills around Chicago, but I've never actually heard his music.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 23 October 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

i've been reading this thread with increasing disbelief at what i assumed was pure hyperbole but i'm listening to this now and.... WOW.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 23 October 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

From the artist bio at Environ: "Recently expelled from Juilliard for the 'riot' during his Master's Recital..." ???

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 23 October 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

can someone ysi anything else, please? i can't seem to find anything on soulseek. what's the danciest song on the album? all i've got is Vocalise and Here in the Night... please?

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Sunday, 23 October 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

please YSI this album

― biz, Sunday, 23 October 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

leechers, the lot of you. use p2p like honest people!

― unconscious, honey (FE7), Sunday, 23 October 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Ronan OTM!

ha, I'm breaking my brane trying to think of what the vocals around 0:47 in "my beauty in the moon" remind me of, but I keep getting distracted by the awesome "empire state human" beat!

― etc, Sunday, 23 October 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

slighty deviant here, but if anyone cares, I just discovered Metro Area 6 is on iTunes now. F**k a vinyl rip and support!

― buboclot, Sunday, 23 October 2005 21:23 (twenty years ago)

god i wish itunes had better bitrates available

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 23 October 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

yeah why has that not been petitioned to hell or just flat out changed? either way a 160kbps cd version is better than a vinyl rip for me.

― buboclot, Sunday, 23 October 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

Rumor has it that the Environ catalog will be up on Bleep soon.

― jeffery (jeffery), Sunday, 23 October 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

From the artist bio at Environ: "Recently expelled from Juilliard for the 'riot' during his Master's Recital..." ???

There was a lot of laughing going on. It was very difficult to stop.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:15 (twenty years ago)

A+

environ = still batting a thousand

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 24 October 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

actually, i'd prefer to buy it tonight on Bleep.com than download it for free. i'd rather go to the shop and buy it there but i have to wait. if it's done and it's on Soulseek, why can't i get it in the shops. this, more than downloading, is losing the recording industry sales.

― biz, Monday, 24 October 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

OH MY FUCKING GOD "MY BEAUTY IN THE MOON"

Get it from Fluxblog if you haven't yet, it is the business. It's settled, I am buying this the day of release. I will knock over nuns and the elderly in my haste.

― telephone thing, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

oh the remixes are going to be hot.

― jergins (jergins), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

It is very good, though I'm not sure I'm quite as excited about it as a lot of people on this thread.

― Movie Shoot in the Chinese Quarter (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

Not that I intended it as a direct comparison, but as I said above, for a really well-produced vocal house record, I would pick the Chelonis R. Jones album over this every time.

― Movie Shoot in the Chinese Quarter (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm. It certainly sounds stunning, but weirdly static & sterile too. Maybe not for me.

― login name (fandango), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

maybe the people who are super excited haven't heard the kelley polar EPs? weren't paying attention to metro area? i still like the metro area LP better than this, and i like "rhythm touch / castrovalva" better than metro area. this is very very very good but not mindblowing. also, they lost the dance a bit, which sux.

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 05:47 (twenty years ago)

If Metro Area sounds like this, but a little more danceable I am suddenly a lot more interested.

I'll confess I had Metro Area lumped in with that Italo-disco revival thing as a name, I had no idea they were even contemporary! How's the Morgan Geist solo stuff (been having a quick lookup on discogs y'see) should I ever happen to bump into it?

― login name (fandango), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 05:54 (twenty years ago)

Lost the dance a bit on purpose, it's a pop album.

Geist's solo stuff is fantastic, and 90% of it sounds nothing like Metro Area. The stuff he's done since starting Metro Area, I sometimes like more then Metro Area, because Darshan ruins everything he touches. Seriously though, the Super EP is, well, self-explanatory.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 06:13 (twenty years ago)

FWIW I own the Metro Area album, the last 2 singles, and one of the Kelley 12s. But I guess it's irrelevent, enough people on ILM like this now that Vahid can't.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 09:42 (twenty years ago)

i was extremely dull on the radio last night ("internet hype and arctic monkeys" stuff), but i had planned to mention this record as a contender for the Next Blog Thing. didn't get the chance.

i was quite enjoying it in the rain yesterday, but i'm curious about how the people who are OVER THE MOON are listening to the record... How do you hear this? Something sexy for when you're with your boy or ladyfriend? Something close coolhot and reassuring in the dark/rainyness? wax-faced dancefloor stunna? Something else? It seems similar in -function- to the Junior Boys record, but the enthusiasm here seems rather more, I don't know, active. I'm wondering not about what appeals to people, or what the precedents/sound-alikes are, but whee/when/how it's bringing you the crazydeep pleasures.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

"because Darshan ruins everything he touches"

please elaborate?? I don't think Geist's solo stuff post-Metro Area differs much at all from the Metro Area itself. I've always been curious to hear some solo Darshan stuff to sort of pick out his influences in the Metro Area sound. But honestly, I'm curious to know what your talking about. What's ruined on the M.A full length!?! shit is perfect to me.

― buboclot, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 10:27 (twenty years ago)

x-post

"stick it in yr ears" (trad.)

― c7n (Cozen), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 10:41 (twenty years ago)

I posted a song from this album yesterday and none of my readers seemed to care. That was disappointing.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

as much as our readers act like hipsters, matthew, ear to the motherfuckin' misshapes ground (and yours more than mine, probably, cos i get all the lovely "indie yuppies"), they seem to act with total ambivalence to anything outside their usual sphere. kelley polar gets no peeps, nor does damian marley. so it goes.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 11:28 (twenty years ago)

"That's what killed Dennis Day: contempt for the audience."

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)

if that was meant for me, yuou're right, and now i feel sad and guilty. :(

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 11:51 (twenty years ago)

I like this record a lot, especially the more baroque, multi-tracked vocal songs, but wonder again at the post-JBeez tendency for people to say "with the addition of fey vocals and drippy lyrics this electronica is now a POP MASTERPIECE!". It reminds me a bit of fey and drippy mid-80s synthpoppers like China Crisis and Fiction Factory. But I say that affectionately.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

I wasn't big on the Junior Boys really, not compared to this anyhow.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

this is in no way as good as metro area. but it is good.

― strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

they're completely different records really. I mean will anyone be playing LSOTHG out in the same way as Metro Area?

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

ronan if you have a sec could you actually answer my q above? it was genuinely asked.

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

ronan can you honestly not hear the metro area under the songs? and i find metro area just as "wistful" and "affecting" as the polar record.

― strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

they called a track "rainy street feeling" for chrissakes

― strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

I do hear Geist's production but I don't think you can overstate the impact of so many lyrics, it gives a record a totally different aesthetic and appeal. Perhaps the reason alot of people are very into this (who may or may not like Metro Area, and if they don't, so what, let's not crucify them) is because such a strong presence of vocals makes it less of a knowing producer/purist album than Metro Area's record.

I don't mean that as a criticism either, but the Kelley Polar Album is definitely more song based, and also I think the vocals make it alot more pop and catchy than Metro Area.

(it's actually way closer to the Unclassics mix than the Metro Area album, which I also prefer!)

In response to Sean, I think the reason I had a very over the moon response is because the record has an instant impact, I mean, I am still pretty much bowled over by the first track. The best answer I can give you is that I think it's a brilliant pop record, and people are still kind of smacked across the face by that kind of thing in a weird out of leftfield way, especially when it's an artist they haven't heard of or heard before, and again this is all speculation on my part.

I hate characterising people as newbies based on their enthusiasm so hopefully that won't happen here if it's not too late.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

no, i do think the vocals change things. they change it from a dance record to a record where the remixes will be the big dance records. which is so small thing.

there's a large chunk of your second to last graf there that i think makes a very interesting question on its own, but i dont feel like subjecting it to the ilx idiot hounds today.

― strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:43 (twenty years ago)

also might be worth nothing, that I think we mean the Metro Area "album" as opposed to the Metro Area album?

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

thanks for that, ronan. i think i'm still a little unsure of -how- people are enjoying it, but it's interesting that it's first and foremost a "brilliant pop record".

― sean gramophone (Sean M), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

It's good to listen to while walking home at night in the rain.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

i don't hear it as a "pop record" at all, and think you people are crazy.

― strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

i hear it as a reggae record.

no seriously... i like this a lot, so far, but like most people i'm not quite sure what to make of it, and not sure whether it'll grow on me or whatever the reverse of that is (which is kinda what happened with the jr boys album, which i technically "like" but never ever have the urge to listen to)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

I still listen to the Junior Boys all the time (just for "Last Exit" usually), but I got tired of a lot of Kelley Polar after I played it out for a few days. That said, I still like it a lot and intend on buying it. Because the cover art is so pretty.

― Super-8 Movie Shoot in the Chinese Quarter (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 25 October 2005 14:01 (twenty years ago)

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