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

please elaborate?? I don't think Geist's solo stuff post-Metro Area differs much at all from the Metro Area itself

re: darshan, I was kidding

re: Geist solo...I think there's definately a different quality, but it's not extremely different.

Meanwhile, the Kelley Polar record features vocals, songs with choruses and verses, and tempos that aren't always meant for dancing. It's pop to me the same way meloncholy synth-pop is pop, or I Need Someone to Love by Sylvester is pop.

?

i have to confess that i was rather drunk when i made my "speechless" posts.

i am coming around to the idea of environ as an IDM label (in the way detroit-purist labels like ann aimee or delsin or defocus are IDM, or the way italo-centric labels like creme or bunker or clone are IDM labels too)

i really like how this has two very distinct sides...looking forward to hearing it on nice heavy vinyl.

also re: my "making electrohouse impotent" hyperbole, i think it's the pop element i'm referring to too. to me this is just better than being beat over the head with obvious buildups. the hookiness is there, but everything else is more mysterious, less functionalist and reduced.

and to wit, this may not be functionalist dance-oriented, but it's still fundamentally a dance record. metro areas "pina" is 112bpm, but i can still dance to that one! i mean that's what pitching up is for too....i think "miura" is 118.

the somewhat less functional, more intellectual cousin

And while I believe Geist was heavily influenced by the early IDM sounds (think Artificial Intelligence volume 1), I don't really see how Environ, or any of the italo-centric labels are IDM, which I thought has been defined for the better part of a decade by it's experimentalism and the fact that it doesn't aim for the dancefloor.

OK now how is that NOT kelley polar / environ?

if not kelley polar.

i am listening to a basement jaxx mix right now and they just busted out a george duke record and a latimore record right in the middle of a set of US garage and speed garage. and i DON'T think they were trying to clear the floor. (ever heard of a slow dance?)

you're talking about this shit like they're on some sort of axes - which they're not

xxxpost

haha!!!! i'm still right though. listen to the lyrics.

but is that idea completely underground and unpop? I'm not so sure.

My point about IDM is that while it initially was all about the references to past club musics and dancefloor sounds, it quickly moved away from that. I'd think most IDM fans wouldn't even recognize something like Autechre's Low Ride as IDM. While those early Autechre or Black Dog or B12 tracks were an extension and experimentation with detroit techno, electro, bass etc, pretty quickly IDM became something else.

As far as pop/experimentalism being on a axis, I don't believe they are all mutually exclusive, and in all the music I most enjoy, I enjoy the mixing of pop with experimentalism. But I do think at some point you can tell the difference and I do think some music, at it's heart, is "pop" or not. I think there is a difference between a dance song that is pop and a pop song that you can dance to.

*uncontrollable diarrhea*

Which mix and can I have a copy?

but "inspired by synth-pop" is very different from "accomplishes what synth-pop accomplished" or "functions as synth-pop functioned" or even "appeals across the board to people who like synth-pop for the same reason"

in the same way that bunker records or creme are aimed at people who dig italo but who come to it from a techno/electro/IDM background, these environ records (or saint etienne) are aimed at people who appreciate disco/boogie/italo/synthpop (or in SE's case, different aspects of british pop) but who come at it from a very specific (and somewhat marginal) position.

The coordinates (for me, at least, after a few listens) include Yukihiro Takahashi's Neuromantic, the good parts of Jan Hammer's Melodies, Free Design as produced by Klein & MBO and imaginary Beach Boys re-writes of "O Superman." (Junior Boys are bound to come up as well.)
-- Andy_K (doubtbea...), August 30th, 2005 4:29 AM. (Andy_K)

ok here are some questions

laurie anderson = pop or IDM?
late brian wilson = pop or indie rock?
jan hammer = jazz or IDM?
YMO = dance-pop or IDM?

This makes sense to me, I was just confused by calling Environ and Creme IDM, which I discussed above. My point is, like many genres, IDM is mostly a sound now, and it has a large set of qualities attributed to it. I think when people talk about IDM these days, they're talking about more "experimental" electronica, music that more often then not, tries to distant itself from pop or the dancefloor in a way the first wave of artists didn't.

it's probably not the best idea to use film as a metaphor for music anyway. one thing i will say is that i don't find this album to be nostalgic at all. if it was, i wouldn't like it nearly as much. i think this uses elements that may appear nostalgic to come up with something new.

...and keeping it in the family, my little brother Mike, aka Kelley Polar, has a new album coming out on Environ....!

http://www.environrecords.com/

KELLEY POLAR
"Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens," Kelley Polar debut CD album, is out 15 November and is preceded by a limited 12" sampler in October!

the fuck? no place for hermeneutics in thinking about music?

i guess i am looking for answers about broken beat? in that kelley polar reminds me of broken beat? ie, as jerry the nipper (sort of) puts it, "with the addition of bongos, rhodes keyboards and afro-positive divas, this drum + bass track is now a JAZZ FUSION MASTERPIECE"