M83?

the high points on ddamage's "radio ape" are at least as good as those on the m83 album.

i think the problem might be a wee bit of overexposure to IDM on the part of the indie-mag electronica reviewers who get stuff like m83 dumped in their boxes. if you've been ignoring IDM for the last few years - as any sane person would - and enjoy m83 you will probably find ddamage well worth your time.

and lest i piss off any indie-mag reviewers i will point out that the esteemed dominique leone called my attention to this album.

No, really.

Anyhow, regarding M83, I think they're a very terrible case of production over songwriting ( a la Four Tet ), though maybe I'm biased, I've never been too much of a fan of the shoegazer deal.

Laptop speakers don't/won't suffice.

Still, I'll see the show next month with both them and Schnauss, I figure. It might actually work more for me live!

Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled.

David St. Hubbins: What?

Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town.

And I got my hands (er, my hard drive) on the new album today ... I will listen later ...

That will be the year of 2005 ! the album gets released in January 2005 ;-)

I'm still miffed about their using backing tapes to do the synths live, which was lame.

Anyway I'll probably grow to like this album more, but it's not as exciting as the last one was.

More precisely, the closest kin to this record is Sianspheric's "There's Always Someplace You'd Rather Be", which also tried to be "Isn't Anything" when it wasn't trying to be Slowdive's "Pygmalion".

what is THIS? I've never heard of this! I must hear it immediately.

(xpost -- Kyle, they're a Canadian band on the Sonic Unyon label. The album came out in 1998. There must be an AMG entry for them. All three of their albums are well worth your time)

That's why I like it so much. My main problem with shoegaze related music is the lack of rock, the lack of propulsion, especially in opposition with slower/quieter moments within the same song. Fennesz (and other laptoppers) can be beautiful and/or powerful, but there's not enough there for me to love - Endless Summer worked for me because the songs were there. I guess as much as I love 'noise', it's not enough by itself - I still need songs (which is why I loved Dntel's "Dream of Evan and Chan") and the noise must still serve the purpose of the emotion, or the melody or the groove. You could say that's it's one thing to love the feeling of the ocean, but I guess I still need to swim. Slowdive and similar slowgaze music is often too plodding and often has this odd goth affectation (which I think Ned is more fond of than I).

If "Dead Cities" was M83 trying to replicate "Loveless", then this one is M83 trying to replicate "Isn't Everything".

An interesting equation - I'd say they get even closer to the highs of Loveless on this record (although there's nothing identikit about it). They've found their own songwriting here - a continuation of "Run Into Flowers". I'll definitely have more specific things to say as I listen more.

Also, I don't really get what's cheesy about "A Guitar and a Heart", song or title-wise.

Very, very well worth your time. I highly agree with Barry's assessment of Sianspheric, they are the spiff.

You are correct, sir! But if Slowdive started off Cure they ended up Durutti.

So did "Digital Love"!

(although yeah, I had actually skimmed past the beginning part before which takes a bit of getting used to. I think it's *classic* by the end!)

they are soon to be on my hard drive as well, thanks for the recommendation

Dude, that really does sound like their Mogwai fetish is in full effect!

So it's like the first album?

I'm always amazed how simple alterations to a group's sound can force a cringe from even the most ardent fans. Earlier this year, some Palace aficionados were disturbed by Will Oldham's conversion of his lo-fi porch songs into slick Memphis country. Well, there's more horror on the horizon-- the separation between M83 and Journey is thinner than you had possibly imagined. Consider "Guitar and a Heart", its monochrome chord progressions, minor-key guitar slides, and arena rock drum fills. Or its new-age synth-- sounds typically produced by scarf-wearing thirtysomethings, guys shielded by Casios stacked three high who only manage to play one note. Of course, you have no idea what my face looks like as I listen to this unfortunate misstep, so let me describe it to you-- it reads something like "eeew." [Joel Ebner; December 1st, 2004

He's obviously assuming that the entire album sounds like that -- he'll be a bit embarassed when he hears the whole thing!

disappointing, and yes wanted to make me go to the catalog instead