How can anyone dislike the vocals on "Satellites"? So frigging adorable.
― Telephone thing, Tuesday, 7 October 2008 22:38 (fifteen years ago) link
i'll explain why i don't like those vocals. i'm not sure what it's called but in the first few lines, he adds extra breaths and exaggerates the phrasing. it sounds unnaturally stressed and strained.
"i was maaaade-huh, maaaade for you-huh"
that kinda shit drives me crazy, especially when the voice is weak anyway. i love the music on that track but the vocal is annoying.
Hercules, Morgan Geist, Kelley Polar = all great albums unnecessarily marred by poor vocals.
― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 7 October 2008 22:57 (fifteen years ago) link
This dub guy trips so hard.
― This politician really gets the Smiths (Raw Patrick), Tuesday, 7 October 2008 23:49 (fifteen years ago) link
the vocals rox u r all gay
― © 2008 (The Reverend), Tuesday, 7 October 2008 23:57 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah, i do trip hard re: vocals in my electronic music. i also realize i'm in the minority with my opinion. i didn't like the vocals on Apparat's Walls album either. my position gets even harder to justify when you know that i love Underworld's vocals and New Order. both of which can be pretty off-putting to lots of people. you can only like what you like i guess.
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 00:11 (fifteen years ago) link
You're right about Walls though!
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 00:34 (fifteen years ago) link
keller polar is a classically trained singer...his breathing, and what sounds to you like "stress and strain" is a product of his technique. personally i feel it fits perfectly with morgan's production which you could also argue is "stressed and strained" - the painstaking arrangements are anything but natural. they're a labor of love.
― uncannydan, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 17:32 (fifteen years ago) link
oh, classically trained? why didn't you say so earlier. now i love it! thanks!
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 18:00 (fifteen years ago) link
you have great opinions on music, brother.
― uncannydan, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 18:02 (fifteen years ago) link
classically trained doesn't mean it sounds good. personally my problem is how long he holds out a lot of the notes he sings, i think it distracts from the short percussive nature of his production
― Bomb Bomb Iran (san frandisco), Wednesday, 8 October 2008 18:42 (fifteen years ago) link
hooray for indie vocal tics; long may the polarize ILM
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 20:48 (fifteen years ago) link
You mean like...
ehh I'm not getting this. Am I crazy that this is like dance music with an indie 'filter'? I donno I only listened once but yeah, not feeling it.
― deej.. (deej..), Sunday, February 26, 2006 8:39 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
?
― jaymc, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 20:52 (fifteen years ago) link
chorus of protest: but it's not indie, he went to julliard
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 20:57 (fifteen years ago) link
(For the record, Deej's comment was on a Hot Chip thread.)
― jaymc, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 21:07 (fifteen years ago) link
fwiw, I love the vox on the Kelley Polar records and can't stand them on Hot Chip records. And Polar isn't trying to be danceable anyway, this is a mostly down-tempo synthpop record. Complaining that it doesn't work as dance-qua-dance music is missing the point entirely
― © 2008 (The Reverend), Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:06 (fifteen years ago) link
My god, people like things I do not and vice versa! TO THE INTERNET
cant we all just get along
― Telephone thing, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:07 (fifteen years ago) link
thought he was a classically trained violinist.
― mizzell, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:18 (fifteen years ago) link
voice, violin,
cant we all just get along?
― jed_, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:33 (fifteen years ago) link
fwiw i can totally understand why someone would hate his voice. brotherlovesdub's reasons for not liking it seem like good ones. i like it.
― jed_, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Viola.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:40 (fifteen years ago) link
this thread needs a voice of reason
― kgb (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:42 (fifteen years ago) link
i would like to know where synth pop vocals end and indie vocals begin. ottomh i can't think of any other vocalist that sounds like kelley polar and even though i don't listen to much music with vocals i would consider these more along the lines of synth pop.
― tricky, Thursday, 9 October 2008 00:17 (fifteen years ago) link
are there any requirements for being 'classically trained' or is it just code for 'played violin in high school'?
― lucas pine, Thursday, 9 October 2008 00:30 (fifteen years ago) link
how about this
At 18, Polar was a prizewinner at the William Primrose International Viola Competition, followed by an infamous tenure at Oberlin Conservatory. By the mid-nineties, Polar found himself in New York City pursuing an advanced degree at the illustrious Juilliard School and cementing his reputation for general deviance...
― jaxon, Thursday, 9 October 2008 00:36 (fifteen years ago) link
"infamous"
― © 2008 (The Reverend), Thursday, 9 October 2008 03:40 (fifteen years ago) link
<3 the vocals in Satellites
― wilter, Thursday, 9 October 2008 03:42 (fifteen years ago) link
Allegedly there was a (very proper, restrained, scholarly kind of) riot during his recital, which was very silly in some way or another. Details are vague.
― Telephone thing, Thursday, 9 October 2008 03:43 (fifteen years ago) link
sea of sine waves is hittin the spot
I agree with this. I like the album, have some similar hang-ups over the vocals, but this track KILLS. Opening harmonies are awesome, bassline is is nicely driving, and, hey!, vocals are accompanied by a beautiful vocoder!
― altair nouveau, Thursday, 9 October 2008 04:19 (fifteen years ago) link
I thought the "riot" happened when he was at Julliard - he got expelled for it.
I think the vocals are great but I can see how someone might not like them. When his vocals are multi-tracked, he sounds like an asian boyband, cracks me up. "creepy in a subtle way" = otm.
― Disco/Very (Roz), Thursday, 9 October 2008 07:01 (fifteen years ago) link
has anyone heard the pearson and usher mixes of Entropy Reigns? I find pearson and usher to be really hit or miss but when they hit it's fantastic.
― Bomb Bomb Iran (san frandisco), Wednesday, 15 October 2008 21:07 (fifteen years ago) link
this hold up pretty well
― groovemaaan, Sunday, 11 October 2009 12:01 (fourteen years ago) link
holds up, even
And by the way, "Mambo y Coro" by La Banda Chula is awesome!
Yeah, I love stuff like this (didn't know it, but am listening now), especially in a club. Sorry, just scouring ILX for merengue mentions. Not many.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 10 September 2010 21:31 (thirteen years ago) link
new one coming. very exited.
― owenf, Saturday, 1 October 2011 17:16 (twelve years ago) link
yay!
― psychedelicatessen (seandalai), Saturday, 1 October 2011 17:17 (twelve years ago) link
also features vocals from Jeremy Greenspan of the Junior Boys
wasn't it on ILX that Kelley mentioned the sexy vocals of Junior Boys were what he was attempting to emulate. Or am I making that up?
― owenf, Saturday, 1 October 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
ah yes it was on this thread. Idiot
― owenf, Saturday, 1 October 2011 17:36 (twelve years ago) link
ah, i just asked on my twitter like 2 days ago what happened to this dude
― Ford Cumlord (The Reverend), Saturday, 1 October 2011 19:03 (twelve years ago) link
there was some guy a year back who used my name as an ilxian pun on kelley polar and it wasn't til i saw this thread that i realized that he wasn't stretching the joke out
― kelpolaris, Saturday, 1 October 2011 20:00 (twelve years ago) link
any idea on a release date for the new one?
― bakumastah, Sunday, 2 October 2011 11:29 (twelve years ago) link
single is on the 18th. Not sure about the album.
― owenf, Sunday, 2 October 2011 12:01 (twelve years ago) link
Excited for this. Really enjoying the Hasta La Verdad single he did the strings on for Javiera Mena. Metro Area are playing Seattle this month too. Revive Environ!
― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 17:19 (twelve years ago) link
Yay!
― skip, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 17:26 (twelve years ago) link
Had no idea he did the strings on Hasta La Verdad, which is one of my favorite tracks of 2010. Not surprising now that I think about it.
Discovered this guy at a Junior Boys concert where he was one of the opening acts. Junior Boys ended up not being able to go on because of technical issues but Polar kicked ass.
― skip, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
Kelley rather
― skip, Tuesday, 11 October 2011 17:28 (twelve years ago) link
you check both new KP songs on youtube. at least for now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0rM3qZcP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFv4p4JnKqU
― bakumastah, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 20:31 (twelve years ago) link
I'm Not What You Want could go on for about 5 more minutes after it ends, imo.
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 20:46 (twelve years ago) link
very cool album cover.
― skip, Thursday, 13 October 2011 04:11 (twelve years ago) link
Love Nocturne! Off kilter rubberband funk bass vs crisp little beat -- just like Tyurangalilia (opening minute of that is peak Polar imo). Full of lovely details. On repeat.
― misty sensorium (Plasmon), Thursday, 13 October 2011 05:00 (twelve years ago) link
album is a ways off, I think.
new Storm Queen coming next from Environ, though!!
― mikebee (BATTAGS), Thursday, 13 October 2011 22:20 (twelve years ago) link