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

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

environ = still batting a thousand

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

"stick it in yr ears" (trad.)

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.

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.

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)

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.