The Field, "From Here We Go To Sublime"

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i think i listened to the title track 10 or 12 times in a row on the way home the other night

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:33 (seventeen years ago) link

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince


yeah i'd agree with this

lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link

i guess those moments are why i'd still rate the field album higher than pdp, if that makes any sense

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:39 (seventeen years ago) link

if i hadn't heard the sun & ice ep last year i probably would too, i tend to rate albums with highest highs over consistent albums which work better as albums, but they even left off my favourite track on the ep!

lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Very good album but I do wish there was more stuff like "Over The Ice" - stuff that works as a dance track while still allowing the Field schtick to do its magical stuff. On the other hand my other favourite track is the title track, so perhaps its more a case of wanting The Field to play the ends against the middle more.

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 00:27 (seventeen years ago) link

wow, this album is weird definitely has that feeling of being strangely 'important' if only in a "minor classic" way... also, I feel like I failed music class but I actually -don't- recognise most of these famous samples :/

Boomkat thinks it's going to take off with indie kids (maybe that Breihan dude is proof...) which sort of helps me frame some thoughts (humour me) I'd been having about The Field's stuff...
Touted by many as Kompakt's answer to the relative crossover success enjoyed by the likes of James Holden and Trentemoller [...] Willner taps into the same tempered-euphoria that made Ulrich Schnauss so popular

I mean, I loathe Ulrich Schnauss, am hard on the fence about Holden and thought there was barely a third of decent-not-dire material on Trentmoller's magnum opus....

And yet... this is great. Except even for ME it's really very repetitive and 4/4, almost to the point of testing the patience, but never quite getting there, and I think that tension is probably at the heart of why/how this actually *works*. Putting this into words has been on my mind since I heard that live set of theirs really. It feels like there's a BIG opening for Ableton or some kind of Ableton-esque production technique to inject life back into techno via taking a deliberately rough/crappy/slapdash approach but nobody really cracked it yet, or the people with actual skills got too hung up on glitch/IDM/forced dissonance... until now. To me this is the record Nathan Fake could have made if he'd stuck with proper (lol) beats. Also (getting back to the indie, and right now, for a second) it does a fuck of a lot more interesting things with loops than "Person Pitch" (and most indietronica, rightly, should go without mention...)

The Gui Boratto BORED ME RIGID frankly, so I'm quite surprised how much I like this right now

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Tim F is definitely very otm (above) though,

I didn't explain that "tension" thing at all :/ something to do with trance at the most teethgrinding/rigid extreme maybe... I'll fall in this hole if I don't stop digging. gah. :(

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:44 (seventeen years ago) link

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince

yeah i'd agree with this


Yep

Andy K, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:52 (seventeen years ago) link

and where will the efdemin album sit in those equations??

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:59 (seventeen years ago) link

even though I typed all that crap... part of me is still(!) not convinced I'm gonna care about this in two months. I wish every individual track stood out further instead of the whole lessening the impact so much (something Kompakt stuff suffers from, and yet is pretty much defined by now...)

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:12 (seventeen years ago) link

The Efdemin album is good but I think it struggles to distinguish itself from the rest of the Dial sound.

Oddly i think he sounds more modern when going for a Sasha & Digweed circa Northern Exposure 2 kind of fluffy prog-house sound than when he's doing the melancholy chiming ambient house thing - I suppose the latter sounds very 2002 or something.

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:31 (seventeen years ago) link

i've been listening to his last few singles a lot and to me it sounds like he's found an escape hatch from 2002-itis. more warm than "warm" though there is still chiming. chimes are underrated though.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I like chimes; the chimes in "Lohn & Brot" are the best thing about it, pretty much, but then I'm putting "Lohn & Brot" in the Sasha & Digweed camp. On about half of the album he goes for more of that fragile weedy vibe that Lawrence does so well, and he holds his own but it makes it hard to see the album as epochal or anything.

There's certainly nothing like "Just A Track" on there.

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:56 (seventeen years ago) link

i was kind of disappointed to not see that in the tracklist, but it makes sense.

i was at a friend's last night at he was playing the dj hell misch masch mix and we both noticed a very digweed like moment amidst the electro. i don't know which track it was, but it sounded pretty great in that context.

i am now listening to the "sun and ice" ep in anticipation of the field album. i love how he plays with glitch and volume. it reminds me of french filter house.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:19 (seventeen years ago) link

and bugz in the attic weirdly enough.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:21 (seventeen years ago) link

but they even left off my favourite track on the ep!

oh.... :(

good things end, the little heart beats so fast and everyday are all very fine field moments for me, as well as just about everything else on the album. really enjoying it

micarl, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:29 (seventeen years ago) link

particularly that chucklehead tom breihan

oh man I kept laughing to myself over "chuckleheads" in the lcd soundsystem thread and now you've done it again! it's truly a wonderful word.

aaron d.g., Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm looking forward to the album btw; Over The Ice was one of my most-played tracks last year.

aaron d.g., Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:41 (seventeen years ago) link

My conclusion this is so far one of the cooler things I've heard from 2007.

Bimble, Sunday, 25 March 2007 09:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I love it, of course (and co-co-cosign Jess's PDP comparison). It's probably the most fulfilling example of an album following up on the promise of initial singles since maybe the LCD Soundsystem debut, only it feels less cold to me, less "now we are making a proper album with proper album tracks that slot into their proper places" than LCD's did--just immensely satisfying iterations on what they do and how they do it. (Plus forget about the Flamingos--not something I say easily; "Only Have Eyes" is one of my 10 favorite singles ever--the Field source I adore most is the guitar solo from Lionel Richie's "Hello.")

Matos W.K., Sunday, 25 March 2007 10:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Which track was that one again? As I mentioned my initial listen was more of a glancing one and I admit I didn't catch that.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

"A Paw in My Face", Ned.

Mark Rich@rdson, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Thank yer.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:57 (seventeen years ago) link

it reminds of me filter house too, weirdly. markus popp and bangalter have a baby.

strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think it's wierd to think that... it's doing what basic channel did for rave to filter house

lfam, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:56 (seventeen years ago) link

What's the sample in "Everyday"? It's something completely obvious and I can remember the melody of the actual song etc. but it's just evading my grasp.

Oh and I am quite liking this now. Gave it a chance in the early hours when i was pished. Clicked a bit better. Re-listening just now.

jim, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh and I am quite liking this now.

i.e. ILM hivemind strikes again.

jim, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

ah, the comment about the volume levels/fuckery/filter house, that's what I was grasping towards with the "rough/crappy/slapdash" comment! and I suppose why on first spin this record felt oddly un-Kompakt-like :)

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link

someone needs to tell me what all the samples are tbh... I love the little Kate Bush obsession they have going on hehe

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

it's weird. in the review i say that dude's got hands like a surgeon, and he does, considering that he's finding these tiny, perfect little melodic fragments in his record collection and isolating them. and then he's deploying them like a caveman who was given a copy of "meet me at the love parade."

strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:39 (seventeen years ago) link

it's like todd edwards working with a akai s900 or something. after being smacked in the head with a brick.

strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 15:44 (seventeen years ago) link

mmm woozy 12-bit cut-ups.

re glitch: i hear a distinctively kompakt sound underneath the fuckery. like if it was taken away, there'd be a very k2-like or even speicher-like sound there. all that sweepy stuff and the general bigness is very kompakt.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link

what kate bush are they sampling?

cutty, Sunday, 25 March 2007 20:34 (seventeen years ago) link

i love how field tracks sound they like they are looping infinitely somewhere and we only get a glimpse of them

cutty, Sunday, 25 March 2007 21:55 (seventeen years ago) link

"Over The Ice" samples several bits of "Under Ice".

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 23:39 (seventeen years ago) link

and then he's deploying them like a caveman who was given a copy of "meet me at the love parade."

Well considering the samples, thank god the programming doesn't come off as fussy and contrived. The album would be too toothache-sweet.

lukas, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:26 (seventeen years ago) link

haha well yeah it'd just sound like a todd edwards trance record then!

strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link

aka best fake genre ever

strongohulkington, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Is this available to order anywhere?

jamescobo, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:37 (seventeen years ago) link

swirling
i like how the terseness and repitition of the samples undercuts the schnauss-like sentimentality.
cold weather metaphors seem apropos

deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link

am i the straw that broke the consensus' back? someone can start hating now.

deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link

is there somewhere i can listen to this online other than blogcrawling(hypemachinewhatever)?

killa bee, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

ronan slams it: http://ronanfitzgerald.net/houseisafeeling/2007/03/26/64/

lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

or rather, he slams the buzz about it and says he's not surprised

lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i guess i knew how it was going to sound as well but most of the the songs are still really good

lfam, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:16 (seventeen years ago) link

ronan otm (except there are dance full-lengths i like) (though certainly none have blown me away like booka shade/allien & apparat did last year)

feels stupid to say "i don't like the repetition" about a dance record but it's particularly relentless on the field album...it's not repetition of something which has its own little changes and nuances, it's just one sound over and over again, on one pitch - it's the opposite of ed banger! except for mindless overdriven bass going nowhere and doing your head in, it's mindless whooshy treble going nowhere &c. and frustrating because it could be so much better!

still love 'over the ice' and 'everyday' though.

lex pretend, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Ronan's post seems entirely reasonable but doesn't really say much about the record...which is his point, i suppose. I can see how this feels like, i don't know, the clipse of dance or whatever.

deej, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

It's great, it'd drive me nuts if I listened to the whole thing on headphones, but it was great to have on the stereo when I was sitting just outside the door yesterday. It's probably danceable but I think it's getting attention because this is a chopped-up endpoint of the chillout album continuum.

mh, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:52 (seventeen years ago) link

there are dance full-lengths i like [...]though certainly none have blown me away like booka shade/allien & apparat did last year

what, never??

anyway, re: the repetition I agree with Lex, the other broader points I agree with Ronan, the process is tedious, but unlike him that I have -no- problem at all with there being a handful of crossover records each year... sure there's more to this genre than they represent by themselves (so I'll listen to just as many singles/mixes too) but I don't see how it's so much worse as tokenism for indie/mainstream crowds than what happens in hip-hop/metal/whatever.

If this ends up as THE big 'techno' crossover album this year though, well, it's a rather large step down from something like Wearemonster to here....

fandango, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

no i meant this year! which in itself says bugger all as this is only march. i don't mind crossover records when they're as good as movements or ...bubbles.

lex pretend, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link

uh, this is the only minimal techno record you've heard, remember?

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:36 (thirteen years ago) link

unless you've heard many more minimal techno records in the one-hour between those two posts.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:37 (thirteen years ago) link

eminem told me nobody listens to techno, so i feel like listening to this one record has given me the authority to say whatever i want about the genre since theres nobody else around who even listens to it, thus arguably making my thoughts slightly more valuable than silence

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:38 (thirteen years ago) link

actually, his comments were addressed to moby, but lets not get pedantic

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:39 (thirteen years ago) link

Maybe you could try Efdemin, Pantha Du Prince or Michael Mayer's Immer

du mein bestie (micarl), Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:36 (thirteen years ago) link

thanks! i really should. i know pretty much nothing about electronic music, as ive said before, but i thought this record was fantastic. i think i bought whatever pantha record came out in 2007 but didnt listen to it much. anyway, thanks -- i def need to investigate the genre more

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:37 (thirteen years ago) link

"electronic" covers a lot of ground. it includes four-tet, i guess. his lastest is a fantastic, pulsating disc.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link

i've got the follow-up from the field. the songs are so long tho (iirc), and less memorable.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:45 (thirteen years ago) link

yeah, i know nothing about the various dance/electronic subgenres

i liked the first field record & most of the burial songs ive heard but thats about all that i can think of unless you count, like, thom yorkes solo record and thats really really pushing it

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link

pretty sure i bought the second field record, not sure how much of it i listened to, but i didnt really give it much of a chance

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link

was going to suggest burial's untrue, actually. my favorite disc of last decade, still.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:48 (thirteen years ago) link

favorite record of the 2000s? wow. that's high praise. not sure if i ever made it through all of untrue, but i loved archangel. listened to all of his first record, though, im pretty sure

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:50 (thirteen years ago) link

the last song on the second field record is the best thing he has ever done or will do

Dad Can Dance (LOLK), Sunday, 8 August 2010 04:39 (thirteen years ago) link

Aye, Sequenced knocks everything on ...Sublime into a cocked hat.

Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:09 (thirteen years ago) link

Still don't get Burial.

Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:10 (thirteen years ago) link

I was into IDM in college (Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, etc.) but hadn't really heard much electronic music beyond that until a few years ago.

If I were to recommend one electronic album from the past decade (and I guess I'm not including stuff like Junior Boys, which leans pop), it would be Luomo's The Present Lover. Although I think Isolee's We Are Monster makes a pretty good primer for someone who doesn't listen to a lot of electronic music, just because it's so varied sonically.

jaymc, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:22 (thirteen years ago) link

would be interested in checking out both of those records!

fwiw, i love the second junior boys record, think the latest one was whatever, and have been told by a least one ilxor that i need to get a copy of last exit asap

markers, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:23 (thirteen years ago) link

so this is goodbye really is just such a solid record. haven't listened to the whole thing in forever but i really should soon

markers, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:24 (thirteen years ago) link

I was really into Orbital, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, etc when I was 17. In Sides & Snivilisation by Orbital remain all-time favourites. Big fan of Four Tet, Caribou, Pantha Du Prince etc these days. Like but not blown away by Luomo. Never heard We Are Monster; I guess I should.

Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:43 (thirteen years ago) link

Isolee's We Are Monster is fantastic (one particularly standout song, whose name escapes me atm).

Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 8 August 2010 10:34 (thirteen years ago) link

I'd say replace The Present Lover with Vocalcity, make it your life's goal to hear We Are Monster, and you'll be just fine.

I'm banishing you to a time warp from which you will never return (EDB), Sunday, 8 August 2010 15:41 (thirteen years ago) link

In Sides & Snivilisation by Orbital remain all-time favourites

In Sides is top 10 for me. I actually started following your writing on Stylus after that article where you talk about the In Sides poster you've lugged around for years.

That album got love when it came out, but I think it gets overlooked now.

'ello govna, Sunday, 8 August 2010 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link

eight years pass...

can't find a general thread for him just ones for each album

but new song & album alert!

https://www.thefourohfive.com/music/article/the-field-sets-us-sailing-through-the-spectral-who-goes-there-153

nxd, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 14:42 (five years ago) link

five years pass...

I guess at some point we stopped starting new threads for new albums by The Field, but on a whim I played Infinite Moment this morning and really enjoyed it. The whole second half is wonderful, but then I always prefer the more subtle-and-understated Field tracks to the anthems.

Is it just me or was this album kinda slept on relative to the previous ones? I don't recall hearing a lot about it at the time.

Also crazy that this was released nearly six years ago! I still think of it as the "new" one.

Paul Ponzi, Friday, 8 September 2023 14:04 (seven months ago) link

Haven't thought about The Field for awhile but it's good work techno (which is very distinct from business techno, lol). I remember having an early revelation about the power of a very (deceptively) simple loop listening to his first record.

50 Favorite Jordans (Jordan), Friday, 8 September 2023 15:03 (seven months ago) link


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