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

the vocals rox u r all gay

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.

You're right about Walls though!

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.

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.

oh, classically trained? why didn't you say so earlier. now i love it! thanks!

you have great opinions on music, brother.

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

hooray for indie vocal tics; long may the polarize ILM

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

?

chorus of protest: but it's not indie, he went to julliard

(For the record, Deej's comment was on a Hot Chip thread.)

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

My god, people like things I do not and vice versa! TO THE INTERNET

cant we all just get along

thought he was a classically trained violinist.

voice, violin,

cant we all just get along?

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.

Viola.

this thread needs a voice of reason

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.

are there any requirements for being 'classically trained' or is it just code for 'played violin in high school'?

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...

"infamous"

<3 the vocals in Satellites

"infamous"

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.

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!

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.

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.

this hold up pretty well

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.

new one coming. very exited.

yay!

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?

ah yes it was on this thread. Idiot

ah, i just asked on my twitter like 2 days ago what happened to this dude

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

any idea on a release date for the new one?

single is on the 18th. Not sure about the album.

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!

Yay!

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.

Kelley rather

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

I'm Not What You Want could go on for about 5 more minutes after it ends, imo.

very cool album cover.

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.

album is a ways off, I think.

new Storm Queen coming next from Environ, though!!

Anyone heard anything re: the album that "I'm Not What You Want" et al would seem to belong to?

KP pops up on the Tuff City Kids album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_4MVBJiLNs

oh cool.. love tuff city kids