quoted 3 lines Any thoughts on this Alder & Elius "Parental Guidance"
>Any thoughts on this Alder & Elius "Parental Guidance"
>release on Skam? what does it sound like on the IDM
>spectrum.
Hello,
Here's my review from my site (under a bit of construction, but a host to
reviews, interviews, articles, etc.)
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~rstanton
Alder & Elius: Parental Guidance (Skam)
Modern childhood equipped me with a never-ending source of
entertainment, or at least distraction from things I should have been paying
more attention to such as school lessons, philosophy texts, and my own
rapidly deteriorating social skills. The forms of television, movies, and
radio are the culprits of this entertainment, and I remember days of
watching the boxes endlessly for hours, gathering all sorts of useless
information while being marvelously impaired from rationalizing thought. Now
in adulthood, I do not watch television anymore, but I?ve got a brain heaped
with various quotes and soundbytes from my earlier days. Sometimes, random
quips just come to the forefront of my mind, and I have no idea where I
first heard them.
The technicians behind Skam?s latest full-length release seem to have
this problem as well, randomly and purposelessly pulling random soundclips
from television, movies, and God knows where else. With these, they
construct a diverse, often moody album with throwbacks to Detroit techno,
early Electro, and even industrial. Ever since picking up the duo?s debut
12?, I?ve been weary of the Alder and Elius name. With that piece of vinyl,
the two mixed melancholic Detroit techno with bizarre and oftentimes
ridiculous spoken word clips. The results were both laudable and deplorable
with songs like ?Digital Toddler? or ?Bionic Vagina? the respective high and
low. Their recent 7? seemed to witness a more mature sound, with a better
selection of fragmented audio commentaries, improved song structures or
depth, and even an incorporation of seemingly ?post rock? influences. When
the time came for Parental Guidance, I was interested on seeing if the group
had continued this path, and was looking forward to a strong full-length
which Skam had not released in some time.
Unfortunately, my expectations for the album were a bit high. Instead
of continuing on where they left off, the duo revisits the sound explored on
their debut 12?, collecting a group of fourteen tracks that hit, miss, or
simply float by the proverbial mark. The great majority of songs are
definitely dance-floor ready with thick bass and easily graspable beat
programming. When there are melodies, they are more likely than not to be as
moody as a synthesizer from the 80s could make them (which is not a bad
thing in this case). Upon first listen, the fourteen tracks are divided into
thirds, obviously meant as some sort of concept to ?get,? though at the time
of this review, I?m not quite sure what that is.
The opener, ?Sickness in Gandahar,? mixes beats, melodic fragments, and
audio samples ?Luna Pier? blends a classic Roland 808 generated melody of
varying tones mixed with a sweeping beat/bassline for something that sounds
more like it belongs to an artist from Suction Records than Skam. ?Baretta?
with its echo-drenched dark melody and hard-hitting beats is obviously
reminiscent of early industrial works on Wax Trax! or TVT Records. ?Terry?s
Medication? marks the end of first third of the album with bizarre
Poltergeist samples and some sort of commentary about a midget named Damien.
While I suppose this is either meant as the interlude between parts of this
semi-concept album or a humor track, in both cases it fails to impress. The
start of the middle of the album begins with ?Revolving Squiggle Drum,? with
a Blade Runner-esque melody (very melancholic) and some relatively complex
beats (I?m not even going to pretend I know what a squiggle drum sounds
like). ?Avatar Blackwolf? features beat programming similar to ?Baretta,?
along with an equally mystifying melody. However, Alder and Elius seem to go
the Boards of Canada approach for some reason and add 70s movie clips to the
mix, throwing off the feel and strength the song once had. ?Preclovis? is
the transition track to the last third of the album, and ranks along with
?Terry?s Medication? in purposelessness on the album, with annoying Bogeyman
sounding vocal repetitions mixed with an echoing children?s voice. The last
third of the album focuses on stronger usage of polyrhythmic beat
programming and incorporated slightly darker, more ominous melodies for a
somewhat brooding effect. The album closes with the somewhat sad, longing
?Realization of Kira.? With a simple 4/4 and 5/5 mixed beat rippling over a
plaintive melodic sample, an epic track is created with both monolithic
grandeur and human feeling at the same time. Closing out with the sample of
a girl?s simple hummed melody and digitized bird calls offers a final
statement on whatever the duo wished to convey with the album.
Parental Guidance in its entirety certainly is not a terrible release
in its own right, and it demands a fair amount of attention and
interpretation from the listener to that should be heralded. Yet, the
majority of the tracks fail to induce anything more than the desire to feel
apathetic towards them, or possibly attempt dancing, neither of which I
presume is the intended idea of Alder and Elius. While certainly not as poor
as recent Skam offerings such as Wevie Stonder?s Eat Your Own Ears or Team
Doyobi?s Push Chairs for Grown Ups, one has to wonder what happened to the
glory days of Skam?s output where groundbreaking 12?s were seemingly all
that was released. The album features many decent songs, but nothing that
comes together with others to make a solid album worthy of repeated listens
(without using the playlist edit button).
[Rating=6.3]
Robert Stanton
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