today i got the new morr music release by manual, called "until tomorrow."
i still don't know if i like it. it sounds sorta like lexaunculpt meets
arovane's tides or phonem meets yanni. umm.. it's confusing because, though
i can definitely see that the artist has put so much of his soul into it, i
can't find much emotiveness about it. it's as if manual basically made an
album that fits the mold of the aforementioned artists and morr music, but
nothing more. it doesn't push any boundaries really, nor does it try to be
a straight-up melodic boc-type album; on the contrary, it is like this
middle ground where the artist wasn't content with making simple emotive
melodies, but pushed it too far by making uncatchy ones that never settle
into much of a groove or even sound pleasurable. which is a shame because
manual's dramatic sense is very acute. i particularly dislike the use of
reverbed guitars in it; they bring this feel of shoegazer rock into the mix,
and it makes for an album that, in the same way some idm is dsp for dsp's
sake, is lush and childlike for lush and childlike's sake, with too many
unrealized skittery beats that sound the same from song to song. formulaic
and not worth the 14 dollars i spent for it, though morr music heads will
probably like it a whole lot.
on the other hand, the scarlet diva soundtrack on hefty records i got is
fantastic. john hughes is credited as the main composer, but john mcentire
of tortoise and scott herren (aka prefuse 73 and delarosa & asora) help out
with the majority of the tracks, along with a cellist, trombonist and
percussionist. hughes sings on a bunch of the tracks, which turn out to
resemble a funked-up and electrified sea and cake. the rest is pure
noise-acoustic bliss. so seamless that for most of the album, you can't
even tell whether the instruments are electronic or acoustic. the style
inherent in this album is superb and influenced by a great many musics, and
the meeting of scott herren and mcentire on electronics is a match made in
heaven. wonderful and brilliant...
vzaem
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