André 3000 "New Blue Sun" (2023)

New Blue Sun [debut]

release date: Nov. 17, 2023

format: digital (8 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,68]

producer: André 3000 & Carlos Niño

label: Epic Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time" - 7. "Ants to You, Gods to Who ?"

Actual solo album debut by André 3000 (aka André Lauren Benjamin), who hasn't released full-length album music of his own since the Idlewild (2006) album by Outkast - one of the most succesful hip hop projects. Speakerboxx / The Love Below (2003) by Outkast has gone down in music history as the best-selling hip hop album ever to be released. André 3000 did, however, release the EP Look Ma No Hands in 2018, but other than that he has made featuring appearances on various singles and albums, although, a solo album was anticipated but never released, that's is, until now. Instead, he was cast as actor in a number of TV-series, also in a leading role in 2012, when he played Jimi Hendrix in John Ridley's film "Jimi: All Is by My Side" (premiered in 2014). Outkast reunited in 2014 for live concerts only, and since then André has lived life somewhat away from the brightest limelight and has been focusing on the production aspect of both music and films. André has been mentioned amongst the best rappers of all-time, and his songwriting and compositional touch has made people yearn for something more substantial - and something that would make everyone remember the famous riffs from the Outkast heydays.

New Blue Sun is anything but rap or hip hop. In fact, it's quiete a loooong way from what could be labelled as pop music. The album runs for more than 87 mins - almost 1½ hours of music, and only enlists eight tracks. All songs - or: they are not really songs but instrumentals as André doesn't add his famous vocal to one single track [!]. The shortest composition is track #5 "Ninety Three 'Til Infinity and Beyoncé", which has one of the shortest titles - the longest being "That Night in Hawaii When I Turned Into a Panther and Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn't Control ... SH¥T Was Wild" (tracks #3), which runs for 10½ mins, but that aint even the longest track. The longest composition is track #8 with its running time exceeding 17 mins. All compositions are credited André mostly together with co-producer Carlos Niñho, Nate Mercereau, and often also Surya Botofasina. André himself is aside for producing and mixing credited wind instruments, including flute, baritone flute, and wind controller aka 'wind synthesizer'. Only vocals on the abum is credited Mia Doi Todd.

Musically, this falls in a category of new age and ambient. It's slow and delicate, and André has also described parts of the compositions as improvisations, where he experiments with sound. The album has actually and mostly been met by positive reviews. Some suggest the music transcends the very idea and the general perception of what (modern) music is and what it should sound like, but most critics simply admire André's musical project as something extremely unique, and an utter brave decision from someone, who could have chosen the easy way. Instead he turns to music, and to experimentation, and by that shows his genuine love for music itself.

I dunno. I'm in doubts here. The artistic journey aside, I don't think the album as such delivers on that many parameters. To me, it's the kind of music that seems suited for meditation or relaxation, and since I'm not a huge fan of new age in general, it's a bit of a difficult listen. Parts of compositions provide me with a positive energy, and parts are beautifully arranged. There's, however, long periods of almost nothingness, where you try to focus on a palette that's hardly recognisable. I do also think other artists of the genre are able to produce more interesting music. Imho, this is far from entirely bad. It's just not the kind of music I turn to except from when needing a subtle background to lean on when taking a nap.

Not really recommended but still worth knowing.

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Clash 3 / 5, The Standard 2 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Pitchfork 8,3 / 10 stars ]

Sigur Rós "Átta" (2023)

Átta

release date: Jun. 23, 2023

format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold - 45 rpm) / digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]

producer: Sigur Rós, Paul Corley

label: Von Dur / Krúnk - nationality: Iceland

Track highlights: 1. "Glóð" - 2. "Blóðberg" - 3. "Skel" - 4. "Klettur" - 7. "Gold" - 10. "Átta"

8th studio album by Sigur Rós following a whole decade after Kveikur. Since then, the band has released the remix album Route One, the 'endless mixtape' Liminal, Limnial 2, and the soundtrack Odin's Raven Magic (Dec. 2020). In early '22 the band announced that Kjartan Sveinsson had rejoined the band - he had left in early 2012 - again, making it a trio of Jónsi, Hólm and Sveinsson, but still no replacement for drummer Orri Dýrason, the band has made the new album with little focus on drums and percussion. Former touring member (2012-13) Ólafur Ólafsson is credited as additional personnel playing percussion on an album, which also counts London Contemporary Orchestra and several horn instrumentalists. The album is produced by the band and with American sound artist Paul Corley, who was installed as music director for Sigur Rós in 2016.

The album both reinstates former virtues of harmony-driven melodies with especially Jónsi delivering his characteristic singing style but it also appears as a new version combining a quiet ambient sound of keyboards and synths in unison with the addition of strings and horns. It's almost made completely without traces of drums, bass or guitars, but with a compositional 'progressive' ingredient, the songs echo former album moments of sheer beauty.

At first, the album may appear as closed and very etheral, but it contains more when given the attention it deserves. It's not necessarily among the band's most audience-friendly experiences - it may denote introspectiveness and fragility but it comes with 'hidden' layers to unfold, and I really enjoy the musical journey it invites us on. With Átta, Sigur Rós is definitely back on full sails.

Highly recommended.

[ Pitchfork 7,2 / 10, 👍NME, Clash, Exclaim! 4 / 5 stars ]

2023 Favourite releases: 1. Anohni and the Johnsons My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross - 2. Ukendt Kunstner Dansktop - 3. Sigur Rós Átta

Jon Hopkins "Music for Psychedelic Therapy" (2021)

Music for Psychedelic Therapy

release date: Nov. 12, 2021

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC) (WIG458D)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]

producer: Jon Hopkins

label: Domino - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: 1. "Welcome" (feat. 7RAYS) - 2. "Tayos Caves, Ecuador i" - 3. "Tayos Caves, Ecuador ii" - 4. "Tayos Caves, Ecuador iii" - 5. "Love Flows Over Us in Prismatic Waves" - 6. "Deep in the Glowing Heart" - 7. "Ascending, Dawn Sky" (feat. 7RAYS) - 8. "Arriving" (feat. 7RAYS) - 9. "Sit Around the Fire" (feat. Ram Dass & East Forest)

[ full album playlist ]

6th studio album by Jon Hopkins following 3½ years after Singularity (May 2018). The album contains nine tracks with a total running time exceeding 63 minutes, and it contains collaborations with 7RAYS, East Forest, and it builds on teachings (and the voice of) the late Ram Dass. Bearing in mind that East Forest is the alias for American electronic ambient artist Trevor Oswalt, who experiments with music for 'inner voyages', and that the late Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert) was an American spiritual teacher and yoga guru, you may get the picture of this album, which also happens to come out after a pandemic and extensive lockdowns.

Where his 2013 breakthrough album showed everyone he was a master of progressive dance-oriented break grooves, his 2018 album proved to be a trip into deep space, this new one is again something entirely different. It's still an electronic release, but other than being instrumentally founded it's another kind of journey we're invited on. Singularity had some ambient feel to it, and that trend goes more full blown with this- and when comparing to his 2013 album, it mostly leaves you with the impression of being made by a different artist. The title Music for Psychedelic Therapy literally says everything you need to know. The music here is meant for what it proclaims. Hopkins has taken his fascination for transcendal meditation and mindfulness into his work in a new way, and the album comes out as an instrument, or a manifestation for inner journeys.

I normally don't fancy ambient or trance that much, and that's to put it nicely, but this deserves anyone's attention. It's hard to pin out highlights as the whole album is like one organism. I can only imagine how powerful it would be submerged into this while meditating. I think, I need to give it a try. The album may be his closest to some of the ideas behind Eno's music, but this is just so much better.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Pitchfork 7,4 / 10, Mojo, 👍PopMatters 4 / 5, Clash, Exclaim! 4,5 / 5, 👎The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]

Robin Guthrie "Springtime" (2022)

Springtime, ep

release date: Jan. 4, 2022

format: digital (4x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]

producer: Robin Guthrie

label: Soleil Après Minuit - nationality: Skotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Kino's Chance" - 2. "The Faraway" - 3. "Another Part of Nowhere" - 4. "All for Nothing"

4-track ep by Scottish guitarist Robin Guthrie follows only one month after his ep Riviera, which in turn followed one month after Mockingbird Love (both limited to four tracks) is as usual released on his own label, and the music is also written, composed, arranged, performed, as well as produced by Guthrie himself. Since his days with dream pop trio Cocteau Twins back in the late nineties, Guthrie has looked down on popular music and turned to evocative instrumental and thoroughly atmospheric expressions with the guitar at the center of his compositions. Occasionally, he lets the guitar parody keyboards and synths, which he also uses, but it's mainly electric guitar connected to a series of effects and via computer programming that he paints his sound collages. If you have followed his solo releases for the past two decades - entire albums and many EPs, or you have come across some of his many collaborative projects, either as hired composer for film music - and often together with the now late American minimalist Harold Budd - you may have noted that Guthrie has settled into a rather simple ambient style that he hasn't shied away from. And that's why new releases may sound like recycling or new paraphrasings of already known sound loops. While part of Cocteau Twins, Guthrie was also responsible for drum programming, but the will to include drums could seem not wanted. On some compositions, e.g. "Kino's Chance" you'll notice sonically weak rhythm actions - perhaps best heard on "All for Nothing", but the soundscape is grandiose harmonic guitar structures that the whole ep exhibits. Admittedly, not a lot happens on Springtime, and yet it stands out as one of his better solo releases. The simplicity draws a clear line back to his first real collaborative work with Budd: Mysterious Skin: Music From the Film back in 2005 and up to his later collaborations with the classically trained American composer.

Although the music is ethereal and ambient moving on the verge to new age, it's the small simple melody lines that create the clear picture - something I haven't always been able to find in Guthrie's music. Together with Budd, Guthrie cultivated the minimalist expression building on Budd's open piano pedals and Guthrie's powerful guitar notes - and it was almost their only applied instrumentation, but on this, Guthrie works with rhythm-based music, even if the rhythm is toned down, because I feel his guitar comes more into its own right when he simultaneously lets rich bass lines accompany drum patterns. This way, it also becomes more varied. Occasionally, you could suspect Guthrie in making extensive use of old sound sequences recorded back in the '80s as he was left in solitude to compose pieces for Elizabeth Fraser's vocal and Simon Raymonde's bass notes, but this is ultimately irrelevant when the music here appears new, clean and complete. These are delicious, atmospheric sound collages that, like a quiet summer evening, appear as the ideal campfire that warms you deep inside, and which only utters that the album is only missing more and longer compositions; but it's only an ep, and unfortunately it's all over in just 15 minutes. Then if Springtime won't satisfy you, I can only recommend his latest full album Pearldiving (Nov. 2021), and his final album with Harold Budd: Another Flower from 2020.

Nice to know.

[ bandcamp ]

Efterklang "Windflowers" (2021)

Windflowers

release date: Oct. 8, 2021

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,64]

producer: Efterklang

label: City Slang - nationality: Denmark

6th studio album by Efterklang following two years after Altid sammen, entirely held in Danish and exclusively produced by the trio, which currently has been associated with the label City Slang.

On the predecessor, it was something completely new with lyrics in Danish only, but here they have taken the leap back to the English language. Musically, the band has always tried to push the boundaries to a stylistic expression grounded in the ambient department of electronica. Efterklang has released music with neo-classical elements, large-scale orchestral arrangements, music with a greater focus on bass and drums, and they have released music with experimental organic touch. It has always been clearly based on ambient, and that is also the case here on this one. On the other hand, it has become the English language again. And unfortunately, I'm tempted to say, because on Windflowers they no longer sound quite as unique as they beautifully succeeded with the predecessor. It's a collection of compositions with lots of music in major notes and a sense of uniformity creeps in quite quickly in all of the bright candyfloss. The music is large-scaled, with high-to-the-ceiling synthesizers and pompous arrangements, and lead singer Casper Clausen glides merrily into the sky in a hot air balloon through chamber pop pink and light blue clouds.

Sorry, but it wasn't this way, boys! After a few listens, I must state that Efterklang does not, as usual, manage to successfully explore new boundaries within the band's musical landscape. They recycle too much what they may think the world is longing for. It is without nerve, and the end result is reminiscent of a product from the cookie factory Karen Volf: too much sugar, too little originality, but in return lots of added filling.

Ikke anbefalet.

[ bandcamp ]

[ Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, The Line of Best Fit 4 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis "Carnage" (2021)

Carnage

release date: Feb. 25, 2021

format: digital (8 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

label: Goliath Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Hand of God" - 2. "Old Time" - 3. "Carnage" - 4. "White Elephant" - 6. "Lavender Fields" - 7. "Shattered Ground" - 8. "Balcony Man"

First actual duo-project credited Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, long time collaborators in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, who most recently released Ghosteen in 2019. However, since 2005 when they made music for the performance "Woyzech", they have co-written music for a large number of performances and films - which are also available as soundtrack releases. Ellis has been a member of The Bad Seeds since the '97 album The Boatman's Call, but has featured on the band's albums since '92, and his role in the band has only grown over time. In '97 he had a minor part playing violin and keyboards as 'extra spice' to the band's sound, from the 2001 album No More Shall We Part he was also credited some compositions, from the 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! he is a distinctive composer and multi-instrumentalist, and from Push the Sky Away in 2013 he is now credited as composer along with Cave on all tracks, and thus the musical center of the band has shifted to being exclusively a pair collaboration in recent years, with Cave providing lyrics and Ellis supplementing with music. Therefore, the album here is not a huge surprise, since this is how they have worked on their recent three studio albums. The music with The Bad Seeds has thus transformed over the years from being alt. rock towards an increased focus on Cave's lyrics to being a kind of poetic recitations with evocative background music.

On Push the Sky Away you'll notice percussion, bass, and guitar, but it's with instrumentation such as violin, cello, and keyboards as the main sound sources, and there's a stylistic interference with elements from jazz, Tindersticks, and something reminiscent of Tom Waits' experimental style. This new and more naked soundscape becomes even more evident on Skeleton Tree, and with Ghosteen the rhythmic element is now completely absent, replaced by Cave's insistent vocal and Ellis's keyboards as spheric tapestry.

On Carnage you'll find a progression towards more complex compositions, where guitar, bass, and percussion are occasionally heard - mostly on "Old Time". In that way it sounds more like the continuation of Skeleton Tree rather than Ghosteen, but most of all it's a new chapter in the book of human pain, sorrow, and suffering as experienced by Nick Cave. From being a direct dramatic writer who told about crooked existences and people living in the shadows of society, Cave has grown over the past decade into a more lyrical playwright who talks about existential aspects of life and death.

The album has been met by positive reviews - but that's nearly always how it works for Cave. He is, if anything, a critics' darling, and the album has landed several international top-10 positions, including number #2 in Australia, number #3 in the UK, Belgium and in the Netherlands, number #5 in Germany, and a number #1 position in Scotland and Portugal.

It's a nice and fine acquaintance without fillers but perhaps also the slightly expected release. However, the music is good, the lyrics compelling and the level high. It's an album that wins over time because Cave and Ellis are just great together.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd "Another Flower" (2020)

Another Flower

release date: Dec. 4, 2020

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]

producer: Robin Guthrie

label: Soleil Après Minuit - nationality: Skotland, UK / USA

Track highlights: 1. "Some Smoke" - 2. "Perfect Fire" - 4. "November Day" - 5. "After Dark" - 7. "Harlequin Delight" - 8. "Very Slender Homage"

Final collaborative project between Scottish dream pop master Robin Guthrie and American composer and minimalist Harold Budd. The album is not a bunch of brand new compositions but actually a collection of more than seven years old recordings, which now see the light of day. Possibly, they were intended as another joint work between the now 58-year-old Guthrie and 84-year-old Budd, but it now appears as their last joint work, as Budd was hit by COVID-19 before the album came out and eventually died from complications related to the decease on Dec. 8, 2020 - only 14 days before the album release. As noted in the accompanying liner notes, the album is "Written and performed by Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd during a rainy Summer in Brittany, 2013". It isn't directly mentioned that the album was recorded over a single day or over a matter of sessions, but most often they basically worked in the moment with the recorder running, and while the music was created and performed from start to finish. Perhaps this music wouldn't have been released had Budd not passed away so abruptly 'cause fact is: these compositions are seven-year-old recordings with which Guthrie now choose to pay tribute to his long-time musical playmate. And Harold Budd may not have heard the album in its entirety and with the tracks precisely ordered as they appear here - but Budd heard it all, because he was there himself.

As usual, it's the gentle atmospheric sounds that dominate Guthrie and Budd's music. Since these compositions they have released more than a handful of joint albums, either as musical scores for feature films or as their own releases. They are both listed here as performers and composers of all music, and as usual only Guthrie is credited as album producer. It's another chapter in a common ethereal ambient style that clearly touches on new age and doesn't walk on entirely new paths. The elder Budd is a classically-schooled pianist and composer, and he has early admitted to an improvisational and minimalist expression, which has proven to go quite well with Guthrie's preference for an airy guitar sound. Their final recordings together in terms of chronology was their collaborative works resulting in the 2014 soundtrack White Bird in a Blizzard for the film of the same name directed by Japanese-American Gregg Araki, who had also made "Mysterious Skin" in 2005, for which Guthrie and Budd introduced their collaborative work. In addition to these soundtracks, together they composed and made After the Night Falls and Before the Day Breaks released simultaneously in 2007 as two individual releases, and later they released Bordeaux in 2011. That same year, they also released Winter Garden as a joint project with Italian musician Eraldo Bernocchi.

Another Flower is, as the title suggests, another distinctive work from Guthrie and Budd - another flower. Perhaps, this was a metaphor Budd used about their compositions or works - we don't know for sure. Guthrie came up with the title after Budd's death - it could also be a reference to Budd himself, as a flower that was here, it was seen, admired, and is now gone. Musically speaking, it's not the large and complex compositional structures that characterise their compositions, but it's music created in a shared moment and in a warm, friendly common expression. You could object that they cling on to the same colours, the same airy timbres, which in way they do, but these are tones that contain something valuable by being created as common breaths expressed in music, and which show themselves as a unique and living organism.

Although new age as such is not really a favourite genre of mine, the album here expresses something quite unique. It's the evidence of both musicians' fondness for the instantaneous - the moment of creation, and they both allow / invite one another to contribute without one or the other dominate the soundscape, or you end up sensing one over the other, and that's a great strength and quality to be able to strike a common note when improvising. When one leads, the other follows suit, and they set out in a common unknown direction with equal vigor to a common end.

Another Flower may not be a work that indicates new paths or inspires new styles, but the music clearly has its merits, and occasionally I feel the music strikes an expression that reminds me of other big names of ethereal music, such as Palle Mikkelborg or Ryuichi Sakamoto, but always without giving impression of plagiarism. When I shut my eyes, I can easily conjure up internal images of underwater footage from Luc Besson's "Le Grand Bleu", which had music by Éric Serra. It's done sincerely and beautifully, and it's perhaps Guthrie and Budd's greatest swan song. At least I haven't heard them perform better than on this album.

Recommended.

Lisa Gerrard "The Silver Tree" (2006)

The Silver Tree

release date: Dec. 5, 2006

format: digital (14 x File, FLAC - 2007 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,88]

producer: David Badrick & Lisa Gerrard

label: Rubber Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "In Exile" - 2. "Shadow Hunter" - 4. "The Sea Whisperer" - 6. "Space Weaver" - 8. "Serenity" - 10. "Towards the Tower" - 12. "Devotion"

2nd solo album by Australian artist Lisa Gerrard follows more than a decade after her solo debut The Mirror Pool (Aug. 1995). This doesn't by any means suggest that Gerrard isn't a highly productive artist. She often releases music with collaborating artists, and she has made a golden career from her engagements as soundtrack composer. In '96 she released a so far final studio album, Spiritchaser with the duo-project Dead Can Dance (together with Brendan Perry). In '98 she released the collaboration album Duality with Pieter Bourke, and also with Bourke, she made the soundtrack to Michael Mann's The Insider (1999), the soundtrack to Ridley Scott's The Gladiator (2000) composed with Hans Zimmer - an accomplishment that sky-rocketed her composer value - and again with Bourke she composed the soundtrack to the biographical sports drama Ali (2001), the soundtrack to Whalerider (2003), the collaboration album Immortal Memory together with Patrick Cassidy (2004), and the soundtrack Salem's Lot (2004) with Christopher Gordon to a TV-series. And it doesn't stop with this, as Gerrard has also delivered compositions and vocals to songs appearing on various other releases including TV-series, movies, documentaries and as performing guest on other artists' releases.

Lisa Gerrard works on a classical arena with trained classical intrumentalists and composers, but she also works with artists from a "popular" music culture, the experimental electronic music scene and often on music labeled as neo-classical. On top of this, Gerrard has made it her trademark to blend national folklore from various parts of the world, and not seldom you will find traces of music inspired by traditional folk from the Balkan area - sometimes incorporating tones from an Arabian / Middle East tradition - all brought together in an original colourful blend with her timeless ethereal signature. She has become an acclaimed vocalist with a vocal range of three octaves, and when performing her own songs, she often sings in her own made-up language, sometimes referred to as 'glossolalia'.

The Silver Tree was nominated the Best Album Prize at the Australian Music Awards in 2006, and it may be an album that brings many of her former releases to mind, but it's not a matter of picking bits and pieces from her past and mixing it all together anew. It's more the result of a skilled artist's inspiration overflown with her quality trademarks that makes it a highly original album. It's both electronic, ambient and neo-classical, and not necessarily styles that are present in all 14 compositions. As in styles, the songs vary in tempo, in cadence, in mood but it's all cleverly woven together with Gerrard's delicate touch - be it in the arrangements of the single composition or in the tone of her singing voice. The tracks also vary in running times with the shortest playing for only 1½ minute and the longest for more than 10 minutes. In between there's nearly everything. It may be based on electronic rhythm beats, on hymn-like ambience, or progressive darkwave, but still it remarkably works as a coherent release.

I've always fancied the music with Gerrard's partecipation and it never ceases to amase me, and it always reminds me, what an absolute great artist she is! She has been awarded many prizes for her work, but in my mind, she is way to overlooked an artist and deserves much more recognition - as composer, as vocalist, and as performing artist.

Highly recommended!

Kraftwerk "Ralf und Florian" (1973)

Ralf und Florian

release date: Oct. 1973

format: digital (1994 unofficial reissue)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,15]

producer: Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider

label: Germanofon - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Elektrisches Roulette" - 3. "Kristallo" - 5. "Tanzmusik" (live) - 6. "Ananas Symphonie"

3rd studio album by Kraftwerk originally released on Philips and here in an unofficial version from Czech Germanofon released approximately 1½ years after Kraftwerk 2 (1972), and as on that, the band / music project here, as the title indicates, only consists of the two founders: Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Both are jointly credited a long range of instruments - and as something new: now also on vocals, which is, however, quite minimalistic with vocals as backing choir and a kind of secondary instrument - also without recognisable lyrics. Konrad 'Conny' Plank is not co-producer on the album, as he was credited on the first two albums, instead he is here credited as sound engineer. And just like the two previous albums, Ralf und Florian was reissued on Philips and Vertigo through the 70s, but releases after 1979 are all unofficial issues, and Kraftwerk has basically written off the albums from before Autobahn (1974).

The album is the first to be listed as having been recorded at the band's Klingklang studio in Düsseldorf, and it clearly bears the stamp of being somewhat more well-produced and reworked. Stylistically, Kraftwerk has moved towards the mastery of greater spaciousness and a more condensed simplicity, again taking a move further away from the rhythmic krautrock, although you'll find reminiscences of more traditional instrumentation with guitar and rhythm instruments such as bass and drums on some compositions. With the exception of the final track, 'songs' have generally become shorter and the music has been shaped as electronic ambient and less chaotic. The album has been hailed as essential for the ambient genre, and when listening to "Tanzmusik" it's hard not to think of more contemporary acts such as The Orb, Boards of Canada, Sigur Rós and Danish band Efterklang - to name just a few.

After the release, the band made several live performances, including on German TV, where Wolfgang Flür often participated on drums (see live version of "Tanzmusik") - from Autobahn and afterwards he was credited as permanent member of the band's new line-up.

[ 👍allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Kraftwerk "Kraftwerk 2" (1972)

Kraftwerk 2

release date: Jan. 1972

format: digital (1994 uofficial reissue)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,02]

producer: Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider-Esleben, Konrad 'Conny' Plank

label: Germanofon - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Klingklang" - 3. "Strom" - 5. "Wellenlänge"

2nd studio album by German band Kraftwerk, here only credited the two co-founders of the band, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, after the recently included drummer Klaus Dinger left the band and instead co-founded the band Neu! According to Hütter, it was hard to find drummers for Kraftwerk because no one would work with them when they chose to use non-typical (electric) instruments, so Hütter and Schneider themselves are credited percussion on the album here, just as they are on sucessorRalf und Florian (1973). The opening track "Klingklang" is almost 18 minutes long and in addition to being the album's longest composition, it has also given name to Kraftwerk's studio and record company Kling Klang, founded around '73.

Musically, a lot has actually happened since the debut Kraftwerk from 1970. The absence of actual drummers distances the album from other contemporary 'krautrock' releases and points to a purer electronic-founded style, where Hütter and Schneider - aided by the later legendary Konrad 'Conny' Plank sound - only stage their instrumental compositions using rhythms from percussion instruments such as xylophone, marimba and primitive programmable instruments, and on top of this basic substance they have added sounds from organ, electric piano, flute, violin, accordion, but also from more traditional instruments such as bass and guitar.

Still, it's a long way to the band's more iconic compositions with more traditional musical structures, but there is much pointing in the direction of ambient and progressive pop, and then the music has also taken a direction away from the initial improvisational and more abrupt compositions from the debut, which still had contained elements from psychedelic rock.

The album (just as its predecessor and the follow-up) has never officially been reissued, but only exists as a result of pirated copies - as here from the supposed Czech company Germanofon.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Kraftwerk "Kraftwerk" (1970)

Kraftwerk [debut]

release date: Dec. 1, 1970

format: digital (1994 unofficial reissue)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,84]

producer: Ralf Hüttel, Florian Schneider-Esleben, Konrad 'Conny' Plank

label: Germanofon - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 1. "Ruckzuck" - 2. "Stratovarius"

Studio debut album by Kraftwerk consisting of the two founders Ralf Hüttel and Florian Schneider-Esleben after they had left the experimental German band Organisation, who had released the album Tone Float (Jun. '70). On this first outing, the drummers Andreas Hohmann and Klaus Dinger are also credited as members. Hohmann plays drums on the first two compositions, while Dinger is credited drums on the final cut.

The album consists of four tracks with varying playing time running from 7:50 to 12:10 minutes and with a total running time of just under 40 minutes. It's experimental instrumental music pointing to inspiration from another German band: Tangerine Dream, which had just released its debut Jun. '70, and then it's also music with influence from experimental releases by Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, John Cage, and especially Karlheinz Stockhausen and musique concrete in general. Several tracks and parts of compositions sounds very much like the result of spontaneous sessions with Hüttel playing organ and a special instrument: electric 'tubon', while Schneider is credited playing violin, flute, and percussion. Besides a krautrock style, the individual compositions are made with some interesting twists pointing to ambient and progressive elements and rhythms you may find on early electronic music of the mid-70s by Brian Eno, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Jean-Michel Jarre, and in the early eighties by an artist like e.g. Laurie Anderson and among many synthpop bands, and then again in the early techno scene. You'll find sound bits hinting at this in the actual electronic explosion from the late 80s and early 90s with bands like The Orb, The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Dust Brothers etc. and in much wider sub-styles. The album was originally released on Philips - reissued several times through the 70s and also on cassette from '77, but it has never been officially released on CD format, nor has it been reissued after 1980, and Germanofon releases (many from '94) of the band's three earliest albums are all unofficial or 'bootleg' releases, and the band themselves haven't found it fruitful to reissue the earliest albums. This may also be seen e.g. with the band's own 8-CD box set Der Katalog (2009), which doesn't include releases from before Autobahn (1974).

The album is a pure curiosity. There are many other and better experimental albums from the period, and it's only interesting that Hütter and Schneider already here named their music-project Kraftwerk, although, the electronic characteristics were only established with the band's fourth album. Still, it's a bit of shame how Hütter and Schneider somehow won't acknowledge their musical starting point. There are some fine parts pointing to both their own later progression, but also to much other music that flourished during the 70s.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

James Blake "Assume Form" (2019)

Assume Form
release date: Jan. 18, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,65]
producer: James Blake, Dominic Maker
label: Polydor Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Assume Form" (4 / 5) - 2. "Mile High" (feat. Metro Boomin & Travis Scott) - 5. "Barefoot in the Park" (feat. Rosalía) - 6. "Can't Believe the Way We Flow" - 8. "Where's the Catch?" (feat. André 3000) - 9. "I'll Come Too" (4 / 5)

4th studio album by British electronic artist James Blake takes on a new style by incorporating rap on top of his explorations into alt. r&b, art pop and ambient pop. The album consists of 12 tracks with an average playing time from 3-5 minutes and a total running time at just over 48 mins.
The album has [already] been met by critical acclaim, and I do think of it as his easily far best album. Normally, rap is not a genre I turn to, and frankly, most often simply avoid, however, this offers a different approach [than 'the Drake, the West, the Wayne and the-what-have-we-that-sounds-the-same-kind-of-boring-contemporary-rap-thing'] with an obvious more trap rap style but also in a liquid combination with Blake's usual electronic approach makes it something other than "just" [contemporary] rap. It's also alt. r&b and neo-soul taken into a mild ambient synthpop kind of sound that just works altogether as something quite extraordinary. It's such a warm and pleasant soundscape.
Assume Form is not only Blake's best effort, it's also one of the best albums of 2019 and as such highly recommended.

EDIT Dec. 2019:
The album started out as my absolute favourite of the year back in Jan. 2019, and passing through Spring and Summer it remained at the top. Then a couple of things happened: the album began a natural wear and a couple of other releases kept pushing on. Assume Form is a mighty fine and almost extremely coherent album - what I discovered though, is a sensation of it being too polished. 'Over-produced' is a word that kept popping up, which doesn't do a much good - neither generally nor in the case here. The album still remains one of the releases of 2019 that I have played the most throughout the year, but others keep it from the absolute top, and over time, it just doesn't feel that impressive.
Still a mighty recommended album.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, 👍The Guardian 4 / 5, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

Best of 2019:Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Ghosteen" (2019)

Ghosteen

release date: Oct. 3, 2019

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]

producer: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

label: Ghosteen Ltd. - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Spinning Song" - 2. "Bright Horses" - 3. "Waiting for You" (4 / 5) - 6. "Galleon Ship" - 7. "Ghosteen Speaks" (4 / 5) - 9. "Ghosteen" - 11. "Hollywood"

17th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds as the follow-up to the 3-year-old emotional Skeleton Tree (Sep. 2016). The album is the first to be solely credited exclusively Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and the album has been released in all formats on the band-owned label at the time, Ghosteen Ltd. As a vinyl and CD release, the album comes as a double album consisting of eleven tracks with a total playing time of more than 68 minutes, and the album's first eight tracks - occupying the vinyl sides A+B / CD 1 - are collectively named "The Children" while the last three have been given the designation "The Parents".

Stylistically, it's much like the sequel to the 2016 album, which was seen by most as Cave's response to the recent loss of his 15-year-old son, but as Cave himself later explained, the majority of the songs had already been written when the tragedy struck, and the album's depressed mood can only be attributed to the personal tragedy and grief he and the band found themselves in during the recording sessions. On Ghosteen, the starting point of the songs is on the other hand deeply rooted in the emotions the loss gave rise to, and the album is designed as a universal reaction to the experience of grief and loss, with the poetic expression perhaps taking up more room - asking for more attention - than the music itself. It's not a collection of songs with traditional rhythm structures, but an album that via its style without percussion and drums and instead soaked in string harmonies, spheric piano and keyboard in many ways approaches a pure ambient release.

The album was released almost exclusively to overwhelmingly positive reviews and good rankings on albums charts worldwide, e.g. a No. #2 in Australia, No. #4 in the UK (No. #1 on the independent charts) and No. #12 on the US Top Rock Albums chart. It's a near impossible task to point out the best tracks on an album that is such an overall experience. Ghosteen should be listened to from start to finish, and in the listening process you may try to absorb the musical sensation in approximately the same way as you breathe. It's a very emotional release that contains both touching beauty and deep pain, which is made for meditative moments more than popular-musical entertainment. It does what it's meant to do, to facilitate emotions and support deep sadness, and it most probably works magnificently as spiritual background music. It contains lots of beauty but it's nevertheless also enormously heavy and one-dimensionally sad and as such not made for much else. But then, art itself doesn't need to be multi-purposeful.

My biggest recommendation for grief processing and just overall a big recommendation of Cave's perhaps finest and most delicate output.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4,5 / 5 NME 5 / 5 stars ]

2019 Favourite releases: 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Ghosteen - 2. The Cranberries In the End - 3. Rammstein Rammstein

Efterklang "Altid sammen" (2019)

Altid sammen
release date: Sep. 20, 2019
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]
producer: Efterklang
label: Rumraket / 4AD Records - nationality: Danmark

Track highlights: 1. "Vi er uendelig" - 2. "Supertanker" - 4. "I dine øjne" - 5. "Hænder der åbner sig" - 6. "Verden forsvinder" - 8. "Havet løfter sig" - 9. "Hold mine hænder"

5th studio album by Danish band Efterklang follows seven whole years after Piramida (2012). In the meantime the band released the live-album The Piramida Concert (2013), made with Copenhagen Phil [The Philharmonic Orchestra of Copenhagen] - much to the same formula they previously did with Performing Parades (2009) in company by The Danish National Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, they have as 'Efterklang / Fundal' released The Colour of Falling (2016) as a collaborative project with Danish composer Kasper Fundal. Also of 2016, Efterklang founded the side-project Liima in collaboration with Finish drummer Tatu Rönkkö, and shortly after they released their debut ii (2016). The following year saw Liima's follow-up 1982. So, to speak of a hiatus is not really the issue, although, seven years may seem like a long period in between studio releases from Efterklang.

The trio remains intact on Altid sammen, which is the band's first with a Danish title and also with lyrics in Danish. Musically, they explore new terrain - much as usual. It appears to be a premise they feel comfortable with, and it's something they have applied to all releases throughout their career in what seems like an attempt to investigate new ways to create 'natural music'. On this, they have tuned down on the more orchestral arrangements thus creating their so far boldest ambient dream pop release. Actually, it's quite fulfilling listening to Casper Clausen singing in Danish, and if he on Piramida sounded a wee bit too much as Matt Berninger (The National), then you might get the idea that someone else has taken over as lead vocalist on this one, as he now sings with a higher pitch. Compared to previous albums, Altid sammen isn't an album following a formula with contenders to compositions like "Mirador", "Hollow Mountain", or "Monument" which almost came with a label saying: 'single'. On the other hand the album here appears, in my mind, as their most coherent studio album where several compositions just overflow with lusciousness.

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Exclaim! 4 / 5 stars ]

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd "White Bird in a Blizzard" (OST) (2014)

White Bird in a Blizzard (soundtrack)

release date: Sep. 23, 2014

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]

producer: Robin Guthrie

label: Lakeshore Records - nationality: Scotland, UK / USA

Track highlights: 1. "Visions of Eve" - 2. "Brock's Theme" - 4. "Curious" - 5. "Forever Changed" - 11. "I'm Here, Kat, I'm Here" - 12. "White Bird"

[ full album ] [ film trailer ]

Soundtrack by Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd for the film of the same name directed by Gregg Araki, who also directed the 2005 film "Mysterious Skin" for which Guthrie and Budd also provided the musical score, which was their first actual exclusive collaboration, released as Mysterious Skin: Music From the Film. Almost two decades earlier, however, they had made their first album together: The Moon and the Melodies (1986) as a collaboration with Elizabeth Fraser and Simon Raymonde - Guthrie's other two partners from The Cocteau Twins.

White Bird in a Blizzard would turn out to be their last recordings together. December 2020 saw the release of the album Another Flower, but the tracks here, like the tracks for White Bird in a Blizzard, were already recorded in 2013. Perhaps the compositions for both albums stem from the same recording session? It consolidates unmistakably the same moods and soundscape, although the soundtrack overall contains more varied music, which is largely due to the fact that the individual tracks are not, like the 2020 album, attributed both artists - only tracks #4 and #8 are credited both, and exactly those two could easily have be included on Another Flower without changing the overall expression. The soundtrack consists of twelve compositions with a total playing time of 41 minutes. Guthrie is credited tracks #1, #2, #5, #7, #11, and #12, while Budd is exclusive composer of tracks #3, #6, #9, and #10. Quite naturally, you'll notice a distinct dream pop style to Guthrie's tracks, with Budd's compositions being far more minimalistic. However, there are no explicit signs indicating that they do not contribute to each other's compositions, but you may note how Budd's instrumentals are without string instrumentation, and in isolation these stand a bit on their own. Compared to their first film score collaboration, the album here stands stronger because it's more varied without being disjointed. Personally, I prefer Guthrie's compositions but the collaboration with Budd is certainly not without quality, even if Budd's own piano and keyboard variations are a little too new age-styled to my liking. Together, they certainly make relevant music, and I feel as this album surpasses their previous collaborations.

Recommended.

Björk "Vulnicura" (2015)

Vulnicura
release date: Jan. 20, 2015
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]
producer: Björk, Arca
label: One Little Indian - nationality: Iceland

Track highlights: 1. "Stonemilker" - 2. "Lionsong" - 4. "Black Lake" - 5. "Family" - 7. "Atom Dance" (feat. Anohni) - 8. "Mouth Mantra" - 9. "Quicksand"

8th studio album by Björk is co-produced by Venezuelan electronic producer / musician Arca [aka Alejandro Ghersi]. Stylistically, a Björk studio album is always within an art pop universe, and here she attributes that with chamber, ambient pop and electronic. It's not far from what she has released before - perhaps the biggest change is the distance to her most recent album Biophilia (Oct. 2011), although, they share the common theme of nature. In many ways this is closer to a mix of her three consecutive albums around the new millennium: Homogenic (1997), Vespertine (2001), Medúlla (2004), and frankly, Vulnicura sounds much like the outcome of a combo of all three albums.
Without containing obvious hits, I think the result is her most interesting album in more than 14 years. An alternative title could have been 'Homogeneous', 'cause that's also what it is.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, NME, Spin 4 / 5 stars ]
=> Needledrop review

Jean-Michel Jarre "Equinoxe Infinity" (2018)

Equinoxe Infinity
release date: Nov. 16, 2018
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Jean-Michel Jarre
label: Columbia Records - nationality: France

Track highlights: 1. "The Watchers (Movement 1)" - 2. "Flying Totems (Movement 2)" - 3. "Robots Don't Cry (Movement 3)" - 6. "Infinity (Movement 6)" - 8. "The Opening (Movement 8)" - 10. "Equinoxe Infinity (Movement 10)"
[ Official trailer: "the making of the album" ]

19th (or: 20th/21st/22nd ?) studio album by (now) 70-year-old Jean-Michel Jarre is the sequel to his classic 1978 album Equinoxe celebrating that album's 40th anniversary, much to the same formula he applied by releasing Oxygène 3 in 2016 to celebrate his '76 masterpiece Oxygène. The album contains ten tracks and has a running time just below 40 mins.
Musically, it's no big surprise when he pays tribute to his old classic - as he did with the "Oxygène"-trilogy by remodelling new compositions to echo his previous work in a way where you understand the reference point but also by incorporating new elements from progressive and minimal house as well as other styles of electronica to add something contemporary. He takes the listener back in time and shows us many of his own inspirational sources of modern electronica and the whole thing is moulded with grace and technical finesse of an experienced composer, who is familiar with all the twists and turns and every detail in the big pool of electronica to make it such a pleasant journey.
Yes, you have to like non-vocal-based progressive compositions, and if you fall into that segment, it's most likely that you too will find this a mighty fine accomplishment, and one of Jarre's better albums in recent years.
[ Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

Robin Guthrie "Fortune" (2012)

Fortune

release date: Nov. 26, 2012

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]

producer: Robin Guthrie

label: Soleil Après Minuit - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Cadence" - 2. "Circus Circus" - 3. "Ladybird" - 4. "Tigermilk" - 7. "Forever Never"

5th solo album by Robin Guthrie follows 1½ years after Emeralds (May 2011) and is possibly the first to only be issued on Guthrie's own label Soleil Après Minuit, although most of his solo material and collaboration albums also have been released in some secondary format on the label.

Fortune doesn't stir anyone's image of Robin Guthrie. In fact it sound very much like the "B-side" to Emeralds with an ethereal and ambient style built around Guthrie's slow-burning guitar harmonies with as much echo and delay effects you can get.

The album has been issued via Darla Records for vinyl issues, but it seems he's no longer being promoted, which explains why it's difficult to find any official reviews. Quite naturally, Guthrie doesn't sell in large numbers - I think his income may depend on projects: film scores, producer or mixing credits, and that his new releases to a large extent are financed via his technical status. And that again may explain why his music sound so much alike. For Guthrie, it's no more a desire to create new styles, better selling albums, but much more the result of his love for a specific kind of sound. He doesn't care if critics, distributors or radio stations find his music dull or off the target. Still, when you're familiar with his collaboration works with Harold Budd, his solo albums Carousel (2009) and Emeralds (2011), then you may begin to wish as I do: what if Robin Guthrie had someone else produce his album - his next solo release? Wouldn't that be something! He has developed a sound that is almost touching on sterile, where every effect-pedal needs a fixed position, so that the guitar swirls in the exact same way it did one or maybe even two decades ago. Yes, he is a sound engineer and a sound wizard, but how I wish he could learn some new tricks.

That said, Fortune is warm honey for your ears. So find yourself a moment of peace. Turn up the volume and put on Fortune. Sit down in your favourite chair. Close your eyes. Wait. Wait. Wait. Listen!

Recommended.

Nils Frahm "All Melody" (2018)

All Melody
release date: Jan. 26, 2018
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Nils Frahm
label: Erased Tapes - nationality: Germany

Track highlights: 2. "Sunson" - 3. "A Place" - 5. "Human Range" - 6. "Forever Changeless" - 7. "All Melody" (live) - 8. "#2" - 11. "Kaleidoscope"

9th studio album by Nils Frahm, who has released albums on independent English label Erased Tapes since 2009. This is modern classical and minimalism fusioned with electronic, and perhaps with the addition of ambient, although, that may be an integral part of the aforementioned styles combined. It's difficult to label as either part of an experimental electronic genre, or rather think of it as avant-garde within the classical sphere. It's really transgressing the idea of fixed music genres as belonging to either popular music or classical, almost in a "wave versus particle" theory - this is really both depending on perspective.
It's simplistic, and at times truly minimalist but also built using melodic harmonies in a very organic way. And there's an ever-present sensation of ambience, which makes me think of a modern version of Jean-Michel Jarre - at least when thinking of his earliest works - just without traditional synths.
Previously, I have seen Frahm as an artist who makes music that requires ones full attention, but with All Melody he has moved into the hemisphere of popular music where manifestations may be listened to with randomised attention, so to speak. And speaking of manifestations - Frahm was musical composer to the fabulous Julian Rosefeldt film "Manifesto" (2015) featuring Cate Blanchett, in which she brilliantly plays a dozen different characters, and the music plays its very own prominent part.
Perhaps there's some need of sharpened attention when listening to All Melody but that doesn't mean you necessarily need to put on a pair of headphones to absorb the message; however, you may very well do just that and thereby extend your experience. I come to think of Philip Glass - the seemingly repetitious intervals that you meet along the way in most of the compositions here, but also Jarre and a sense of ethereal spaciousness.
Sometimes listening to this album makes me imagine watching an imaginary Godfrey Reggio sequel to "Powaqqatsi" where you're exposed to unexpected lifeforms seen from the flight of a drone, through the eyes of a seagull, or through the lenses of an underwater camera following a herd of dolphins to a secret place in the outskirts of Atlantis.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, Drowned in Sound 5 / 5 stars ]

Björk "Biophilia" (2011)

Biophilia
release date: Oct. 7, 2011
format: cd (Deluxe)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,98]
producer: Björk
label: Polydor Records - nationality: Iceland

Track highlight: 3. "Crystalline" - 4. "Cosmogony"

7th studio album by Björk who is also credited as producer. Only one track is co-produced by the electronic duo 16bit (track #3), and for the first time around Björk is credited for a vast number of (electronic) instruments and as head of arrangements and the mixing process. The album follows more than four years after Volta (2007) and the album was launched as an "iPad-album", which meant that consumers were able to download the album in a 'Biophilia mother app' with all tracks as individual apps including both sound and vision.
With Biophilia, Björk once again takes decisive choices of sonic texture, which in this case takes her into ambient pop territory with several compositions held in a cappella mood and some with a clear presence of chamber pop and glitch pop - ultimately, making it her so far most experimental studio release.
As usual - one might add - the album was met by critical acclaim and several prize nominations. No hit singles was released with the album, although, it spawned four single releases (tracks #3, #4, #7, and #1). Only "Crystalline" and "Cosmogony" entered the Icelandic singles charts as number #12 and #23 respectively, and no other entries are registered around the world. The album peaked at number #4 in Iceland and in France, as number #9 in Switzerland, but apart from these top-10 entries the album was not a commercial success - basically making it her so far poorest selling studio album; however, music critics seemed to love it.
The album is a highly conceptual one, and may be regarded as Björk's take on environmental issues. After her 2007 album, she had fulfilled her contractual obligations and was in a position of artistic freedom, and free to produce whatever she felt like doing, and this together with her engagement with 'mother nature' as well as a deep financial crisis in all of Iceland gave her the idea to work on this project. You will also notice that she doesn't challenge her voice as on former releases - instead she sings steadily and softly on many of the tracks (some have been recorded earlier), presumably the result of having gone through surgery on her vocal cords. Thus, the album touches on progressive ambient. It's an album rich on sensations and it requires fully attention of the listener, as it also contains interesting details and ideas.
I never enjoyed this much, though, and I basically find it among her least favourable albums - with form over matter as a general complaint, although, one could argue that it may be viewed as a near modern classical work of art, and the idea of the project with music, video and a vision of 'biophilia' represented in all we touch and connect to is anything but mere pretentiousness. However, and knowing that it's a media transgressing release, I focus on the music aspect of the album, and I simply consider Biophilia her least interesting studio album. There you have it!
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, PopMatters 4 / 5, NME 4,5 / 5 stars ]