Much has been said about the Field this year, and yet I’m not sure I have anything to add, though I’m definitely keen to reiterate. I have been following electronic music fairly closely for more than a decade and had never purchased anything on the Kompakt label before (Note to self: Why???), but upon reading that one track on this remarkable album (“Over the Ice”) was composed almost entirely of digital edits of a great song from Kate Bush (“Under Ice”), I had to check it out.
What is my thing with Kate Bush and electronic production? More importantly, anybody remember this old chestnut from the rave era?
Thankfully, the Field is nothing like that. Despite an emphasis on thumping beats and pulsing repetition, it has much more in common with Fennesz and Ulrich Schnauss: beautiful waves of electronic ambience that simply wash over its audience. Is there such a thing as organic bedroom trance? Actually, the way it depends on rhythm owes a little bit to Everything Is Wrong-era Moby, a source of influence that more musicians should allow for themselves. I am guessing that the track “Mobilia” is, quite appropriately, named after him.
For the most part, I can’t recommend this album enough, and I keep going back to it. While many tracks are built upon bits and samples from recognizable pop tunes, most of them are vaguely familiar without actually being recognizable, giving the whole mix a warmth and an immediacy not usually common in the realm of minimal techno. But when the samples are identifiable, such as the ghostly use of the Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes for You” deep in the center of the album’s title track, I am inclined to believe that I am listening to the music of the future, when the 20th century is barely a memory and faint traces of it resurface only in dreams.
This fan-made video is fantastic. Stay with it at least until about 1:45 to hear the Field's sense of development.
[And to my friend Dario who has a super mega car... actually, I mean my friend Ned who has been bugging me to get Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt for some time now... I swear it's going to happen.]
1 comment:
i find it just a bit eerie that you're bringing up utah saints as part of your 2007 wrap-up. just this week, i was reading something (probabaly pop justice) and they were mentioned. i went to their myspace page and listened to some new remix of "what can you do for me" several times because apparently, 08 is the year of the utah saints comeback.
ok, enough wallowing in nostalgia (raving in columbia, mo oh yeah!) and get back to my tim finn primers.
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