THIS WEEK: Apparat - The Devil's Walk.
This album stands out for me by mixing production depth, melody and sampled glitchy acoustic instruments. It's by no means a lyrical masterpiece, but only if you compare to artists where lyricism is the driving force of their art. Here the lyrics simply help make concrete the emotional content of the music. I get the feeling the melody came before the words, but I could be wrong, and who cares anyway, it's got 15 second reverbs, big glitchy drums, more layers than a Dobos torte, timbre hooks, deep bass and singing... I'm happy with that. It even has some elements of folktronica, though not as a uncooked as four tet, more like Bonobo with additional German English vocals.
Like all music, most of it's power comes from association, which is of course unique to the person listening. So you can make your own minds up, it's not perfect for me, but I do recommend it.
Suggested place of listening:
Return journey home from a loud and raucous gig, maybe the M63 at night in the rain with your passengers asleep.
Verdict.
N out of 5
N= Your musical taste, personal experience and circumstance, prejudice and bias... and the quality of your speakers/headphones.
I'm not very good at this, but will persevere.
M
