Phobic

Vitalic - V Live

2008-06-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Vitalic, another French Producer that sort of emerged out of nowhere and has made his mark on dance floors as well as home stereo systems. I myself really stumbled upon Vitalic by listening to DJ Mix CD's and hearing one of his tracks pop up on a few. I checked in on this French men and found out some stuff as well as some discography. Vitalic is a French Dance Legend in a way, he's one of those people you don't really have to like, or even enjoy, but you should at least have heard of him; this knowledge only being applied to people involved in the dance floor scene and DJ's in particular, which is why it's no surprise I found him on DJ Mixes I bought. He has a very hard style to his music, where the percussion is always present no matter what and generally the center of importance. It is most certainly Electronica Music he makes, the actual electronica sounding bits are the strange synth-ish noises and warped voice samples he implements with his ever changing percussion setup.

Having found out a few things about him and hearing those few tracks on my mixes I went out and bought "V Live", his live album. I read through the album and I was pleasantly surprised to see it was recorded in Brussels, Belgium, which meant that the crowd screaming were my fellow Belgians. So I popped the cd in at night and had a go at it.
First of all, if you are tired, crabby, depressed, annoyed, or in any particular negative mood, don't listen to this CD. It's one of those Albums you need to do effort for to listen to, and be in the right mood for, etc. The whole album is a mish mash of songs that seem to be well put together but not well constructed (if that makes any sense). It gives me the impression of a dance floor killer, but repeated too many times with not enough variation, like the whole song is trying to live off one major element, hard. This album is hard, now Electronica can go anywhere from being hardly audio able to blasting your ear drums apart, but this album is hard, which is what it centers around being. Most songs are composed in a steady buildup that leads to a speaker blasting chorus of sorts where the main elements are the drums and a deep Electronic sounding filler that act as both bass and Melody. This however acts annoying for me, cause that's it's major problem, no variation. The songs themselves may be good to dance to once and a while or just nice to listen to if your in the mood, but all the songs suffer from the same buildups and chorus' so it doesn't leave much to be expected from the album. Also all the songs share very similar BPM Times and try to play off very similar sounding melodies.

Now for the actual tracks. The first track "Polkamatic" is a joke, I don't know what he was trying to pull with turning Polka Electro, but it doesn't work, and I skip the song every single time. There were a few tracks that were just 1 minute in betweeners that looped certain things over and over, which was quite anoying, so I don't give those any good credits. "Bells" is actually a pretty decent song as the buildup is not entirely expectable, but it suffers from the problem that not enough elements are in the song so it has to feed of the hype of getting to it's kick driven chorus, something all these songs share in common. "Follow The Car" was just plain boring, it was the same melody going through the entire track with more layers being added that were supposed to add depth, something a lot of pop songs these days suffer from, which I hate to ever see in Electronica Albums! "La Rock 01" is a Vitalic classic and is featured on many of my DJ mixes, so it was no wonder that it was ruined in this album; Vitalic knows everyone in that concert hall was just waiting to hear this song so he drew out the buildup of it for a period that is beyond worth mentioning and then have the chorus be it's saving grace. I can understand this is exciting when you're sitting there watching this guy do it live, but on CD it just isn't that great and you wish he would just get it going already. The last two songs are another set of boring Melody Recyclers and sums up the album perfectly, predictable.

I give the album a 3/10

track Line Up:

1. Polkamatic 1/10
2. Disco Nouveu 2/10
3. Bambalec 4/10
4. Anatoles 5/10
5. Follow The Car 2/10
6. Bells 6/10
7. The 30,000 Feet Club 3/10
8. Rhythm In A Box 1 + 2 3/10
9. La Rock 01 5/10
10. Filth 'N Dirt Go Ahead 1/10
11. My Friend Dario 5/10
12. No Fun (Play The Guitar Johnny) 6/10
13. Fast Lane 2/10
14. Valetta Fanfares 3/10

Predictable and boring. I give it credit for being somewhat original, but everything is in the end somewhat original. I have heard the Remixes and those are beyond better, I only listen to those now. I do however like how he implemented the screaming and cheering of the crowd into the music and at points in tracks amplified it. Beyond that, I almost never listen to this Album, with one or two tracks of this guy you are all set, cause the rest is beyond similar.

This is seriously my least satisfying review, probably cause it's my least favorite album so far, but I am also extremely tired and told myself I would do this review. Might go back and edit some stuff when I'm more awake.

The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night

2008-06-04T22:38:00.001-07:00

The Chemical Brothers, true legends from the original underground Dance Scene in the UK. They arose around the same time Orbital and Underworld were at it. Along with the likes of The Prodigy, Oribtal and Fatboy Slim they helped shaped the genre of Big Beat.

Big Beat (Info from Wikipedia)

"Big beat (sometimes called chemical breaks) is a term deployed in the mid 1990s by the British music press to describe the music The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method and The Prodigy that relied on beat-driven, drum-heavy mixes, recalling the work of legendary British session drummer Dougie Wright."

The Chemical Brothers first emerged in 1992, which was when the UK was becoming more drum sensitive (Big Beat, Drum and Bass) and really upping the quality on drum loops. So they basically went out in the very beginning on a genre I can only describe as high quality drum loops mixed with severe Electronica. When they first started the music was very hard and had Techno influences, but has now evolved into professional style Big Beat that employs Electronica Elements from all over the genre.

Now my history with The Chemical Brothers has not always been the most steady, there have been high rises and severe lows. Many of their very very early stuff (stuff that you can hardly find anywhere anymore) I personally hated, it was too hard and not enough variation was going on. Their later albums all began to become nicer and more accomplished, all of those leading up to "Push The Button" had some dance floor killers and smash tracks, while mixed with some very mellow ones to show how far they had come with their producing skills. "Push The Button" was in my opinion, their biggest blunder, it suffered from pop-like repetitiveness problems and un-originality symptoms. Some of the songs did make it to dance floors but the rest of the cd was usually never heard. Me being a Chemical Brothers fan was disappointed and hoped they would do better with their next one.

And well here it is "We Are The Night", without a doubt my favorite Chemical Brothers album of all. Every single little thing you'd ever loved in their previous albums, chucked into one and bumped up on 200% quality. I call albums that I generally skip through to hear 3-5 songs, skippers. This album has to be the opposite of a skipper. There is almost not a single song I don't enjoy, and if I skip it's cause certain songs are better than others, but that doesn't make a single one bad (understand what I mean?). The Album still has the same Chemical trait that it jumps around all types of Electronica and never sticks to just one major element, which keeps it very fresh. The all in all sound and quality of this album is superb, not a single element feels out of place, on the contrary, everything feels perfect. All I can really say is that they cleaned up their "Push The Button" mess and replaced it with a shining trophy.

Complaints...well I have to say it's really hard to pull any out of this album. The "All Rights Reversed" song can quite anoying at times and I just personally don't like the amount of guitars used in it. "Harpoons" is very mellow and sometimes doesn't fit my mood and just seems to have less stuff going on in it, it's still a good song, just less than the rest.

Moving onto what I loved about it song wise! Just the opening song "No Path To Follow" gives you a good sense of what you're getting in this album, excellent quality and totally original ideas. "We Are The Night" is what it should be, one of the best songs on the album and easily the perfect name for the album, the buildup, the elements, everything is in perfect place and is easy to dance to if you feel up for it. What I've noticed about a lot of these songs is that they are neither happy nor sad, they are all sort of gloomy in an energetic way, something the Chemical Brothers know how to deliver, which is one reason I strongly recommend to just go out and buy this album straight off the bat. "Saturate" is my personal favorite on the album, the sheer quality of the drum loop used at the chorus and the other Darker Electronica elements make it an easy floor stomper that can be listened to over and over again. "The Salmon Dance" is something the Chemical Brothers have already done and tried (being rap) but managed to bump the good of it up to amazing heights, I hardly consider it a rap song as it's just that damn good. "The Pills Wont Help You Now" is the perfect ending and lets you in on their more mellow take on things in a superb manner.

I give this Album a 9/10

Song Line Up:

1. No Path to Follow 8/10
2. We Are The Night 9/10
3. All Rights Reversed 6/10
4. Saturate 10/10
5. Do It Again 9/10
6. Das Spiegel 7/10
7. The Salmon Dance 9/10
8. Burst Generator 8/10
9. A Modern Midnight Conversation 7/10
10. Battle Scars 7/10
11. Harpoons 7/10
12. The Pills Won't Help You Now 8/10

So if you've read my previous reviews and though I was giving good scoring, then think again. I realize the Daft Punk one was somewhat decent, Justice was good, but honestly, "We Are The Night" is brilliant. If you ever see this in a store and have a nice 20 in your pocket, buy it, don't even think about it. This is in my opinion one of the finest Electronica Albums of the 21th century. If you've ever thought of getting into Electronica and find Ed Banger Records or any of the older Electro House tracks a bit too heavy to get into, this album is the perfect push into that direction without getting your ear drums blasted to pieces.

Justice - Cross

2008-05-28T22:41:00.001-07:00

Alright, we're heading deeper now. Justice is a somewhat more recent group that is aligned with the now somewhat famous Ed Banger Records.

Justice has been described as the new Daft Punk, which is a term used a lot in hopes that it's the revival of French Touch. In interviews however Justice has stated that they really can't feel compared to Daft Punk cause they are both doing different things. French Touch is something they like but it isn't their goal to revive it, they just want to make something new if they can. Justice has risen to the top of the French Dance Scene and is at the moment considered to be the most influential groups coming from France at this time.

Anyway, down to the music bit. I picked up "Cross" during the Winter while staying in Belgium and had already heard a bit about it before I bought it. I can really tell there are some distinct French Touch elements, but it's all jumbled around and chopped up. I have listened to more Ed Banger Records since then and see this choppiness in most of their artists and songs, so it's a bit normal now. It sounds a lot like a normal track that was made perfectly and then cut into pieces and sort of randomly placed around while keeping important elements flowing, so the whole song doesn't become a mess.

One thing that stuck out of that album was the cover, I still don't fully understand what the cross is all about or even why some of the song titles are references from the Bible, but it was very strange to see this in an Electronica album. Generally it's all very dancy music and has a lot of lighter tones to it than most Electronica being darker. However some songs were extremely dark, hell some songs didn't even come over as songs to me, two examples are "Genesis" and "Stress", both sound like an intro or outro of some sort but just continue going and sort of warp into a song of some sort. While other songs like "DVNO" and "D.A.N.C.E" are straight up by the book dance songs with no theory errors or anything. These changes and fluctuations between songs was a bit strange but I liked it in a way. Most of the songs were extremely catchy and the others just satisfied experimental hunger. My major complaint being, repetitiveness, with the sore thumb being "Phantom", this is a song that in my opinion goes nowhere, it starts and just stays at that same point, then comes part two of the song and it gets a bit different, but not extremely. Why didn't they just make one "Phantom" and skip the parts and just make a full song with differences going on in it? I don't really get it, "Phantom Part 1" is like the intro to "Phantom Part 2" where it's the actual song. "New Jack" is another pit where it falls into complete repetitiveness, the song could be described as an interesting 12 second sample looping for about 4-5 min. I Liked Uffie's appearance in "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" but that was one of the only ones that really stuck out as an interesting twist. Once you have heard the first 3 songs you could figure out the rest quite easily.

I give the entire album a 6.5/10.

Song Line up:

1. Genesis 5/10
2. Let There be Light 6/10
3. D.A.N.C.E 8/10
4. New Jack 4/10
5. Phantom Part 1 3/10
6. Phantom Part 2 7/10
7. Valentine 5/10
8. Tthhee Ppaarrttyy 8/10
9. DVNO 8/10
10. Stress 7/10
11. Waters of Nazareth 8/10
12. One Minute To Midnight 6/10

To sum it all up: Good, but gets old fast. After hearing it a few times all the way through you've heard it all, you'll recognize song after song easily and it leaves no mystery to getting to know the album very well. In my opinion it's a very pop style driven album where it's not exactly excellence, some albums I've heard however are so excellent you just know it had to be selected from three times as many songs to just make the album. I do however give it credit for being extremely creative, but in my opinion it has flaws, certain borders are crossed that don't have to be, and in all honestly there's too much being tried in most songs. It's very refreshing but not all the way through, like a drink on a hot day that get hotter as you drink it and then cools down once you get to the bottom.

I would really suggest people to listen to Justice as I really like them as a group and enjoy a lot of their tracks, some of which have not been released such as their remixes and earlier songs. However I just don't encourage buying the album, I usually just end up listening to a few songs and skip through a lot of the others. So if you're an iTunes person just download a few and you should have plenty for just a while. In general, good group that brought out an album too fast.

Phobic's Top Justice Songs:

1. We Are you're Friends
2. Phantom Part 2 (Boysnoize Remix)
3. Waters of Nazareth
4. D.A.N.C.E
5.Tthhee Ppaarrttyy

Daft Punk - Musique Vol. 1

2008-05-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Alright let's kick off the reviewing fun with Daft Punk!

Now if you are already going: "Who's Daft Punk?" then let me tell you that you've got to be kidding me. Daft Punk's rise from 1993 has not gone unnoticed, pretty much anywhere. I have not been to a single country that doesn't know about Daft Punk at all. Back in Belgium I hadn't been to a single wedding that didn't play "One More Time".

Alright but enough about that, Daft Punk is an Electronic Dance Monolith! For people of the late 80's and early 90's, Daft Punk has always been around and is in our age the king of Dance Music. They owe this title to the beginning of French Touch, which they are also considered to be the main component of starting it. French Touch starting coming up in the early 90's and is an Electronica Genre that gets it's root from (can't believe it) Disco. Now don't get me wrong, the last people to actually like Daft Punk are avid Disco-ers, it was mainly the Youth that got heavily into them. Now the first glimpse of Daft Punk into my life was back when I was 7 or 8 and I saw the music video of "One More Time" on MTV.

It was also my first glimpse into the popular Japanese Art Style Anime. It featured a band of blue people who played the song in front of an audience in a concert like setting but sometime in the future. It was really nothing insane or mind blowing, it was just so darn catchy. The other songs from their album "Discovery" that were to be made into music videos were also done in this style. Eventually a movie was made to support the story of the music videos called "Interstella 555". But this brought up another factor, why hadn't I heard of their first album "Homework" before seeing these music videos? The answer is easy, the music videos made the biggest impact on their career. Before that they were just a hype in Paris, France (where they are from) but with Discovery they went global. From then on Daft Punk has been a major player in the Electronica World and probably will be the Dance Legacy of the 90's Generation once they finish.

Anyway, I am not always going to go so into depth about a group but I feel it's important to know some of these things before I review their CD.

Daft Punk - Musique Vol. 1

What better CD to review than a CD that covers all important spots of Daft Punk's career so far. It's basically just songs that have been the most popular on their Albums, so this CD doesn't really count as an actual Album.

It is overall a decent to good album and covers some important songs and tosses in a few new ones. My only complaint, the new ones. "Musique" (the song) can drive me insane with it's unheard repeat of the word Musique the entire song. Another thing is the "Human After All" songs, I personally dislike the CD and try to forget they ever made it and spoiled their somewhat perfect score of Dance Tracks, so why did they put three of them on here? Now "Technologic" is what I consider to be one of the only decent tracks on that entire album but that doesn't mean they have to toss it in either. Also the last three tracks are Remixes, and I know this is obviously a marketing strategy, cause why buy an album that you have all the originals to, toss in some new stuff that has never been released! It's too bad that the remixes sucked or I would have given the CD a better score. I do however love that I don't have to change CD's for that one song like in the past, but in the end, listening to this CD just makes me reach back for the "Discovery" Album.

I give it a 5/10

Song Rating:

1. Musique 4/10
2. Da Funk 6/10
3. Around the World 7/10
4. Revolution 909 7.5/10
5. Alive 6/10
6. Rollin' & Scratchin' 4/10
7. One More Time 8/10
8. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 8/10
9. Something About Us 7/10
10. Robot Rock 4/10
11. Technologic 5/10
12. Human After All 3.5/10
13. Scott Grooves - Mothership Reconnection (Daft Punk Remix) 5/10
14. Ian Pooley - Chord Memory (Daft Punk Remix 3/10
15. Gabrielle - Forget About The World (Daft Punk Remix) 6/10

In all honesty, if this is the first time you have heard mention of Daft Punk or haven't heard any of their stuff, go listen to some samples on iTunes or whatever other service you've got. If you've got to buy a CD of their's just buy "Discovery" this CD will keep you busy plenty and is in the end the core of their Career.

I decided to review this CD rather then a better of theirs just cause it's a nice follow into the world of Electronica and sort of summarizes a career more than just a CD. I do owe Daft Punk a bit for helping me get into Electronica and if you have ever thought of doing so then this group is a great first start (Not "Human After All" Album though, stay away from that one).

-Phobic

2008-05-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm Phobic, thanks for reading my first blog post. To kick it off I'll start by telling you some things about me and why I have this blog up here.

I'm a young music producer/artist (whichever one you understand as a person who makes music), I have been at it since about the end of 2006 and am not exactly a professional yet but am managing to get somewhere. I am currently planning on going to a Music/Sound College in 2009 to get a degree in Sound Engineering. Also somewhat planning to start DJ-ing once I get enough money. So as you can tell I am very much into music, which is one of the reasons I have this blog up here. I have been fascinated by music ever since I was a kid, thanks to my dad playing a wide selection of great music (Portis Head, Thievery Corporation, LTJ Bukem, The Orb, ...) from my birth on. My Genre taste was very open when I was younger but I have now become extremely selective in the kind and quality of music I listen to; something I find positive for me, but negative for others.
Around 2004 I got deeply into Electronica, Electro and House; ever since I have not steered away from it and continue to enjoy it more every day. This is also the type of music I (try to) produce, which I must say isn't the most easy of types to master.

I was born in Kortrijk, West Vlaanderen, Belgium in 1991. My childhood was like any other European and lasted me until I became 14 when my parents got divorced. The separation of my parents didn't harm me at all on an emotional level but what it physically meant was monumental. My mother is an American and my father a Belgian, so when the divorce came my mother decided to move back to the US with me and my sister. I have been here for the last 3 years now. This is one thing that makes music hard for me here, that being the fact that this country doesn't have much of an Electronica influence on the world; most of that all comes from Europe where all the clubs, parties and festivals are still heavily dominated by it. So one of the reasons I started this blog is to see if anyone from outside of the country is at all interested in the survival of Electronica in the West Coast of the US, or if there are already a lot of other Americans who are deeply into the Electro Life. Here in Monterey, Electronica is as good as dead, which is very sad for me to see.

Well that's about it really, currently those are the things that are happening. I just go to my Independent Study class, the Junior College, Work (part-time) and a Youth Arts Collective. I am possibly planning on moving back to Belgium in 2009 after I graduate to study Sound Engineering; and I am looking into DJ-ing once I get myself enough money to do so.

In my next Post I will go over a few artist I find worth mentioning and start getting into what this blog is really for, discussing and reviewing music. Thank you all for reading.

(Picture above taken by Michael Meert at Tercaemer-Meert Contemporary Art Gallery, Veemarkt, Kortrijk, Belgium)