A Brief Comment On The Hype

May 5th, 2010
John Littlefield
Electronic, Experimental
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A couple of notable releases came out recently and I thought I should weigh-in… well, notable if you’re say, Pitchfork. But if you’re like me, you weren’t that impressed. In fact, I dare say that I was a bit let down. Let me explain–

Caribou – Swim

The first time I heard from Caribou, it was 2007. Andorra had just hit stores and I was impressed with their unique take on electronic music that played a bit with vocals similar to Animal Collective. Mostly though, it stood entirely by itself. With Swim, I can definitely hear where their inspirations are coming from even more than before. The first couple tracks sounded so remarkably like Royksopp that it completely took me back. I’m not saying they ripped them off in any way, but it sounds like something they(Royksopp) could have easily written or easily could write on any given day. The rest of the songs were vintage Caribou with some of the experimental elements from before and a few new ideas just to keep it interesting… though it felt like there was too much going on at a couple of different points. The problem with this record is the same problem I had with Andorra: This isn’t something I want to listen to very much. Once you’ve heard it, there really isn’t much to keep you coming back. There were definitely a couple stand-outs, but again it wasn’t sustained throughout. So not so original anymore, but if you were already blindly in love with Caribou and love Royksopp, no downside, right? 6.8/10

MP3: Found Out

Delorean – Subiza

If you haven’t heard Delorean before, just think of tediously monotonous house music with airy, processed vocals. Seriously, I’ve sat through this thing over and over and even though I know the songs now, all I hear is that nagging ‘boots boots boots’ I heard on every underground dance record from the 90s. You know, that persistent beat with an occasional generic cymbal crash from a forgotten era? If not, I envy you. Its beyond my understanding why anyone would bring that back and try to modernize it. And make no mistake, they use it on 7 out of 9 songs. Take away that annoying factor and all Delorean can give you is mediocre bleeps and bloops and those processed vocals I mentioned above. There really isn’t much to this record let alone anything to get excited about. Grossly incompetent? Maybe. Grossly overrated? Definitely. 3.6/10

MP3: Grow