This blog is less than a week old and already there are two music reviews of electronic duos. I understand the turnoff of electronic music - usually it reminds me of creepy European guys with gucci watches, gold chains, and a collared shirt unbuttoned down to the navel. The only thing worse is Americans trying to imitate this horrible, horrible style. I consider myself open to a variety of music, but never gravitated to electronic, not at least until recently. Friends are a great source for music and I found new bands by asking around and politely stealing a few tracks. Ratatat, junior boys, daft punk, the chemical brothers are all bands recommended from other people.
Once I began to listen to electronic music, I was hooked. Its addicting. Most times when I listened to music, I am either, too tired, too lazy, or experience repeating episodes of attention disorder -- all of which prevent me from focusing in on the lyrics. Electronic music remedies my problem. There is minimal use of lyrics, and anything spoken is usually harmonized over several bars and the words become secondary to the sound the voice produces. Lyrics from electronic bands are irrelevant anyway. Nothing audible or intelligent can come after daily exposure to E and cocaine.
As talked before with Ratatat, there is a lot of repetition in purely digital music. How much bass and synth can one take in a lifetime? Consequently, its difficult to make an great album where each song is unique yet compatible with the rest of songs. One of the tools I use to determine the quality of albums/songs in this genre is whether I can remember anything after listening to it. Was there something in the song worth remembering? Or was it simply a cacophony of senseless noise?
Royksopp's the Understanding is a brilliantly assembled album. It architects simple rhythms and beats into powerful songs. There are no solos, no falsettos, nothing entirely obscure, nothing individualistic. The album is basic, almost minimalistic, but there is something else in the music that evokes a subtle complexity. Unlike Ratatat, layering involves only two or three components, never reaching such magnanimity. Sombre Detune is a perfect example. The short melody of the bass repeats over a chorus of synths and an effect that sounds like heavy breathing. The settup is simple, but at no point in the song does it feel overdrawn or tiresome. Triumphant is the same way.
The songs of the Understanding would never be heard in a club, blasted in a car stereo, or something that would immediately pull you out your seat and make you dance. Electronic music doesn't have to classified this way. It can be intelligent, creative, and exist not just for dramatic emphasis, but for actual listening. It is also, on the other extreme, not overly downtempo -- something that would be boring or you would expect to hear in a swanky lounge or airport. (Note: Remind Me, which is on Royksopp's first album Melody A.M and is remixed on the Understanding, is the background music for the Geico Caveman commercial where the caveman is walking through the aiport and sees the supposed "evolucentric" billboard -- the song is the commercial because of its quality, not because it belongs as airport music).
Part of the success of this album, different from their first, comes from their use of vocals, used in most of the songs as the primary melody. As stated above, I usually don't like electronic music to have lyrics -- I enjoy zoning out and having the instrumentation float around in my head. The Understanding is an exception. The vocals prevent the songs from drifting into obscurity and carry an element of reality, often lost in the trance of electronic music. The lyrics are also, surprisingly, actual lyrics!! and not short phrases or words repeated over and over. Give the album a listen, you will enjoy it.
Royksopp - 49 percent
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