Word: musics
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With such a breakneck schedule, one would expect the music of Belle and Sebastian to mirror many independent domestic projects in poor recording quality, sloppy production and slackerly filler material. Instead, lyrics and music form an almost hyper-aesthetic experience--carefully produced, with fine-tuned instrumentation and clever lyrics. The singer Stuart Murdoch softly whispers phrases about the uncertain nineties with an approach reminiscent of the '70s poet-singer Nick Drake. The instrumentation includes a trumpet, cello, flute and beautiful keyboard that unite in complex harmoniousness...
Other songs on Tigermilk are politically conscious in an apolitical, '90s way. The band sings about the dangers of abusive relationships, as well as the continual Generation X fear of joblessness. (The real liner notes of Tigermilk read, "Sebastian is older than he looks. If he didn't play music, he would be a bus driver or be unemployed. Probably unemployed...
Despite the addictive four-on-the-floor quality of the single, however, Surrender is not especially focused on partying but on extending the scope of sounds. For example, "The Sunshine Underground," the album's halfway point, anchors the album with eight minutes of instrumental music, moving from an Indian-tinged opening to an insistent, psychedelic loop. The album closes with "Dream On" (featuring Jonathan Donahue of college radio favorites Mercury Rev), an impossibly beautiful song that begins with delicate guitar strumming before soaring into its synthesizer refrain: the perfect comedown after too many electric highs...
...sing, and they're not instrumental virtuosos either. Yet it's clear that the Chemical Brothers have made one of the finest albums this year, pushing their creativity to the limits, showing that they can do more than make you jump. The pounding French-house-style opening track, "Music: Response" has as its main refrain an electronic voice proclaiming that "music should trigger some kind of response," and elicit a response this album certainly will. In its most manic parts, it can (and will) send dance-floors through the roof, but the sheer sonic range of the album counters...
More and more musicians are losing the delicate art of infusing their music with soul. Not soul in the sense of smooth shakers like Barry White--I'm talking about the kind of soul that fights numb torpor and erases indifference. The kind that stirs powerful emotions inside of a person, the kind that can get a reaction...