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Machinedrum - Vapor City

cear

By cear
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dr lopez Grand Master

dr lopez

Posted
Posted

why do you keep mentioning vocalcity? I mean, it's lush as fuck but i don't get the comparison.

 

pls post another brilliant dr. lopez music history response thx

lol too drunk for that I think -- BUT --

 

Is that comparison really that hard to make? I guess I just started at the title similarities. Vocalcity to me was Sasu placing that “handbag house” inside an urban atmosphere of its own. Pads swirl around each other. The bass is always present but the beats fade in and out and the vocals always seem either too close or just down the block. So many unique atmospheric sounds in 12+ minute tracks. It’s successful because it’s both a celebration of the simplest cheesiest house grooves AND a complete spatial, atmospheric recontextualization.

 

Travis has been hailed as raising footwork (yes) and now jungle (i guess) to a new level of sophistication, both concept- and production-wise, just as Sasu did in 2000. With the press, album artwork and even production it seemed like he tried to do the same thing - give us a city where we can imagine this music existing - hence the reverbed vocals, the grainy hiss, the lush pads. Far more overt than Vocalcity but somehow less fulfilling. None of this means I didn’t enjoy the shit out of this album, but unlike Awepittance I just can’t separate the concept from the music entirely and feel like there was a missed opportunity especially after worshipping the fuck out of Vocalcity for precisely the same reasons.

 

And as such, I’m still waiting for the album that actually places More Fire Crew inside grimy East End housing projects. It’s out there!!

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tokn Veteran

tokn

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Posted

 

 

Come on ya cunts, let's have some Syndrone juke

 

when i listen to Vapor City I get absolutely ZERO hint of what the cover artwork was all about. In fact there seems to be a 100% disconnect from the actual album content/style/sound/music to the concept of the album art. I don't have a problem with it since the music is so good on it's own. Just interesting how that 'concept' doesn't translate at all to the sound

 

i would expect the music to be a little bit weirder colder and perhaps more atmospheric if it was trying to convey an imaginary 'vapor city' especially one that looks like the cover.

 

Well, Vizion does. You can't deny that, and Eyes Don't Lie also, especially with that video, which connects some dots. It's not just the cover art but some of the write up about it.

 

I can deny that the music was originally created with this concept in mind, and I will continue to do so. The writeup like all writeups these days for any electronic musician on a biggish label will tell a story to entice a reviewer and for other press outlets to quote it. It in no way should be taken at face value. If travis has been discussing this 'vapor city' recurring dream for a while and I just didn't notice it, forgive me. But to me it seems like a loosely cobbled together 'concept' to market an album that otherwise just feels like a direct sequel in every way to Rooms, which had no such concept. I want to make clear that this doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the album at all. The concept just has no discernible connection to the musical content. Even the Eyesdon'tlie video feels like it could have been made completely outside of this concept.

 

 

I second that. The whole dream thing seemed quite shabby to me from the beginning. And the artwork / theme doesnt fit Stewart's (happiest?) music at all.

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Alcofribas Grand Master

Alcofribas

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why do you keep mentioning vocalcity? I mean, it's lush as fuck but i don't get the comparison.

 

pls post another brilliant dr. lopez music history response thx

lol too drunk for that I think -- BUT --

 

Is that comparison really that hard to make? I guess I just started at the title similarities. Vocalcity to me was Sasu placing that handbag house inside an urban atmosphere of its own. Pads swirl around each other. The bass is always present but the beats fade in and out and the vocals always seem either too close or just down the block. So many unique atmospheric sounds in 12+ minute tracks. Its successful because its both a celebration of the simplest cheesiest house grooves AND a complete spatial, atmospheric recontextualization.

 

Travis has been hailed as raising footwork (yes) and now jungle (i guess) to a new level of sophistication, both concept- and production-wise, just as Sasu did in 2000. With the press, album artwork and even production it seemed like he tried to do the same thing - give us a city where we can imagine this music existing - hence the reverbed vocals, the grainy hiss, the lush pads. Far more overt than Vocalcity but somehow less fulfilling. None of this means I didnt enjoy the shit out of this album, but unlike Awepittance I just cant separate the concept from the music entirely and feel like there was a missed opportunity especially after worshipping the fuck out of Vocalcity for precisely the same reasons.

 

And as such, Im still waiting for the album that actually places More Fire Crew inside grimy East End housing projects. Its out there!!

word. i have to agree with you that vocalcity is the better of the two and more successful in achieving its goal. quite frankly, I don't get the concept of vapor city at all, the record just sounds like some jungle/footwork/whatever inspired tracks (some of them quite lush of course) but in no way does it evoke any of this imaginary city thing. if it was his first album maybe I could buy it more easily but the fact is this is basically the same formula as room(s) which makes it hard to swallow that it's supposed to be so highly conceptual.

 

idk, the album definitely gets me moving and i often find myself imagining i'm dancing in air while neon fireworks explode all around me while it's playing. so wtf do i know?

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sheatheman Grand Master

sheatheman

Posted
Posted

 

 

 

Come on ya cunts, let's have some Syndrone juke

 

when i listen to Vapor City I get absolutely ZERO hint of what the cover artwork was all about. In fact there seems to be a 100% disconnect from the actual album content/style/sound/music to the concept of the album art. I don't have a problem with it since the music is so good on it's own. Just interesting how that 'concept' doesn't translate at all to the sound

 

i would expect the music to be a little bit weirder colder and perhaps more atmospheric if it was trying to convey an imaginary 'vapor city' especially one that looks like the cover.

Well, Vizion does. You can't deny that, and Eyes Don't Lie also, especially with that video, which connects some dots. It's not just the cover art but some of the write up about it.

 

I can deny that the music was originally created with this concept in mind, and I will continue to do so. The writeup like all writeups these days for any electronic musician on a biggish label will tell a story to entice a reviewer and for other press outlets to quote it. It in no way should be taken at face value. If travis has been discussing this 'vapor city' recurring dream for a while and I just didn't notice it, forgive me. But to me it seems like a loosely cobbled together 'concept' to market an album that otherwise just feels like a direct sequel in every way to Rooms, which had no such concept. I want to make clear that this doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the album at all. The concept just has no discernible connection to the musical content. Even the Eyesdon'tlie video feels like it could have been made completely outside of this concept.

 

I second that. The whole dream thing seemed quite shabby to me from the beginning. And the artwork / theme doesnt fit Stewart's (happiest?) music at all.

 

I guess I just WANT it to be that way.

 

Thinking about how labels try to create buzz, I can believe that maybe the dream was a real thing, but had towards the end or even after all of the tracks were finished, and the subject was maybe broached with ninja tune staff and they said "THAT'S THE ALBUM". I guess the write up I read never claimed that the dream was an antecedent to the tracks. Either way, the album is really good. And I would love to see a few EPs that deliver on the concept more. When you have something so specific as a Dream City as your album artwork, it makes me think it is going to be an extremely narrative/rich work. It should be like a soundtrack.

 

It should be like the soundtrack to Tekkonkinkreet.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrseWniHlUE

 

 

Also, I think that Machine Drum has been sounding a lot like Lone for the past few years in chord structure and lead lines. Lone really pioneered that type of chord progression. Should be discussed more.

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Guest zaphod

Guest zaphod

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Posted

i guess this is ok. seems like palatable footwork for people who don't like footwork. not sure why that's something that needs to be transcended or improved upon.

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awepittance Grand Master

awepittance

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Posted

it just sounds a lot catchier as well as more competently produced than anything I can compare to it in the style. Still don't dig hearing the same 808 type pattern all the time though, sounds really uncreative to me even when Machinedrum milks that. If drum and bass made a backdoor comeback in the form of some kind of breaks chopped up mutation of juke I'd be pretty happy.

This song 'heavy weight' only becomes fully tolerable about 2:30 in, before that it's borderline cringe for me.

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Guest cult fiction

Guest cult fiction

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Posted

If drum and bass made a backdoor comeback in the form of some kind of breaks chopped up mutation of juke I'd be pretty happy.

uh you mean jungle juke, the genre machinedrum has been working in/creating for the past 2 albums???

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Guest cult fiction

Guest cult fiction

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Posted

Ital Tek is doing it

 

 

He's got some nice break chops in there, but I can't stand the synths he uses, they sound cheap and awful


Actually nevermind, the breaks don't really sound that good on second listen

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Guest cult fiction

Guest cult fiction

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Posted

 

What’s striking is how the sonic elements influenced by juke and jungle really gel. Yet, these are genres distanced by both time and geography — is it possible there’s a relationship between the two that runs deeper than BPM?

It’s BPM but it’s also rooted in urban culture — juke is an urban sound from Chicago, jungle, especially a lot of ragga jungle from the early ‘90s, that was the UK’s gangsta rap in a way. It was black music. So I've created a new genre called Intelligent Juke Music that white people in v-necks can comfortably listen to without getting upset about stock 808 sounds.

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