Tycho - Awake

[BOCfan]

I like this album, but there's something strangely middle-of-the-road about it?

 

Tycho has consistently copped a massive amount of shit for being a BoC rip-off, and I like that he is established more of his own sound, but I fear that if Scott produces another album with the sound he established on Dive that he might end up working himself into a sonic cul-de-sac.

[sheatheman]

Awake is the weird, three-story tree house in the front yard of that house at the end of the cul-de-sac. There are always seven or more cars parked there. The leader of the household seems to be an ex-adrenaline junky, and wears his hair long. His hair has been bleached so many times that there is permanent root damage, and he wears a visor to keep his hair out of his face. He is closer to seven feet tall than six. You heard his name is Mr. Payne, he drives a purple Geo Tracker, and can often be seen yelling at his children and whoever else lives in the house from the roof of his tree house, where he sits in a frayed, rainbow lawn chair with a yellowed 44 oz 711 cup of grape juice and vodka. He is always listening to the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat, that or an Enigma album.

[digman]

Beach + Instagram filters.

 

Not for me.

[Joyrex]

I like this album, but there's something strangely middle-of-the-road about it?

 

Tycho has consistently copped a massive amount of shit for being a BoC rip-off, and I like that he is established more of his own sound, but I fear that if Scott produces another album with the sound he established on Dive that he might end up working himself into a sonic cul-de-sac.

To be fair, Dive's sounds are far different than what's on Awake (I see Awake as an evolution of that sound), with perhaps only the track "L" fitting in on Dive.

 

I think some find Awake "middle of the road" because there is a subconscious expectation for Tycho's music to sound BOC-ish, and when it's not (despite all the ribbing Tycho got for doing his take on their signature sounds), they ironically are left with a feeling it's lacking something.

[Joyrex]

Beach + Instagram filters.

 

Not for me.

Did you actually listen to the ablum, or just stare at the cover and decide this?

[dr lopez]

and biggest tycho apologist award goes to.....

[Joyrex]

and biggest tycho apologist award goes to.....

I'm not apologizing for anything - I just think judging music without having actually listened to it negates your right to make a statement about it.

[sheatheman]

to be fair, i'm pretty sure iso50 uses custom filters on instagram. could be an occasional amaro or nashville tho

[Alzado]

This album is pretty great guys. Leave the little guy alone.

[apriorion]

Yes, I must admit, this album is pretty great. I think I've said this before, but I regret being a little whiny bitch about that one Tycho video (I was part of the angry WATMM mob a couple years ago, when he showed his "Dive" video). I ended up buying that album and liking it quite a bit. This one is similarly pretty strong.

[Poimandres]

You guys are weird... this album is weak compared to Dive.

[cear]

ye weak poop, mostly sounds like some sprite commercial

[Alzado]

Different strokes I guess.

 

I've listened to this album several times and can't stop liking it more. Yes it's a bit sugary. Yes it's got that pre-fab nostalgia vibe that seems to accompany all his work. But the dude can write a melody. These are the warmest, rubberiest synth tones he's managed yet and the guitar is great. It reminds of me some of my favorite Tortoise and GY!BE but with admittedly less variation. This album is easily an 8/10. Some of it is just plain beautiful.

[sheatheman]

Did no one like my cul de sac free write?

[Alzado]

I found it offensive to suburbanites

[BOCfan]

You guys are weird... this album is weak compared to Dive.

 

I think that's my feelings on it. It's not an album I actively dislike and a lot of it is pleasantly enjoyable, but it just lacks some of Dive's energy. There's nothing there that compares to the title track of the former album here.

[Joyrex]

Overall after listening to this for some time now, I feel that Dive has overall stronger tracks - I would suspect that "L" might have been a Dive leftover, as it sounds more like it would fit in with Dive than Awake. Either way, both are great albums, and there are plenty nuggets of sonic goodness to enjoy from both.

[sheatheman]

I found it offensive to suburbanites

 

i'm the token suburbanite here, and i felt liberated

[apriorion]

OK, here's where I am in my thinking about Tycho at the moment. First, I must acknowledge that I completely agree with the concern that some WATMMers have already mentioned about the "middle-of-the-road"ness of his releases, including the latest one. It's the same issue I have with Ulrich Schnauss, whom I frequently see mentioned in the same contexts. I think that's an appropriate relationship, and I think it's a fair point of criticism. I think that part of the issue is the lack of offensiveness. He's just inoffensive. Now, usually that is considered a good thing, but I think that when it comes to art, it's both a point of detraction and an advantage. Every track that I've heard by Tycho is, at the very least, "nice". At it's best, it's "good/great". But his style is such that the music doesn't exceed that, for whatever reason. I was thinking about some of the artists I would rank above Tycho, and I think I've detected a pattern. Consider Aphex: his body of published work tends to have a higher standard deviation of quality. After hearing some of his tracks, I would scratch my head and think "What the fuck?!" Sometimes I would be genuinely embarrassed to play those tracks around my friends. However, some of his other tracks were so mind-bendingly good that I would have to pop in the CD or tape anyway. Then when those other embarrassing tracks would play, and everyone in the room is looking at me like, "What the fuck, man?" I would have to explain: but listen to this other track--it's worth it. And they would usually agree. Now, after many repeated listens (I usually have to listen to entire albums, not just individual selected tracks), I have come to appreciate those silly or just WTF type tracks: the good ones used to justify the stupid ones, but after a while, I could start to see how the stoopid ones fit into the greater picture, and what I used to perceive as ugly actually began to add to the beauty. I have similar issues with BOC (some of their samples are either cheesy or way fucking creepy) and Plaid (sometimes they seem too goof around a bit too much, but I've come to love them for that). But their discography has a *personality*, not in spite of these things, but because of them. As much as I like Tycho's music, it's lack of standard deviation of quality means that it lacks this personality. I have similar issues with Ulrich Schnauss and with The Field.

But don't get me wrong: there's a place for this. Sometimes (especially after a particularly mentally taxing day), this sort of middle-of-the-road music is what I need. There is a place in the ecosystem for these artists. And they should by all means continue striving for improvement and all of that. My point here is that I've been wrestling with what has been bothering me about this, and I think I finally put my finger on it.

[Dpek]

Well said!

[zero]

Different strokes I guess.

 

I've listened to this album several times and can't stop liking it more. Yes it's a bit sugary. Yes it's got that pre-fab nostalgia vibe that seems to accompany all his work. But the dude can write a melody. These are the warmest, rubberiest synth tones he's managed yet and the guitar is great. It reminds of me some of my favorite Tortoise and GY!BE but with admittedly less variation. This album is easily an 8/10. Some of it is just plain beautiful.

 

I'm glad you came around. I remember you were one of the originators in the Tycho hatewave of 2004, Mr. Tasty!

[Redruth]

musical fluoxetine hydrochloride

[Alzado]

OK, here's where I am in my thinking about Tycho at the moment. First, I must acknowledge that I completely agree with the concern that some WATMMers have already mentioned about the "middle-of-the-road"ness of his releases, including the latest one. It's the same issue I have with Ulrich Schnauss, whom I frequently see mentioned in the same contexts. I think that's an appropriate relationship, and I think it's a fair point of criticism. I think that part of the issue is the lack of offensiveness. He's just inoffensive. Now, usually that is considered a good thing, but I think that when it comes to art, it's both a point of detraction and an advantage. Every track that I've heard by Tycho is, at the very least, "nice". At it's best, it's "good/great". But his style is such that the music doesn't exceed that, for whatever reason. I was thinking about some of the artists I would rank above Tycho, and I think I've detected a pattern. Consider Aphex: his body of published work tends to have a higher standard deviation of quality. After hearing some of his tracks, I would scratch my head and think "What the fuck?!" Sometimes I would be genuinely embarrassed to play those tracks around my friends. However, some of his other tracks were so mind-bendingly good that I would have to pop in the CD or tape anyway. Then when those other embarrassing tracks would play, and everyone in the room is looking at me like, "What the fuck, man?" I would have to explain: but listen to this other track--it's worth it. And they would usually agree. Now, after many repeated listens (I usually have to listen to entire albums, not just individual selected tracks), I have come to appreciate those silly or just WTF type tracks: the good ones used to justify the stupid ones, but after a while, I could start to see how the stoopid ones fit into the greater picture, and what I used to perceive as ugly actually began to add to the beauty. I have similar issues with BOC (some of their samples are either cheesy or way fucking creepy) and Plaid (sometimes they seem too goof around a bit too much, but I've come to love them for that). But their discography has a *personality*, not in spite of these things, but because of them. As much as I like Tycho's music, it's lack of standard deviation of quality means that it lacks this personality. I have similar issues with Ulrich Schnauss and with The Field.

But don't get me wrong: there's a place for this. Sometimes (especially after a particularly mentally taxing day), this sort of middle-of-the-road music is what I need. There is a place in the ecosystem for these artists. And they should by all means continue striving for improvement and all of that. My point here is that I've been wrestling with what has been bothering me about this, and I think I finally put my finger on it.

 

Sorry bud, but I think it's weird that you would be embarrassed by music. Are you afraid of people thinking you're a freak? Maybe you hang out with the wrong people. Or maybe you're using the word embarrassed to describe something else like confusion or the feeling of being challenged.

 

 

 

Different strokes I guess.

 

I've listened to this album several times and can't stop liking it more. Yes it's a bit sugary. Yes it's got that pre-fab nostalgia vibe that seems to accompany all his work. But the dude can write a melody. These are the warmest, rubberiest synth tones he's managed yet and the guitar is great. It reminds of me some of my favorite Tortoise and GY!BE but with admittedly less variation. This album is easily an 8/10. Some of it is just plain beautiful.

 

I'm glad you came around. I remember you were one of the originators in the Tycho hatewave of 2004, Mr. Tasty!

 

 

Yeah, no doubt you're right. To be fair, he used to ape BOC a lot more directly, right on down to his album art and track titles. But he's distanced himself from all of that, musically and otherwise.

[apriorion]

I'm not afraid of anything. I was describing something that would happen a long time ago (mid '90s). Anyway, try imagining playing something like AFX "Analogue Bubblebath 3" for your grandma, and it gets to track 12. It's not about being challenged; rather, there are some contexts where people (like your grandma) will say "What the fuck, man?" or "This is the kind of shit you enjoy?" It's not a big complex I have or anything. Now that I think about it, I think you are getting sidetracked by something in my post that wasn't central to my main point. I actually like these weird little moments in albums like AFX "AB3". Nevermind.

[sheatheman]

i love that weather jazz (the host-esque) freakout-interlude on Spectre from 1:35-2:15