Dntel
Life Is Full of Possibilities
Plug Research
2001
Rating: 8.5 toy ambulances out of 10
Dntel . Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, cause I don’t know. I do know that they produce some damn fine music. In actuality it isn’t a they – it’s a he, but he has collaborators. The he in this case is one Jimmy Tamborello, formerly of Strictly Ballroom (an amazing rock band from the mid 90’s that often got lumped in with the emo bands, but were far better than most of them). This is Dntel’s third album, and although I haven’t heard the first two, I think it would be pretty difficult to top this one. The music reminds me of Boards of Canada, u-Ziq, Oval, and some of the others out there that populate the hordes of people trying to program their way to success in the electronica/glitch pop world. Somehow, this album surpasses all of those. Part of it comes from the extra atmospheric feeling that permeates many of these songs – when listened to through headphones the sounds seem to swirl around your head, as opposed to just being sounds coming from the speakers in your ears. The main ingredient to the success of this album comes from it’s immaculate line up of guest vocalists – Chris Gunst (Beachwood Sparks, and former band mate of Tamborello in Strictly Ballroom), Meredith Figurine (of Figurine, another band that Tamborello is in), Mia Doi Todd, Rachel Haden (That Dog), and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie/All Time Quarterback). My personal favorites are the Mia Doi Todd track "Anywhere Anyone" – a dark and brooding song, at times reminding me of Bjork without actually sounding like her; and "The Dream of Evan and Chan", with Ben Gibbard, which in many ways just sounds like a Death Cab song because of Ben’s easily identifiable voice, but somehow remains it’s own entity because of Tamborello’s stellar programming. If this sort of electronic goodness floats your boat, or if you are already a fan of any of the people collaborating on this disc, you should check this out.
No comments:
Post a Comment