luomo-vocalcity

It's been a while since I've had a good listen to the album...I do remember seeing Luomo and Isolee play at Sonar after the release of the album some years ago and being rewired from total jungilist to something a lot more open to techno/house...and this was after a long period of ambivalence about these latter sounds

simon silverdollar said:

ok so i finally got this one on the re-release. and have to say...i'm a quite disappointed. nowhere near as life-changing as i expected. which got me thinking: is it cuz i've been subject to 4 or whatever years of post-vocalcity romantic minimal techy house? kompakt, trapez, lawrence etc. how do other people think that it stands up to what it led to/influenced?

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Yeah i totally agree. 'Vocalcity' represented the sorta end of heroin-house, now its a dull, souless, cliche, like Brit-Pop and the bands spoofed on about in that book 'Blissed Out'.

But some of the neo-80s Human-League-Dare-era bass programming is truly, truly sublime and ass quaking to this day.

I remember it getting quite a lot of props at the time but was more into Vladislav Delay so it felt like a commercial foil. When I heard it was getting re-released it was like, OK, makes sense because it's so much like stuff that followed afterwards. But because it happened in v. much isolation at the time you didn't think it was breaking new ground, more that it was an offshoot that no one would follow (while nice and groovy - the Finnish guy whose name escapes me always had a way with the funk.)

Personally for me when it comes to click house etc it was the Farben stuff that really made the genre separate from the Basic Channel stuff it came from - it was like all the glitch IDM, but put in a 4/4 house straight jacket. Ultimately from there, Clicks 'n' Cuts and then Kompakt's releases etc. were a logical progression, I think.

This revisionism will not stand!!!

Simon keep listening, it's an utterly amazing record but you have to let it get inside of you. Listen to "Synkro" and "She-Center" as loud as you possibly can.

I can relate to the "commercial foil" comment. I was a big fan of Vladislav Delay's 20 minute ambient gurglers and a bit of a fan of the icy techno bits he did (eg. that Max.Ernst 12"), so when all this shiny shiny house came along I was really thrown. I think I heard the first 12" without knowing it was him and it took a couple more listens to piece together the common threads. Seems silly now.. I've got a 12" on Vertical Form that has a remix he did .. Pub, from memory? that really isn't far off the Luomo template, just a bit less beat-oriented.

This all leaves me a bit unsure of how it was received by people who were bigger house / lesser ambient fans than I... most of the press I read at the time seemed a bit like those who think Squarepusher made jungle interesting or Anticon made hip-hop inventive.

But hey, I love love love it. I think it's (still) got a really distinctive sound. Although lots has come after it that obviously picked up on some of the tricks he was pulling, the tracks evolve in ways that most don't. Like new bass lines and shifting chords and all kinds of carry on which you shouldn't be able to get away with in such a doggedly minimal format. Not to mention all the little one-off weirdo noises and outbursts amidst the housey deepness. Yummo.

michael said:

But hey, I love love love it. I think it's (still) got a really distinctive sound. Although lots has come after it that obviously picked up on some of the tricks he was pulling, the tracks evolve in ways that most don't. Like new bass lines and shifting chords and all kinds of carry on which you shouldn't be able to get away with in such a doggedly minimal format. Not to mention all the little one-off weirdo noises and outbursts amidst the housey deepness. Yummo.

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Yes yes yes! The record works so well because it somehow takes all the basic channel/chain reaction dubbed out hazy bliss and without removing a single element from that formula turns everything into super sensual classic house music. Oh and the basslines, not enough can be said about the basslines, so huge and so lithe, shifing around subtly and yet always totally enveloping you. And the vocals! I don't think vocals have ever fit so well into the micro/minimal/glitch house paradigm, most other instances are always trying far too hard to be house or pop, but the vocals on vocalcity are so beautifully restrained and smoky, so ambivilant towards their allure...


fuck i love this album.

The two tracks I highlighted, I did so because of their basslines. "Synkro" especially, it's so delectably heavy, like continental shelves engaging in frottage...

bipedaldave said:

Yes yes yes! The record works so well because it somehow takes all the basic channel/chain reaction dubbed out hazy bliss and without removing a single element from that formula turns everything into super sensual classic house music. Oh and the basslines, not enough can be said about the basslines, so huge and so lithe, shifing around subtly and yet always totally enveloping you. And the vocals! I don't think vocals have ever fit so well into the micro/minimal/glitch house paradigm, most other instances are always trying far too hard to be house or pop, but the vocals on vocalcity are so beautifully restrained and smoky, so ambivilant towards their allure...


fuck i love this album.

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on the strength of this alone, i may well go out and buy it. but if it's arse, you owe me son!

Kuma said:

on the strength of this alone, i may well go out and buy it. but if it's arse, you owe me son!

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Yeah it's a good one. It's the 'loveless' of heroin-house. ROTFLMAO! It's like the musical equivalent of when you first went to raves and saw all these sexy chicks in sexy clothes dancing sexily and you were pilling and you wanted to have like Peter North style gangbangs with them but it would never ever happen!

I mean it even influenced that scrubber Kylie Minougely, made her all sexy and chique, and if yr smart and nice enough, might be the perfect seduction music for yr next date (with a decent bottle of red too, I might add!)

Scrubber? Don't talk about my Kylie like that.

Anyhoo, have you heard the new 'The Four Quarters' album from Vlad Delay?

Its the noodliest space-jazz broadcast from the craters of the moon, ever. The dude has the most unreal timing and sense of frequency. Its the best, trippiest, most amazing shit I've heard in what feels like forever.

Couldn't believe my ears the first time I really listened to it.

Yes, really.

it is indeed worth buying if you have never heard it before.

simon silverdollar said:

ok so i finally got this one on the re-release. and have to say...i'm a quite disappointed. nowhere near as life-changing as i expected. which got me thinking: is it cuz i've been subject to 4 or whatever years of post-vocalcity romantic minimal techy house? kompakt, trapez, lawrence etc. how do other people think that it stands up to what it led to/influenced?

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yes i got this last year (found it as four white labels in a black bag) and i was equally disappointed. one great track, which misses its own tricks. but The Present Lover was quite alot worse.

i did WANT to enjoy it, but i'd heard a thousand better tracks over the previous ten years to its release pumped direct from the underground (when i woz paying attention to techno and house) theres nothing there that wasnt bettered on Fourth Floor, Nu Groove and Apexton.

Tim F said:

This revisionism will not stand!!!

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WOEBOT said:

i did WANT to enjoy it, but i'd heard a thousand better tracks over the previous ten years to its release pumped direct from the underground (when i woz paying attention to techno and house) theres nothing there that wasnt bettered on Fourth Floor, Nu Groove and Apexton.

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Apples and Oranges, innit? I love those fragile synth sounds on it and the ambient interlude between Right Wing and Tessio is great. Just the sheer epic sprawl of these tracks...and they never feel overlong. I love how the whole thing works together really well, the same aesthetic maintained throughout but with a different feel.

i love this album - i've never really played it out much, just home listening. but, i think his uusitalo album has aged better, probably because i got very very sick of force tracks toward the end of its run.

data 80... hakan lidbo what the fuck were you on? that shit makes crazy frog sound like plastikman.

WOEBOT said:

i did WANT to enjoy it, but i'd heard a thousand better tracks over the previous ten years to its release pumped direct from the underground (when i woz paying attention to techno and house) theres nothing there that wasnt bettered on Fourth Floor, Nu Groove and Apexton.

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Sigh...yet another artist I like disparaged because he's not as good as a bunch of music i've never heard.

I think this definitely relates to the too much music thread, in that for all I know you could be completely correct Woebot, but godamn sometimes it feels like such a chore to go back and check out these other artists.

Of course some other day when I'm feeling more energetic and in the mood for house, I'll probably be happy to have some artists to check in the "luomo, but better" category (which if true, will immediately become my favorite music ever ).

the randomized DSP sounds were so well tapered to the disco-house structure on Vocalcity... it has a specific sound and mood that is hard to describe, one that I don't hear on many records... I haven't played it in 3 years but I remember it mixing in many smokey after-hour nights. I think it works best between 3 and 5 AM.

but Woebot is OTM that the Present Lover was a terrible, terrible record.

the new System on Scape has vocals that work pretty well too.

I adore Nu Groove, but I don't really see what it has to do with Luomo, Matt. Unless you're just saying you find it difficult to be impressed by house generally these days.

As for <i>The Present Lover</i>, I think a small part of me died when so many people I respect came out and hated on that record.

Then I just listened to it again and remembered that I'm correct and it <i>is</i> a brilliant, lifechanging record.

I'm with you Tim