Customer Reviews

Again (Bonus Dvd)

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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album just came out of nowhere. Hailed as 'the next big thing' by the media (which usually spells creative disaster for an artist), Colder thankfully did prove to be a superb artist and he has made an excellent album.

Sounding like nothing else this year, or even previous years for that matter, 'Again' stands out as something special in an uninspired market.

One thing I liked about it especially was that critics found it hard to classify it into any musical genre. Good enough for them, why does everything have to be placed into a 'genre' and classified!

Musically though it is really special. The opener 'Crazy Love' is wonderful, a horn-type synth motif backed by an early 80's type guitar line, it evolves into a forboding track. Try listening to it in the dark, it gives a feeling of almost hallucinationagenic imagination. You can let your mind run free to this music.

Elsewhere there is the dub-tinged 'One Night in Tokyo' is a solid track, 'Version' is all building guitar noise into a sublime percussion-led track and the song 'Colder' itself is very Cabaret Voltaire-ish and good for it too.

If you're looking for something that little bit special or out there from the rest, try this out. The best I can do to tell you what it is like is to say that it's a mix between new wave, dub, punk, electronica and pop. I told you it was hard to describe! I don't like comparing it to other group's work, because I feel that would lessen the creative edge that went into these songs.

Last year Interpol was plagued by a never-ending comparison to Joy Division. Fans of the band, and the band themselves, have heard way too much of this. To some extent, this topic is still ongoing. For Interpol, though, the weight is about to be lifted off their shoulders by European solo artist, Marc Nguyen. To say Colder reeks of Joy Division is not only an understatement, but probably the only way to fully describe what Again sounds like. It's becoming more and more apparent that maybe there was a lot more to the early 80's post-punk movement than we all thought. There's an ever-growing list of bands trying to jump on the eighties train, but Colder may be one that has nailed this sound with greatest of ease.

The opening track, "Crazy Love," is so in touch with the early Factory Records days, that one could possibly argue that it's the long lost brother of an early New Order album. By "One Night in Tokyo," however, I began to be a little let down by the sudden change of paths. The song takes on a dub reggae approach and really shies away from a good thing. Needless to say, it heavily burdens the cohesion of Again and, quite truthfully, hurts the overall possibility of it being one of the year's best albums. "Shiny Star" begins to slowly pull Again back to its original idea. With "Silicone Sexy," Nguyen showcases yet another band that has influenced him by way of no-wave pioneers, Suicide. Not until you hear two of the better songs on the album, "Where" and "The Slow Descent," do you truly realize that this is a great album and sounds exactly like every record you loved from the period of its influences.

Again is probably one of the most derivative albums I've ever heard. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. At times I was kind of surprised that Nguyen would make such obvious nods to his favorite bands, yet once I was able to get past this I began to accept it as an album that came out in 1980 rather than focusing on the fact that it just hit shelves several weeks ago.

Colder stays true to their band name on AGAIN, their debut for the consistently underrated Output label. A combination of chilly 80s synth-pop with some surprising elements (like dub on "One Night in Tokyo"), AGAIN shows us that ten years just aren't enough for a good decade. Luckily, Colder draws from some of the better influences: "Crazy Love" has the sadness that permeates some of New Order's early tracks. But the predominant mood is one of disaffection; a "we're too cool to have emotions" feel. "Shiny Star" is slightly peppier, but still retains that glossy sheen; "Version" is a sound collage that helps break the mold of what's come before. "Silicone Sexy" has an atavistic groove to it that loses a bit of the rawness when the non-sexy vocals come in. But the closing tracks, "This River" and "Colder" manage to inject a bit more feeling into their veins. While Colder certainly has the chill part down, maybe next time, they can warm up a little.

Each song starts off with a basic beat and a cheezy synth rhythm, and then proceeds to basically loop for about 5 minutes... Occasionally another subtle but innefective layer will be added, and sometimes the songs will feature some repetitive lyrics such as "I feel as old as this river" or "on the road to heaven, holy road to heaven, holding hands, together, crazy crazy crazy crazy in love." These lyrics will be sung monotone and reapeated at least a hundred times. Putting this music on as background music makes everything feel boring, while trying to dedicate your attention to it feels like the musical equivolent to Chinese water torture. Everything on this recording sounds like it was made on 15 year old equipment by somebody who doesn't know how to use it.The beats sound like they were punched into a drum machine and never CHANGED. Its frankly maddening.If the guys from Air got lobotomies, they would make uninspired repetitious music like this. I haven't heard these reviews calling this "the next big thing" but I would love to hear their accompaning justification for such a preposterous claim. This is the dullest music I own.

Por lo pronto Colder pasa de el trillado abuso que interminables listas de bandas hacen de lo que suelen llamar electroclash y prefiere reivindicar a los 80's con generos como el post punk y si el mundo supo perdonar a los de Certain ratio por imitar a Joy division creo que este sujeto frances ya tiene asegurado su merito. Ademas el album sabe a muchas otras cosas como a Kraut rock, incluso ocupa algo de Dub y como plus regala un par de videos minimalistas en un dvd que se agradece como detalle. La voz es gentil y estilizada y el sonido atmosferico que promete envolver. Son mas que galos pretendiendo sonar ingleses y sin duda mas que un refrito.