Customer Reviews

Angel Milk

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The group best known for 2001's dreamy hit Breathe returns with a spectacular followup to their debut Genetic World. Angel's Milk is everything Genetic World is and more. Continuing to mesmerize with dreamy melodies and breathy vocals, the group also infuses their songs with string elements and even creates some old world Broadway-like charm on the gorgeous Love's Almighty. Not surprisingly, it's also hemled by vocalist Angela McCluskey who continues to weave magic into Telepop's songs.

The album also sees collaboration with Deborah Anderson and Mau. On the first single, Into Everything, Anderson provides the fluffy dream-like vocals to the Breathe-sequel with aplomb but it's really vocalist Mau who steals the show with a deep lush voice on tracks like Anything, Last Train To Wherever and Hollywood on My Toothpaste, especially the rap on the latter two tracks are dripping with great sensuousness.

A bonfide sequel worthy of its prdecessor.

I, like many others, had bought their first album based on hearing and loving the single "Breathe." And, like many others, was quite disappointed in the rest of the album. Nothing else on it lived up to "Breathe."

For whatever reason, though, when I spotted Angel Milk on the shelf in the cd shop, I decided to give them another chance. And I am so glad I did. The band made a giant leap from mediocrity to greatness. I liked it from the first listen, but it was when I listened to it loudly in surround that I REALLY realized how great it was. The production is amazing. The most obvious comparison to be made in my opinion is to Bjork's Vespertine. Angel Milk utilizes a very similar concoction of "microbeats" with surreal vocals, and even includes some music box sounds that are prevalent in Vespertine. The other somewhat obvious comparison is Massive Attack, with its chill trip-hoppy vibe and mellow urban vocals by Mau on a handful of tracks. There is the made-to-order first single (and "Breathe" offspring) "Into Everything," which is safe and pleasant. And there's the surprising stand-out should-be hit "Love's Almighty," which indeed sounds like a lush, orchestral Shirley Bassey classic. I LOVE this track.

The only negatives to the album are the last few tracks. The third to last track sounds like an outro, but is followed by an instrumental closer that ends with a few minutes of silence. Then the final track comes in as brief spoken-word mumbo-jumbo and ends in fifteen minutes of silence. Very annoying. I don't understand why artists choose to do these things that interrupt the flow of an album. The last track should not have even been included, and the other two should have been combined into one track.

Regardless of these, the album still kicks butt. A very pleasant surprise, and one of my favorites of the year.

"When love come calling
don't look back
When love comes calling
don't look away..."

Laid-back breathy vocals deliver meaningful lyrics within a scattered landscape that smoothes into silky streaming sways and relaxing rhythms. The hypnotic elements invite you into a landscape of pop friendly electronica where human emotion and machine magic create a romantic space. With enough excitement in the energy to keep your attention, Telepopmusik's chill-out tracks are still easy enough to listen to late at night.

"All we need is peace of mind..."

As you mellow "Into Everything" there are intriguing ripples of sound and butterfly wings fluttering in sweet melodies that seem to echo inside caves by oceans. I love the visual images of falling from clouds.

"Love's Almighty" has flutes and classical piano and then turns jazzy. You may think you are hearing something from a classic movie where lovers dance in and out of shadows and light with perfect form.

Sitar-like sounds, bells and rap mix within an intriguing world music escape in Last Train to Forever. Close is smooth and chaotic all at once but maintains a low profile. Swamp has an edgy frightening quality as if something will jump out at you at any moment. Dark and mysterious, it turns jazzy.

Nothing's Burning starts out with the same tentative steps and relaxes into orchestral grandeur. Ambushed has an otherworldly mood with rockets taking off into outer space and angelic voices. This wakes you up a little, just in case you were thinking you would be falling asleep at this point. It ends almost as quickly as it begins. Hollywood has deep waves of sound reverberating through cavernous underground spaces with rap in places. Tuesday sounds like a waterfall and an outdoor choir, one of my favorite tracks that almost ends too soon.

Another Day starts with a humorous message telling us we are now on our own and "good luck." Birds, waterfalls and stars falling from the sky seem to indicate we have arrived at a tropical location. I kept waiting for something to happen...something to happen. Silence. Should I be meditating? I feel vibrations in my headphones as if someone is singing silently. No, I have not unplugged my headphones, it really is silence. lol 15 minutes is about flying, but I'm not exactly sure what happens after track 13, because pretty much nothing is happening.

The variety within a basic framework of stabilizing sounds provides heightened interest and listening to the entire CD, you can enjoy each artistic expression without having to control your environment or skip over tracks. Simply put this CD in and relax into a nighttime mood. I get it, we are supposed to be falling asleep at the end. How cute. The CD stays with you until you drift off into dreams.

~The Rebecca Review

Telepopmusik gives us more dreamy fluff without the annoying rap filler this time. Yay! If you dug Breathe, Love Will Damage Your Health or Yesterday Was A Lie from their first release then you'll love this. The saving grace is there aren't any junky rap tracks on here like Let's Go Again or Da Hoola that clutter up the dreamy trip hop ness of their downtempo sound. With the exception of the Mau tracks that have an annoying spoken word/rap quality to it, Angel Milk is a solid and consistent disc. Highly recommended, ultimately satisfying and definitely better than Genetic World. Three and a half stars.

It is rare occurance indeed that a CD this good comes into my life; from an industry that spends most of its time and money promoting sub-par pop musaak no less. Angel Milk is truly miraculous.

The first track, Don't Look Back, is alone worth the price of the entire CD but each subsequent track has their own unique appeal. Such a wonderful use of strings, solid vocals and the rich, resonant musical themes throughout the CD are enthralling.

If you like groups such as Massive Attack, Lemon Jelly or Bent then you will probably enjoy Angel Milk as well.

More like 3.5 or 3.75 stars...

I have to say that I was fairly disappointed when I bought "Genetic World" after hearing "Breath" all over the place. I just really expected to be completely blown away. While I did like a couple other songs on "Genetic World", such as "Smile", there was still plenty to dislike, for me anyway. I found the "Einstein's Brain" interludes alone very annoying and distracting. That said, I am still very happy that I purchased that CD. The two edits of "Breath" and "Smile" salvaged that disk for me.

I am happy to report that I was much happier with the offerings here on "Angel Milk". I loved "Don't Look Back", "Anyway", "Into Everything" (of course), "Love's Almighty" as well as a few others. Very sweet, dreamy and smooth, like one might expect from the title of the album. The vocals provided by Deborah Anderson and Angela McCluskey were flawless, as ususal. Deborah's voice is a favorite of mine.

The rest of the CD, unfortunately, felt pretty random and unfinished somehow. Mau's rap/spoken vocals just felt really out of place and I could have done without any of the tracks that he fronts. My opinion on this seems to be in the minority here, so maybe I am missing something.

I would recommend this CD to any Telepopmusik fan. If you are not one of their ardent fans, however, you may find this somewhat hit-or-miss as I did, in comparison to the other reviewers here.

Do I know you from somewhere? Aren't you those people who produced "Breathe" from the Misubishi commericial, toured with critically acclaimed shows, and produced the introduction to Janet Jackson's "Damita Jo" album? Yeah! That's it! That great band who introducted me to the world of Trip-Hop. I missed you.

Angel Milk is another gem from Telepopmusik and proved to the media that they can top the dance hit "Breathe." With the addition of one new guest vocalist, Deborah Anderson (Daughter of Jon Anderson from the rock band Yes) and keeping the regular Angela McCluskey and Mau, the band managed to keep its unique solid sense of style and meaninful lyrics.

Don't Look Back - I would buy the album even if this was the only track on the CD. It is amazing. 10/10

Stop Running Away - Deborah Anderson creates almost cult sounding vocals while telepopmusik gives a soft ambient like instrumental. 8/10

Anyway - WHAT?! Mau is singing?! And he sounds good at that! Telepopmusik's instrumental drifts into left field alternative rock while keeping strictly in the lines of Trip-Hop. Mau's lyrics show devotion to a signifigant other in that he would "break every single rule for you" ..or at least he'd try to. This is a perfect track! PERFECT. 10/10

Into Everything - The first single and great choice. I don't like the instrumental part at the chorus as I feel it is too complicated but it is still very nice! This song would've been great even without Deborah Anderson's vocals but she adds a special spark to it. 9/10

Love's Almighty - I don't like this one as much but I do like when Angela McCluskey "starts it again" it's a great build up. 8/10

Last Train to Wherever - Mau's classic spoken word and rapping style shows itself on this track as Telepopmusik creates a mysterious instrumental. 9/10

Brighton Beach - Perfect. Period. 10/10

Close - More than perfect. 11/10

Swamp - This track is okay. Telepopmusik did a great job at incorporating organic instruments in with electronic style. It's not really my type of music though. 8/10

Nothing's Burning - Nothing's Burning is nothing special. 6/10

Ambushed - A very interesting interlude-like song. Deborah Anderson does great with her adlibing vocals. 9/10

Hollywood on my Toothpaste - See Last Train to Wherever 9/10

Tuesday - What?! Mau is singing again!? With the help of Deborah Anderson?! NO WAY!!! Telepopmusik provides an amazing precussion. 10/10

Another Day - Ahh...it's like a sequal to L'incertitude D'heisenberg, the instrumental track on the first album "Genetic World." IT IS A REAL SHAME THIS SONG IS SO SHORT. It could've easily beaten L'incertitude D'heisenberg. 9/10

15 Minutes - ..A nice outro..I think..

Beautiful, and I would say that every single song is good. It doesn't leave you panting for breath, but it's not supposed to; you're supposed to float. And by listening to "Angel Milk," you do.

This is my first review, and this is a piece of music worth commenting on & recommending. A wonderful, ethereal and thoroughly mesmerizing follow-up to "Genetic World" that is also built around a theme: two lovers running away together from a "loser town". Not exactly a unique theme, but it links all the music together into a whole, and makes listening so much more rewarding than listening to bunch of unrelated songs. "Angel Milk" is more chilled than "Genetic World", more relaxing&romantic, and although at first I was a little disappointed at the lack of more challenging material after a few listenings I'm glad it's not just a repeat. Don't get me wrong, if you think "Genetic World" is brilliant (and I do) you'll flip over this as well, but in a more relaxed manner. [And if the only thing you've heard from "Genetic World" is "Breathe" then you're missing out big time: the rest of the album is just as good.] Having three singers with such different styles really adds to the enjoyment (as much as I like her style I don't think I could take 15 songs from Angela in one shot). Don't walk to buy this, run.

"Anyway" and "Into Everything" are the only tracks worth your time, and they are brilliant gems unto themselves.

Unfortunately that makes this album the musical equivalent of casting pearls before swine.

The other tracks are boring, uninspired cliches that just aren't interesting on any level.

Thankfully Amazon allows single track MP3 purchases. Do yourself a favor and don't buy the entire album. It's just not worth it.