Customer Reviews

Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've never written a review here before, but this album deserves it. I've been loving it in mp3 form for a while now, and I just picked up the domestic release yesterday. While the bonus disc may not warrant a new purchase for those who already have the import, it has some nice tracks. Those of you who don't own this album now, do yourself a favor and check it out. After you've heard a few tracks, you should know if it's your kind of thing or not. For sampling, standout tracks (in my opinion) are "America," "Run Into Flowers," and "Gone."

I personally find this album to contain some of the most beautiful, invigorating, and breathtaking music around This fact is especially remarkable when one considers the decidedly electronic aspects of obvious drum machines and buzzing synths. Merging these aspects with wholly organic samples and droning electric guitar, M83 makes some great music. Stunning climaxes abound, and the quiet that follows them is just as awesome.
I've read that this sounds like music for outer space travel. I have to agree, though listening to this album lends a touch of the fantastic to any setting.

"Dead Cities..." is definitely one of the best albums of 2003. And now it's affordable in the states as well. Don't miss it.

This album is perhaps one of the best albums of the year. There is a song or 2 for everyone. Some songs sound like the soundtrack to things happening around you. My friend played a couple of tracks for me late one night and I was hooked on the real nice soundscape created by all the sounds and drowned out vocals. I couldn't find something or someone to compare it to. The album is amazing. Its chilled and dark. It takes you on some journey and in the end you don't want to comeback. You want to stay out there and hear the music forever.

If you have ever heard of Ulrich Schnauss and have bought one of his cds, then I suggest you get this one..it has a similar vibe, dreamy synth pads, lush strings, etc...This is one of my favorite cds of 2004. Favorite songs are:

1. Gone-AMAZING!
2. On A White Lake, Near a Green Mountain-so smooth......!
3. Unrecorded-Synths with some distorted guitar(I think)..GREAT!
4. In Church.

Bascially most all the songs are pretty good to great...only one or two are weak in my opinion.

Get this now, if you enjoy lush/melodic electronic music.

I have read review after review about how AMAZING this cd is...
and you know what? THEY ARE RIGHT! This cd blew me away! I first
heard them on the closing song, first disc of James Lavelle's
Global Underground: Romania (James Lavelle / UNKLE check him
out!)and loved "Run into Flowers". M83 IS NOT DANCE MUSIC THOUGH. Not alot of beats but beautiful layers of synths and angelic vocals, even dare I say, "Pink Floydy" at times,(definately NOT CHEESY, I promise).
If you dig what German producer Ulrich Schnauss is doing these days (last song on Sasha's Revolver cd if you didn't know)then you will dig these stargazers / shoegazers. M83 is even named after
a galaxy (not a motorway). Buy it and close your eyes and absorb... no need to go to a planetarium..."Ladies and gentlemen,
we are floating in space"...

Picked it up at a whim, and enjoyed the great moody piles of ambience layered on top of each other. Hey Melzer, show me what you cooked up in GarageBand in a weekend :) Is it on melzermedia.com? Oh wait.. that's a parked domain. I don't get the references to My Bloody Valentine at all, no comparison. Overall great sampling and production on this one, better than Before the Dawn Heals Us IMO. Check it out.

I love this cd. If you have the chance to see M83 live, do it! I saw them a few weeks ago and was totally blown away. I was expecting another boring electronic show but these guys actually played their instruments and in a way that reminded me of Ride in the early 90's. Comparisons to Ride and MBV are apt, however they have a sound that is all their own. 2 thumbs up!

It begins with a static lull; out of it emerges a wall of 80's synths and a majestic wash of minor chords. They come into stately focus when a slow, steadily processed beat comes into the mix; on top rides a simple, wailing melody... The sound is absolutely huge; it seems every frequency your speakers produce are being utilized. Cue the My Bloody Valentine-like guitar feedback squalls, and your virtually swimming through sound...

Of course, I'm describing the fifth track of the album, On a White Lake, Near a Green Mountain. A simple title that paints a simple scene. Two colors, two objects; clarity and beauty. It's one of my favorite tracks on the album. These instrumental, layered symphonies invoke a similiar, albeit more emotional clarity. Still, my opening description could of matched a number of songs on this release. Their sonic palette remains static throughout, and each track is a variation of the same theme, here 3 minutes, there 5 minutes, and so on. It's not that the melodies aren't memorable or distinctive, it's that the melodies are so very basic and completely devoid of subtlety. 0078h, another one of my favorites, is one of the standout tracks, but the best point of comparison for it is the Legend of Zelda theme from the original NES. There simply isn't a whole lot there. Each track tickles your brains' pleasure center, but rarely your intellect.

Don't get me wrong- this is a lovely record. But, contrary to a number of published critical raves, it's an unassuming, passive album. Draw it in and enjoy it for the moments of beauty. Just don't expect to return with the same enthusiasm after the infatuation period ends...

Listening stations in major music stores really suck. There's always some dolt who doesn't know how to use it ("SCAN HERE" is never in his or her vocabulary), or someone's playing objectively awful music with the volume at 11 so that everyone in the store can hear the decline of western civilization without ever having to leave their place in line or turn on the radio. Every once in a while, though, the accursed contraptions prove useful (and no, I'm not talking about seeing whether or not the string tribute to Evanescence is a joke or not). M83's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is one of the very, very few albums that's bought me hook, line, and sinker solely from a 30-second clip of one of its songs.

This record was released in 2003 under the French electronic label Gooom, but was only available as an import until July of this year. Re-released in a shiny, new, (and most importantly) expanded edition in North America through Mute, I found a copy and immediately bought it after previewing it on a Borders listening station. If you're familiar with my relatively conservative buying habits, that alone should speak volumes about this consistently amazing album's sound, but if you're not one of the lucky, lucky people who has ever received a gift from me, then maybe you should just read the review.

The album's under-a-minute intro "Birds" starts things off in Boards of Canada territory, with, true to its name, birds chirping, as well as an uneasy, electronic vocal reciting, "Sun is shining/ birds are singing/ flowers are growing/ clouds are looming and I am flying," which serves as a sort of "This is your captain speaking..." monologue, preparing you for the journey ahead. From there, the album explodes into the absolutely HUGE "Unrecorded." A towering, swirling, hypnotic, shoe-gazing affair, its first few chords elicited the same sort of stunned awe that I experienced upon my first listening to Loveless. Though I may take some crap for comparing any band that isn't My Bloody Valentine to My Bloody Valentine, M83 is certainly worthy of this compliment. Layers and layers of buzzing melodies, synth strings belting out from the back, and a simple, steady drum machine all combine to create a wall of sound that Phil Spector could never have dreamed of.

After I finished listening to "Unrecorded" for the first time, I had the extreme pleasure of realizing that the album never retreads this phenomenal, mountain-moving sound. "America" starts off with quietly ominous synths and uneasy vocal samples before bursting into its crimson, chaotic, maelstrom of a midsection, overflowing with pure sound, only to abruptly hush itself and then eventually climax again. All within the space of three minutes! "Run Into Flowers," the heart of Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts, incorporates ethereal vocals, overstated (in a good way) beats, and memorably melancholic, layered synth lines into the mix to evoke a dreamy, otherworldly feeling that will stay within you long after the track's end.

Though I've only discussed a few, every track on this masterpiece is a definite highlight. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts is an album that takes the listener into an entirely separate universe for just under an hour and is ideally experienced as a whole. It is simply one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard. Buy it, pop it in your CD player, and TURN IT UP.

This record is the intersection of My Bloody Valentine, Boards of Canada, Mogwai and Air, like some global multi-layered superhighway of music. It's really that good. Lush guitars build over intricate electronics, with synths and dynamic thrown in for good measure. Few albums have a more fully realized concept executed so well. From the opening moments, the flow of this record is so completely engrossing you won't be able to turn it off. Especially with headphones on. This is a record so rich that several listens later you will still be making new discoveries. The bonus disc on this domestic version has some cool remixes, but you should get this right now because it's $14.99 instead of $30 for the import.

i have no idea how to review an album or even critically write about a group but this band (or bloke) fills my head with sound! more than anything around today and competing with the old faves! i am listening to dead cities right now and it amazes me..