Customer Reviews

Map of What Is Effortless

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The album begins as the previous left off, blip beats that flow like a tide across your mind. Then the second song starts and surprises you with vocals. The mood continues with the blip beat background... but a smooth voice flows over it. The voice reminds me of an R&B feeling that could also be similar to the male voice in dirty vegas's work. At this point I would agree with another reviewer, that the songs do have a feel that they could be released as singles. But this isn't bad! The use of vocals adds to TTA's songs and is definitely a step in the right direction. Not only does this open up the songs, but it lets you step into a whole new world of what TTA is trying to express.
The vocals are well placed for the most part, but do occasionly over step the beautiful sound TTA produces. I also felt that occasionly the lyrics could fit TTA's style more and be edited to match the music's blip style. But these are minor arguments against a really great album for this group. I recommend buying both albums, because each one is a great work that evolves, not stagnates. I'd actually give the album 4 1/2 stars.. but since we have no 4 1/2.. 5 it is.

Why are folks so quick to put down an album that features a few vocals??? One reviewer here mentioned that they were unnecessary, but in my opinion, the vocals give an added flair to what may just sound like pedestrian arrangements. Notwithstanding the incredibly dreamy "Map of What Is Effortless" is anything but effortless in its production. Full of tight orchestrations, thumpin' basslines, innovative techniques and sensuous, oft-time melanchonic, vocals, the sophomore release from Telefon Tel Aviv is sure to be an instant classic to downtempo/IDM fans. I hadn't heard the first release from these guys, but I'm sure it's just as good if not better than this material. These guys are like a cross between Boards of Canada and Four Tet, only with vocals. Highly Recommended!!!

This new full length release is a very important new album in electronic music. Not to be missed. Its incredibly lush and full of suprises. Sometimes sweet and other times spacey, a true episodic journey through warm soulful vocals and textural clicks and washes. Its amber and red mixed with greys and charcoal. Analog keyboards reprocessed and designed into new yet somehow familiar space. Weird and unpredictable. Satisfiying yet somehow able to leave questions unanswered in a way that brings the importance of asking more questions to the surface and leaves it there to sort of...vibrate and gain momentum. Get this record immediately and make people hear it. Its the future of music. Excellent work, perfectly produced and arranged with confidence.

I admit i should not review this album. I consider Telefon Tel Aviv's first album to be one of IDM's finest moments and one of the true great albums of the new millenium. It's safe to say my expectations were high. So how do you top the perfect album? Apparently TTA believe to accomplish such a feat they have to make giant creative leaps.

The first album suceeded because it did sound so "effortless". THe music was never over dramatic or too glitchy; it was just a perfect balance of natural acoustics and experimental beat programming combined with some of the most love filled melodies ever commited to disk. Even the Immediate Action single was outstanding. This single was important in not only showing how superior TTA was from the rest of the electronic cognescenti (the over-hyped Prefuse 73 exposed his pretentiousness by trying to remix/improve an already perfect song) but the track was also important in showing the promise of the marriage of vocals with the beats. On this track the vocals were used more like a tool to enhance the melodic layers in the instrumentals.

on "Map" the songs come across as full blown pop ballads. On the vocal tracks the music is just a bed for the vocals which take dominance in the mix. Are the vocals bad? No. Damon Aaron's voice (which bears a resemblance to Craig David's) is a welcome addition. he appears on the second song, which i feel is the cornerstone of the album. So what's wrong with the album? another reviewer used a phrase which i feel sums it up perfectly; "self-aware". It's evident in the Miss Kitten style vocals of the ego centric "my week is better than your year" (sung by Lindsay of chicago Lindsay and Sombionix fame). it's evident in the overwrought tunes full of dynamic changes from tranquil melodies to crashing electronics and strings. it's evident in the attitude of the hipster crowd that attended the record release party(which actually may have been a bad first introduction to this album because intimate music does not work in a club setting). it just sounds like TTA was trying to make the most important album ever and fell short. There are still sublime moments on this album but "moments" seems like an insult for a group who raised the bar so high; every "moment" of every track on their first releases capitivated me. it hardly sounds "effortless" anymore.

Already outstanding, this new release from TTA takes them forward into a realm that is more lush, more vibrant. The addition of Damon Aaron's soulful songs and vocals adds a new twist plus add Lindsay Anderson and then the Loyola University Chamber Orchestra on other cuts--Wow, this is one CD you can spend hours listening to over and over again.

To say that TTA in using vocals to create more structured songs is very misleading; on Immediate Action the track 'Sound In A dark Room' used a whispy female vocal to accompany the signature textures of their first album. This album is a dumbed down version of FFE. The music is fairly bland, predictable, and with songs like the hasty 'My week...' and the acid jazz of 'I Lied' might make you wonder whatever happened to the forward-moving sounds of their first two releases.

Some tracks do TRY to recreate the style of their first recordings, but that's just the thing: they recreate. Nothing on the album sounds all that new or fresh, just the same old thing that so many other musicians have been doing these past years. Sure, the music is still great, but I personally feel like they just didn't try with this one, not to mention their very latest 'Remixes Compiled' just makes it seem that these guys are just selling their talents short without making anymore musical progress.

Firstly, I will only evaluate this album based on its high points, simply because they are so frequent and more picturesque than anything I have heard in music since the Art of Noise's The Seduction of Claude Debussy.
The thing Telefon Tel Aviv has been able to do so brilliantly is create, polish, and perfect a sound that is as different as it is gorgeous, and yet it remains abundant in sound and concept.
The first element that draws in attention, say, if you were flipping through a song from Map on the radio, is the elegant mastery of their signature beat sound. An enormous spectrum of traditional drums and glitchy sounds come together, weaving in and out of the tempo and melody. Most of the time, throughout the steady, down-tempo electronic music, little blips will pop out hear and there, adding an impressive level of detail that I have never heard in music before.
Coupled with their tendency to "bit crush" sounds and instruments from time to time (looping it extremely fast), the beats themselves have a powerful effect in and of themselves.
The use of a rhoades piano and an acoustic/shimmering electric guitar are common with Telefon Tel Aviv, but a few songs of Map are actually joined by a live orchestra. It is the addition of real strings when merged with the tweaked out beats that truly makes Map of What is Effortless an album of epic proportions. Nothing like this has been done so well before, and when you reach the climax of the last song (At the Edge), you'll be craving more sound from the most brilliant electronic artists of our time.
Does "My Week Beats Your Year" appeal to a crowd that might not be interested in down-tempo IDM? Sure. Are Damon's vocals reminiscent of other R&B singers? I don't see why not. Does that, in any way, take away from the ultimate appeal of the album? Not if you're into something that will raise the bar beyond anything that has been attempted in this genre before.

this album represents the next, now obvious, step in the sound of telefon tel aviv. it features the same excellent production wizardry, and is an extremely easy album to listen to. really, telefon tel aviv belong to their own genre of "electronic" music. interesting, memorable, and most important - refreshing.

First of all, I want to say this album is a step forward from there first album FFE. Alot of people think this album is trash but I beg to differ. Half of the people here are very judgemental and underground genre happy which means if an artist breaches any sort of mainstream feel, you dont like them. I personally think a broad range of all music should be accepted. You may not like it, but if the content is good why bash it? If you don't like the album because it's bad then write why its bad, not cuz it doesnt fall under your category of genre.

This is good music, and I'm basing my rating on how great this album really was. I dont listen to much to mainstream music but I do know what good music is when i hear it.

Some people have said that they do not like the vocals on this album. To those, I can see where you're coming from...but it creates a completely different atmosphere!

I Lied is a terrific example of this. The song is completely full of subtlety and feeling. The choruses are flowing, dark, soulful. The vocals might sound like R&B at first, but this is just another music source that Telefon Tel Aviv are drawing from.

What It Is Without The Hand That Wields It is another example of the completely creative genius that goes on in this album. The beginning, with low-fi piano samples and other "skipping" effects, is mind-blowing.

While this album might be, on the surface, less technically complex than Fahrenheit Fair Enough, the mood that it creates is unmatched.