Customer Reviews

Yesterday & Today

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

 

 

At first, I expected this to be a rehash of From Here We Go Sublime, which I thought was over-rated. Indeed, the first track is made strictly according to the Sublime template. The beat in "I Have The Moon..." is straightforward and conventional, and backed by a humming one-note drone. The bright keyboard fragments that open the song are very similar to the ones in "Everday." There is nothing in the composition to distinguish the song from anything on The Field's first album -- although, granted, if it had appeared on that album, it would have been one of the better songs, like "Everday" or "Silent."

But that first track makes a deceptive impression. Miraculously, Axel Willner manages to put a new spin on the old sound. The songs on Yesterday And Today have less hazy echo and more energy than the songs on Sublime. The highlight of this album is "Leave It," which uses Willner's usual drone-heavy compositional style, but hits on a brilliant idea in the form of a cold, reverberating chime that floats dispassionately above the chugging house beat. Willner then adds swaths of anthemic keyboards, which do what they always do in techno music and turn the track into a sweeping rush, a bona fide dancefloor anthem. It is twelve minutes long, but never drags. The last techno album where I could say that was Vocalcity. DJs everywhere, take note.

The second track "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" is a cover, which may explain why it departs from Willner's template more than anything else here. Most notably, it doesn't have the 4/4 house beat that Willner usually relies on. Instead, it has a curiously stuttering, machine-hip-hop sort of rhythm. Willner's patented wall-of-haze sound is present in the production on the sweeping, melodramatic strings, but the rhythm is built on manipulated piano lines. The chimes from "Leave It" show up here too, in a less prominent role.

The ending track "Sequenced" is less impressive, but still not bad. Like "Leave It," it's an attempt to give the Field sound a bit more dancefloor edge. This time, it's driven by a pattering mechanical synth that is common to some European techno (recent Solaris Heights singles are full of this kind of thing). The typical Field melodic hum (like in "I Have The Moon...") is laid over the top and sounds quite pleasant. The beat is a bit harder and more detailed than usual, which is a good touch. There is some languid variation over time. Fifteen minutes is a bit long, though -- after eleven minutes, the song changes tone and goes into a chilled-out ending, which is listenable, but not really attention-grabbing.

The structure of these songs is less fragmented compared to the first album. On Sublime, even the good songs were obviously just alternating between a couple of droning segments, without much in the way of transition. Here, the different sections blend together better.

Unfortunately, that still leaves two weak tracks on the second side. "The More That I Do" does the album a disservice as the lead single. It would have fit perfectly on the first album -- not on the first side with "Over The Ice" and "Good Things End," but on the second side with repetitive and unremarkable productions like "The Deal" and "Sun And Ice." It revolves around the repetition of a single vocal note, much like "The Deal," but the rhythm is more aggressive. This makes it sound like a broken record, which is irritating. As for the title track, it is another dancefloor production, but the compositional style repeats "Over The Ice" and "Good Things End," particularly in the way the blaring rhythm periodically congeals into a brief burst of noise. In the last three minutes, there is some relief from the rhythmic monotony in the form of a live-sounding percussion breakdown. However, the drums are accompanied by formless, generic synth waves, which makes the ending sound like an unfocused jam session.

On the whole, this album leaves a much better impression than From Here We Go Sublime. It is less monochromatic, less obvious about repeating the same ideas. "Leave It" is outstanding, a whole new level above anything on Sublime. The rest uses many of the same ideas, but often makes them sound vibrant. There's only one truly poor track, compared to the entire second side of Sublime. Still, a full third of the album's running time does suffer from monotony; it's pleasant listening, but not the IDM masterpiece Willner wants to make. The difference is that "Leave It" suggests that he's getting closer.

People need to understand that this album is amazing. I bought "From Here We Go Sublime" and I loved it, but once I started listening to "Yesterday & Today" my opinion of electronic music changed forever. The songs on this album have more plays than any song in my iTunes library by an order of magnitude. I listen to it to write, to sleep, to drive, to live. It is one of the best albums I have ever listened to. The deceptively-disappointing 1-2 opening of "I Have The Moon, You Have the Internet" and "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" gives way to a foursome of songs too amazing to describe, and they wouldn't be as amazing without the slow-build intro of the first two songs. "The More That I Know" is my favorite song of the year and one of the best tracks I've ever heard. Ever. If you purchase this album, you will not believe how many times you will want to listen to it. Music rarely gets this good.

YESTERDAY AND TODAY is a bit of a come-down for The Field after the stunning FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME. So while "I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet" and "Leave It" follow the same pattern (loops and variations), Axel Willner tries his hand at some other textures as well, like the steel pans that end the former. But he's not always successful: the vocals on his cover of The Korgi's "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" aren't bad, per se, but they are a little out of place. (Besides, NRG still has a lock on the song with their rave anthem "I Need Your Lovin'.") John Stanier from Battles comes in to co-produce the title track, and here you hear the fault lines start to crack. The track begins like a version of "The Deal" but without the oomph, and around the 2/3rds point it simply peters out, while still continuing. "The More I Do" starts off great as well, but ends, curiously, on the steel pan again. The final track, "Sequenced," just seems to go on and on, aimlessly. It's an unfortunately end to an uneven album, one with its high points as well as its low points, definitely.

Yesterday and Today is the second full-length album by The Field, aka Alex Willner of Sweden. This album continues the minimal techno style of his debut, From Here We Go Sublime. Willner's songs border on ambient, but below the soothing tones and light drum beats are very complex songs which become more apparent on every listen. On the opening track, "I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet", Willner builds to a crescendo which doesn't strike you until the very end, and never really comes to fruition. The songs of this album evolve, and unless the listener is playing close attention it's hard to put a finger on just how that is happening. This album is enjoyable both under the microscope as well as as from a distance, where one can allow the somewhat far away beats and tones carry you from one place to another. The simplicity and lightness of the songs do not take away from the intensity, which never lets the music slip too far away as to be forgotten.

Although some dismiss him as a sort of one-trick pony, Axel Wilner no doubt broke through with his debut full-length From Here We Go Sublime and pretty much didn't slow up after it was released, putting out an iTunes-exclusive epic 4 track album under commission and touring all over the world. His sample-clipping style hovered somewhere between ambient and dance music and I personally found it to be invigorating, even though it was essentially trance lite.

Following almost exactly 2 years on the heels of that debut album is Yesterday And Today, and while it plays out almost like you'd expect for a second album, it has more than enough stunning moments to give it the feel of another solid body of work. Oddly enough, the album is even receiving a co-release in the United States on the rapidly-expanding Anti label (home of Tom Waits, Nico Case, Bob Mould and others), so Kompakt no-doubt thinks that this one can chip into the consciousness of the world even more.

The main thing that second albums usually do is find artists shaking up the formula just enough so that people won't completely nail them into a corner, but not enough that they're going to alienate fans of their past work. To that end, this 6 song effort succeeds, throwing in a couple nice tricks while offering up more jaw-droppingly gorgeous electronic music in other places. As one might guess from the lack of total tracks, the overall length of cuts is much longer this time out, with only a single one clocking in at under 8 minutes and a hefty average of over 10. The unfortunately-titled "I Have The Moon, You Have The Internet" kicks things off with a slow build of the familiar looped samples, taking forever to get going before it splashes into a dew-covered morning about halfway through and doesn't slow down.

The follower of "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime" is one of the curve balls, a cover that finds Wilner slowing down what was once a British pop song into an ultra-white, almost R&B style number that's gorgeous at times but feels just a bit on the long side.

After that, though, the switch flips and "Leave It" drops as what is easily one of the better tracks on the album. Running 11 minutes in length, it's relentless out of the gate as choir samples, bells, and a super juicy bassline push things forward.

On paper, "Yesterday And Today" sounds like another probable barn burner (with John Stanier of Battles on drums), but it actually plays out much more gently, with the usual short wisps and impeccable programming wafting to a gentle crescendo before Stanier adds some crisp crackling and a few good rushes. Instead, it's the album-closer of "Sequenced" where Wilner completely strays from his usual sound, veering off to inhabit a dense, winding analogue cut that sounds something like Studio crossed with Lindstrom. I'm not sure if it's the hint of a new direction or just a stab at something different, but it certainly closes the release on a high note.

So, while Yesterday And Today definitely ventures into some new territory and stumbles just a bit in a few places, none of the issues are cause enough to detract from the strength of the album as a whole. If you enjoyed his first, this is another well-crafted album of electronic music that stretches out with a bit more range.

(from somethingexcellent.com reviews)

Yesterday and Today works better through headphones than in the club. You'd get too many people transfixed, just staring out into the middle distance. But, like a Towers of Asia record, that's what makes it such a powerful experience to listen to on your own.

Simply genius.

Axel does it again.

A totally unique perspective.

How do you top the wonderful, "From here we go sublime"? Answer: You don't.
Here's a rundown:
"I have the moon, you have the internet": A too long piece that goes nowhere. It's little more than a dull musical cell that repeats without variation.
"Everybody's got to learn sometime": A piece that sounds like chill. Good for late night shoegazing but doesn't sound at all like The Field.
"Leave it": Ok, here we are back in Field territory. One of my favorites on the album.
"Yesterday and Today": A dull piece that is ruined by a detour into live drumming contributed by Battle's percussionist. What is this junk? Smooth jazz?
"The more that I do": The Field back in form with another good one.
"Sequenced": fifteen minutes of meandering junk. Filler.
"Over the ice": a song from the first album recorded live. Let me get this straight. Axel performs with a laptop and samples. How can it be live? He doesn't play any instruments. I guess they mean he turned on his computer in public and let them listen.
Overall, a disappointment. Download "Leave it" and "The more that I do." Save the rest of your money. There are no stunners here, no stand-outs along the lines of "Paw in my face" from the first album. Could easily have been just another album from the Kompakt label. Some people said that the first album was a lucky accident. They might have been right.