Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lights Out Asia - Tanks and Recognizers (2007)

This album is pretty rad. I'm drawing a bit of a blank as far as accurate descriptions go, but the music here is a pretty blend of ambient shimmer, simple electronic beats, delayed guitar, and chill piano. It's one part Boards of Canada, one part pop-ambient, and a smidge of reminiscence. The sound is warm and endearing, evoking quiet introspection alongside pleasant memories.

There is a catch, however. In a few of the songs, slightly awkward singing that just misses the interesting mark show up to ruin the moment. Imagine sitting in the shade of a tree, thinking about some nice event from your childhood with your eyes closed. Pretty nice, right? Then your friend sneaks up on you and cock-slaps you in the face. Now, that would probably cause more discomfort in most of you than the vocals here do, but it has about the same effect. Ditch these as soon as possible, plz. Thankfully they usually show up at the ends of the songs, so you get a good amount of pleasure and can go ahead to the next one.

I dig this, I really do, but it would be so much more thoroughly enjoyable if there were no vocals.

Verdict: Win [4/5] (it's the blemishes that make things unique, right? Right?)

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