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 Some songs adhere to the back of your mind, years after you have last heard them. They will be there forever, no matter if you hear that song ever again. It often takes the bassline, a few vocals, or maybe the mere mention of the song's title to bring back those sonic memories. When reading about the latest release by legendary U.K. producers The Orb, I couldn't help but think of the early morning dancefloor classic track "Little Fluffy Clouds" from the 1990's. I couldn't help but to think of my friends from a much earlier and carefree time, the sunrises at the beach in the summer, the surprisingly accurate descriptions of these clouds... Those were the days; those were memories! Skip forward to the present, and we find The Orb continuing the tradition of ambient-house music they essentially created in the early 1990's. Gone are the 20- to 40- minute tracks such as "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre of the Ultraworld." Londoners Dr. Alex Paterson and co-producer Youth are the brains behind The Dream. Originally an experiment to see what happens when you slow down traditional Chicago-style house music, add synthesizers a la Brian Eno, and loop various vocal samples, The Orb literally created ambient-house music for early morning partygoers looking to slow down. On The Dream, we find the production duo continuing to explore musical territories that few dare to consider. Bouncy, poignant basslines are complemented with ambient synthesizers, a mess of traditional instruments--from acoustic guitars, glockenspiel, and tambourine--and the occasional foray into dub. Vocal samples on The Dream range from those of uplifting singer Aki Omari on the single "Vuja De" to the downright haunting, naturalistic, verdical samples in "The Truth Is..." From soulful to obscure, these vocals lay a foundation for tracks that lack actual live singing. After various label swaps and quarrels, we're happy to see the duo land on American worldbeat imprint Six Degrees. With the bulk (11 of 15) tracks clocking between 5 and 8 minutes, we hear The Orb explode with total creative freedom (without pressure from labels or studios) on this new masterpiece. Keeping an early-morning flow until the end, we hear The Dream fade into two minimal, near-beatless closing tracks. New memories are made, old memories revived, and we are left satisfied, yet yearning for more. Last week KBUT had the opportunity to interview Adrian Quesada, guitarist of Latin cumbia/funk/rock/salsa ensemble Grupo Fantasma and one-half of psychedelic, beat-driven project Ocote Soul Sounds. Check out the interview here. Let's be cliche for a minute. Life is full of twists and turns. You may be given a rare opportunity which begins as a dream and quickly turns into a nightmare, a polar twist of fate. It may be the case that you finally get the opportunity meet your favorite author, politician, or ballplayer. You know all the things you want to say. You are ready for this moment--a defining moment in your life--only to find that you become speechless when face-to-face. You blew it! Your chance to create an immortal moment has slipped by the wayside, and now you will never have that chance again! If you had the chance to do it all over again, would you? Could you?  This is how I feel as I attempt to review one of my favorite musician's latest masterpiece. i would rather run away than put myself out there for scrutiny. I may even miss the point of the record entirely; I might hear something the author never intended. I could blow. For many great opportunities in life you only get one chance, and here is the best I've got. This week, as I attempt to tackle Lie Down In The Light, the latest release by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, my fingers tremble. Lie... is the ninth proper album from Bonnie (real name Will Oldham), and the first since 2006's The Letting Go. In a pleasant change of tone, darkness and bleakness are themes largely absent here. We also find the closest move towards 'country' music that Mr. Oldham has yet created, inching further and further away from the sparse folk sounds of earlier Bonnie 'Prince' Billy works. This is also, sonically, the furthest away from his earliest micro-Americana recordings as Palace/Palace Songs/Palace Music we have heard. Often, we think of Mr. Oldham as a music-lover's musician: dependable, sturdy, consistent, yet innovative. We always look forward to his latest releases. We understand the sparseness behind records such as I See A Darkness or Master And Everyone. Yet our understanding does not translate into record or ticket sales. Creating the most accessible, upbeat (used loosely), and melodic music thus far, Mr. Oldham just may see his fanbase begin to grow. Lyrics are less literally complex than before; poetry--without need for dissection--has been created this round. A growing fanbase would be an inadvertent goal of creating this melodic album. This icing-on-the-cake may persuade others to take a bite, but it simply makes the cake that much sweeter for others. Lie Down In The Light begins with an ode to the simple life in. "There's a beach / There's a horseshoe crab / ...my brothers, my girlfriend / My mom, my dad / And me, that's all there needs to be." Is Bonnie moving past feelings of bleakness and beginning to take real pride in what he does have, letting go the laments from what he does not? "Glory Goes" is track two, and may be a snapshot into the complex, all-encompassing method of songwriting applied by an author of the highest caliber: "When I wake, when I'm sleeping / The song is a man and a woman / And everything else" as if the song is made possible by its Creator. The title track "Lie Down In The Light" may be the most commercially-viable track released by Mr. Oldham, but I doubt we'll hear this one on commercial radio. With a Ryan Adams & the Cardinals-esque feel, we hear Bonnie croon: "Why don't you lie down in the light? / ...Who's gonna hold my heart? / Who's gonna be my own, own, own?" Her denial to rejoice and bask in the light of life is maybe the bleakest reference--moving away from themes of glory, happiness, and simplicity--that Bonnie touches upon here. The closing "I'll Be Glad" shines with gospel twang as Bonnie desperately wants out of the darkness that has marked his life to this point. "...I don't want to go without you anymore / Meet me in a pillar of fire / Shade me with a big white cloud." Spiritual, yes, but not religious in a hymnal manner. Lie Down In The Light features repeat players Paul Oldham (bass) and Emmett Kelly (guitar, vox, recorder, shrooti box), and is produced by Mark Nevers of Lambcop fame. Mr. Oldham may have found his counterpart is Ashley Webber (ex- The Organs), who lends her womanly echo as the antithesis of Bonnie's gentle lull. This is a record for 2008, a year when this generation is looking to the future to see what its past-self will reflect. We consider the plight of recent years, ups and downs. We all want to step out of something we repudiate, scorn, and loathe. All we want to do is lie down in the light... </tremble> |
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