John Talabot – Fin (and a bit on house music)

I’ll admit, House music isn’t really my game. When I was younger and idealistic, I was driving in the car and I was having a chat with a mate of mine about why we were against electronic forms of music. This, if I recall correctly, came from the idea that we as musicians, believed that there was inherently more skill in knowing how to play an instrument rather than press a few buttons. Of course as I got older, I’ve come to think we might have been making a stronger argument against modern pop rather than electronica and the like.

House seems to be more important to me lately as I’ve been going to house gigs as readily as they pop up. It’s fun stuff for me. I don’t necessarily know every house act that I’ve gone to but you still get to move around and have a decent time and it’s a far better time than sitting at home. And I don’t believe it takes more or less skill than traditionally constructed music, there’s just a different formula involved. I believe creating something aesthetically pleasing can be just as hard as knowing your way around an instrument – I have over 100 guitar riffs on my phone and maybe ten of those are good, and of all the songs I’ve made while dicking around on fruity loops, none are good and I should just incinerate my hard drive to prevent anyone from hearing them.

Anyway, lets start this review.

John Talabot - Destiny feat. Pional

Runs for: 4:53

Wicked tune! Synth sounds like a freaky drip or something. 

Good to chill out to.
 

One of my criticisms is that the album as a whole is pretty inconsistent. Some of the tracks let the listener down as they drag on for a while without any amazing progressions to pick the listener up, although other tracks can completely nail it. His synth work though is pretty wicked and original – you don’t see him making the same mistake that some make and using the same samples continually (looking at you Deadmau5, stop using that fwoosh effect you tool). This guy really knows when to chuck in an extra drum or warp a note and even in some of the worse songs on the album can be picked up by this.

There’s a lot of subtle and interesting layering going on and you can really pick up something new every time you listen to it. It’s got a subtle complexity to it that’s going to warrant a lot of listens to properly understand some of the tracks – but it’s aesthetically pleasing to a point where you can still enjoy it from the first play through.

Some of it really sets a mood as well. My favourite two tracks from the album, Destiny and So Will Be Now both set a real mood in their own ways. Destiny has some excellent synth work going on with some vocal layering that comes across like some sort of wicked electro chorus, whereas So Will Be Now builds itself up around clever sampling of the vocals, throwing more and more noises into the mix subtly as the track progresses. It’s really cool stuff. Last Land is pretty clever too in its use of a orchestral sample and feeding of some of the voice through what sounds like an old microphone/record player.

As I said, while there’s a lot of cool stuff going on, some of the tracks don’t really get you there. There’s two really good songs on here, a lot of decent ones, but none that are objectively bad, just kind of let downs compared to the rest of the album. I’m hoping more of my friends get into this album because it’s got vague similarities to some of the stuff I’ve been hearing at the house gigs in Canberra, that and at parties.

Reccomended for: People who make their hands into little flippers when they dance.

John Talabot - So Will Be Now... feat. Pional

Runs for: 6:55

Another really good track. 

Uses voice layering and creates this awesome atmospheric finish.