The Field, "From Here We Go To Sublime"

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I'll be listening to this album in about five minutes. I might have something to say about it after that, but I'm not promising anything. Instead I offer you this:

resident advisor review

"I'll have to resort to pictures."

lukas, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:21 (nineteen years ago)

That's a review of the actual album to be released, of course, whereas the thread title discusses a super-secret, um...fuck.

lukas, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

We've discussed this somewhat but I can't remember where. Rolling Minimal maybe.

jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

Saucy.

I will be giving this an ear tonight or tomorrow.

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:23 (nineteen years ago)

Well I already like Field Music, so I decided I'd try "The Field". Is this just the year for bands with "Field" in their name or what?

Bimble, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:25 (nineteen years ago)

weird... i just put this on 3 minutes ago.

s1ocki, Saturday, 24 March 2007 02:38 (nineteen years ago)

this is so so so good

^@^, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:01 (nineteen years ago)

there's some discussion about it on the kompakt thread:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=44735

jackl, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

and yes, so so so good indeed.

jackl, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

Is this just the year for bands with "Field" in their name or what?

First dibs on 'Field Wolf'!

unfished business, Saturday, 24 March 2007 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

field & sebastian!

no this is very good, agreed. nothing i havne't heard before, but definitely cool -- i like the little winks and nods to 90esque trance (the broken vocals on everday sound.. actually that whole song sounds like something from a sasha set in 98, not that i'm complaing). ace. shuffles almost running.

7seasjim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

Hmm, better and better, then. I'll get to it here after listening to recent Blonde Redhead stuff (I'm supposed to be interviewing them so I figured 'okay, so I actually need to hear what they sound like these days').

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

not to add anything to this incredibly informative thread --i've kind of exhausted anything i have to say about this album...last week i wrote through like three drafts of my pfork review, which i think should be up monday -- but yes, this is just pure loveliness. but then i've always loved kompakt's "expensive cheese" nu-trance side (in the review i called digweed and tiesto the field's "spirit animals") though i totally understand why some people hate it.

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

So it's playing now -- very nice indeed, I suspect a second listen will help it fully click. This is more like an initial flipthrough knowing that I will like it even more next time through. Strongo's post is a good one, obv.; there's a perfect attractive smoothness to it that suggests how electronic music's functionality is very important in a myriad of contexts. I suppose a key word for this album is 'balance.'

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 17:58 (nineteen years ago)

(And the Flamingoes sample on the title track that closes the album = genius touch.)

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2007 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

I think all this enthusiasm is going to make me give this another try.

jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

also LOL @ everyone on blogs (particularly that chucklehead tom breihan) saying this record sampled the fugees!!

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

Serious?! Hahaha.

jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

Status is indeed not hood.

jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

tom's deer-in-the-headlights stance when it comes to dance music is always a little cringey but this was just kinda embarrassing:

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/03/the_field_techn.php

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:23 (nineteen years ago)

i mean, even if you don't know the name the flamingos, i assumed everyone knows the title "i only have eyes for you," but also how hard is it to look up a sample source, especially when every bit of pre-release hype for this album mentions it! especially considering a big part of the field's whole shtick is based on a.) sampling tiny moments and b.) slowly or eventually revealing those moments.

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

None of it ever really sounded like actual club music, like anything you could really dance to if you weren't on some expensive and exotic drug, though I've still never been to any minimal-techno club night and so maybe I should just shut up about stuff I don't understand.
Breihan OTM.

jim, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

o god!

erm i am still in awe & adoration mode when it comes to the field at their best, which is roughly half the album, which was mostly on the ep last year...i have to say the rest of it really underwhelmed me though, i just prefer the gui boratto, pantha du prince and gabriel ananda efforts this year as full-lengths.

lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

all the records came in similarly unadorned packaging with the same simple font on the covers

erm welcome to dance 12s?

lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

i think i listened to the title track 10 or 12 times in a row on the way home the other night

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince


yeah i'd agree with this

lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

i guess those moments are why i'd still rate the field album higher than pdp, if that makes any sense

strongohulkington, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

if i hadn't heard the sun & ice ep last year i probably would too, i tend to rate albums with highest highs over consistent albums which work better as albums, but they even left off my favourite track on the ep!

lex pretend, Saturday, 24 March 2007 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

Very good album but I do wish there was more stuff like "Over The Ice" - stuff that works as a dance track while still allowing the Field schtick to do its magical stuff. On the other hand my other favourite track is the title track, so perhaps its more a case of wanting The Field to play the ends against the middle more.

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

wow, this album is weird definitely has that feeling of being strangely 'important' if only in a "minor classic" way... also, I feel like I failed music class but I actually -don't- recognise most of these famous samples :/

Boomkat thinks it's going to take off with indie kids (maybe that Breihan dude is proof...) which sort of helps me frame some thoughts (humour me) I'd been having about The Field's stuff...
Touted by many as Kompakt's answer to the relative crossover success enjoyed by the likes of James Holden and Trentemoller [...] Willner taps into the same tempered-euphoria that made Ulrich Schnauss so popular

I mean, I loathe Ulrich Schnauss, am hard on the fence about Holden and thought there was barely a third of decent-not-dire material on Trentmoller's magnum opus....

And yet... this is great. Except even for ME it's really very repetitive and 4/4, almost to the point of testing the patience, but never quite getting there, and I think that tension is probably at the heart of why/how this actually *works*. Putting this into words has been on my mind since I heard that live set of theirs really. It feels like there's a BIG opening for Ableton or some kind of Ableton-esque production technique to inject life back into techno via taking a deliberately rough/crappy/slapdash approach but nobody really cracked it yet, or the people with actual skills got too hung up on glitch/IDM/forced dissonance... until now. To me this is the record Nathan Fake could have made if he'd stuck with proper (lol) beats. Also (getting back to the indie, and right now, for a second) it does a fuck of a lot more interesting things with loops than "Person Pitch" (and most indietronica, rightly, should go without mention...)

The Gui Boratto BORED ME RIGID frankly, so I'm quite surprised how much I like this right now

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:35 (nineteen years ago)

Tim F is definitely very otm (above) though,

I didn't explain that "tension" thing at all :/ something to do with trance at the most teethgrinding/rigid extreme maybe... I'll fall in this hole if I don't stop digging. gah. :(

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:44 (nineteen years ago)

pantha du prince album > field album

best field moments > pantha du prince

yeah i'd agree with this


Yep

Andy K, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

and where will the efdemin album sit in those equations??

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

even though I typed all that crap... part of me is still(!) not convinced I'm gonna care about this in two months. I wish every individual track stood out further instead of the whole lessening the impact so much (something Kompakt stuff suffers from, and yet is pretty much defined by now...)

fandango, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:12 (nineteen years ago)

The Efdemin album is good but I think it struggles to distinguish itself from the rest of the Dial sound.

Oddly i think he sounds more modern when going for a Sasha & Digweed circa Northern Exposure 2 kind of fluffy prog-house sound than when he's doing the melancholy chiming ambient house thing - I suppose the latter sounds very 2002 or something.

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

i've been listening to his last few singles a lot and to me it sounds like he's found an escape hatch from 2002-itis. more warm than "warm" though there is still chiming. chimes are underrated though.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:50 (nineteen years ago)

I like chimes; the chimes in "Lohn & Brot" are the best thing about it, pretty much, but then I'm putting "Lohn & Brot" in the Sasha & Digweed camp. On about half of the album he goes for more of that fragile weedy vibe that Lawrence does so well, and he holds his own but it makes it hard to see the album as epochal or anything.

There's certainly nothing like "Just A Track" on there.

Tim F, Sunday, 25 March 2007 02:56 (nineteen years ago)

i was kind of disappointed to not see that in the tracklist, but it makes sense.

i was at a friend's last night at he was playing the dj hell misch masch mix and we both noticed a very digweed like moment amidst the electro. i don't know which track it was, but it sounded pretty great in that context.

i am now listening to the "sun and ice" ep in anticipation of the field album. i love how he plays with glitch and volume. it reminds me of french filter house.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:19 (nineteen years ago)

and bugz in the attic weirdly enough.

tricky, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:21 (nineteen years ago)

but they even left off my favourite track on the ep!

oh.... :(

good things end, the little heart beats so fast and everyday are all very fine field moments for me, as well as just about everything else on the album. really enjoying it

micarl, Sunday, 25 March 2007 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

particularly that chucklehead tom breihan

oh man I kept laughing to myself over "chuckleheads" in the lcd soundsystem thread and now you've done it again! it's truly a wonderful word.

aaron d.g., Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:37 (nineteen years ago)

I'm looking forward to the album btw; Over The Ice was one of my most-played tracks last year.

aaron d.g., Sunday, 25 March 2007 08:41 (nineteen years ago)

My conclusion this is so far one of the cooler things I've heard from 2007.

Bimble, Sunday, 25 March 2007 09:12 (nineteen years ago)

I love it, of course (and co-co-cosign Jess's PDP comparison). It's probably the most fulfilling example of an album following up on the promise of initial singles since maybe the LCD Soundsystem debut, only it feels less cold to me, less "now we are making a proper album with proper album tracks that slot into their proper places" than LCD's did--just immensely satisfying iterations on what they do and how they do it. (Plus forget about the Flamingos--not something I say easily; "Only Have Eyes" is one of my 10 favorite singles ever--the Field source I adore most is the guitar solo from Lionel Richie's "Hello.")

Matos W.K., Sunday, 25 March 2007 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

Which track was that one again? As I mentioned my initial listen was more of a glancing one and I admit I didn't catch that.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

"A Paw in My Face", Ned.

Mark Rich@rdson, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

Thank yer.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 March 2007 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

it reminds of me filter house too, weirdly. markus popp and bangalter have a baby.

strongohulkington, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:20 (nineteen years ago)

i don't think it's wierd to think that... it's doing what basic channel did for rave to filter house

lfam, Sunday, 25 March 2007 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

Really? For me, the first time I heard it, it bored me. On repeat listens, I was caught by the subtleties.

The Reverend, Saturday, 31 January 2009 09:33 (seventeen years ago)

The Reverend OTM -- this is exactly the kind of record that gets better with repeat listens. Same goes for the Gas records, the Kompakt kompilations, that last Gui Boratto one... basically, anything on Kompakt that holds water is better over time.

ilxor, Saturday, 31 January 2009 18:25 (seventeen years ago)

Still play this all the time.

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 31 January 2009 18:51 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

this is really starting to grow on me, like what...2 years later? 3 years?

dyao, Saturday, 7 August 2010 19:22 (fifteen years ago)

great record

that being said, being an indie kid, this is the only minimal techno record I've ever heard

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 19:26 (fifteen years ago)

best use of a lionel richie sample ever?

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:34 (fifteen years ago)

only use of a lionel richie sample ever?

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:34 (fifteen years ago)

it's definitely the best use of a lionel richie sample in minimal techo

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:35 (fifteen years ago)

uh, this is the only minimal techno record you've heard, remember?

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:36 (fifteen years ago)

unless you've heard many more minimal techno records in the one-hour between those two posts.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:37 (fifteen years ago)

eminem told me nobody listens to techno, so i feel like listening to this one record has given me the authority to say whatever i want about the genre since theres nobody else around who even listens to it, thus arguably making my thoughts slightly more valuable than silence

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:38 (fifteen years ago)

actually, his comments were addressed to moby, but lets not get pedantic

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 20:39 (fifteen years ago)

Maybe you could try Efdemin, Pantha Du Prince or Michael Mayer's Immer

du mein bestie (micarl), Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:36 (fifteen years ago)

thanks! i really should. i know pretty much nothing about electronic music, as ive said before, but i thought this record was fantastic. i think i bought whatever pantha record came out in 2007 but didnt listen to it much. anyway, thanks -- i def need to investigate the genre more

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:37 (fifteen years ago)

"electronic" covers a lot of ground. it includes four-tet, i guess. his lastest is a fantastic, pulsating disc.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:45 (fifteen years ago)

i've got the follow-up from the field. the songs are so long tho (iirc), and less memorable.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:45 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, i know nothing about the various dance/electronic subgenres

i liked the first field record & most of the burial songs ive heard but thats about all that i can think of unless you count, like, thom yorkes solo record and thats really really pushing it

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:47 (fifteen years ago)

pretty sure i bought the second field record, not sure how much of it i listened to, but i didnt really give it much of a chance

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:47 (fifteen years ago)

was going to suggest burial's untrue, actually. my favorite disc of last decade, still.

Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:48 (fifteen years ago)

favorite record of the 2000s? wow. that's high praise. not sure if i ever made it through all of untrue, but i loved archangel. listened to all of his first record, though, im pretty sure

markers, Saturday, 7 August 2010 21:50 (fifteen years ago)

the last song on the second field record is the best thing he has ever done or will do

Dad Can Dance (LOLK), Sunday, 8 August 2010 04:39 (fifteen years ago)

Aye, Sequenced knocks everything on ...Sublime into a cocked hat.

Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:09 (fifteen years ago)

Still don't get Burial.

Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:10 (fifteen years ago)

I was into IDM in college (Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, etc.) but hadn't really heard much electronic music beyond that until a few years ago.

If I were to recommend one electronic album from the past decade (and I guess I'm not including stuff like Junior Boys, which leans pop), it would be Luomo's The Present Lover. Although I think Isolee's We Are Monster makes a pretty good primer for someone who doesn't listen to a lot of electronic music, just because it's so varied sonically.

jaymc, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:22 (fifteen years ago)

would be interested in checking out both of those records!

fwiw, i love the second junior boys record, think the latest one was whatever, and have been told by a least one ilxor that i need to get a copy of last exit asap

markers, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:23 (fifteen years ago)

so this is goodbye really is just such a solid record. haven't listened to the whole thing in forever but i really should soon

markers, Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:24 (fifteen years ago)

I was really into Orbital, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, etc when I was 17. In Sides & Snivilisation by Orbital remain all-time favourites. Big fan of Four Tet, Caribou, Pantha Du Prince etc these days. Like but not blown away by Luomo. Never heard We Are Monster; I guess I should.

Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 August 2010 05:43 (fifteen years ago)

Isolee's We Are Monster is fantastic (one particularly standout song, whose name escapes me atm).

Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 8 August 2010 10:34 (fifteen years ago)

I'd say replace The Present Lover with Vocalcity, make it your life's goal to hear We Are Monster, and you'll be just fine.

I'm banishing you to a time warp from which you will never return (EDB), Sunday, 8 August 2010 15:41 (fifteen years ago)

In Sides & Snivilisation by Orbital remain all-time favourites

In Sides is top 10 for me. I actually started following your writing on Stylus after that article where you talk about the In Sides poster you've lugged around for years.

That album got love when it came out, but I think it gets overlooked now.

'ello govna, Sunday, 8 August 2010 18:12 (fifteen years ago)

eight years pass...

can't find a general thread for him just ones for each album

but new song & album alert!

https://www.thefourohfive.com/music/article/the-field-sets-us-sailing-through-the-spectral-who-goes-there-153

nxd, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 14:42 (seven years ago)

five years pass...

I guess at some point we stopped starting new threads for new albums by The Field, but on a whim I played Infinite Moment this morning and really enjoyed it. The whole second half is wonderful, but then I always prefer the more subtle-and-understated Field tracks to the anthems.

Is it just me or was this album kinda slept on relative to the previous ones? I don't recall hearing a lot about it at the time.

Also crazy that this was released nearly six years ago! I still think of it as the "new" one.

Paul Ponzi, Friday, 8 September 2023 14:04 (two years ago)

Haven't thought about The Field for awhile but it's good work techno (which is very distinct from business techno, lol). I remember having an early revelation about the power of a very (deceptively) simple loop listening to his first record.

50 Favorite Jordans (Jordan), Friday, 8 September 2023 15:03 (two years ago)

one year passes...

Heard one of their tracks out last night, from the second album I think. Sounded great. I'm a sucker for a kind of tasteful urgency.

default damager (lukas), Saturday, 5 October 2024 18:52 (one year ago)

I still listen to the first album all the time. I like all of them to various degrees, but this one has always seemed special, and it still sounds really good to me.

Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 5 October 2024 19:02 (one year ago)

still sounds wonderful

nxd, Sunday, 6 October 2024 22:26 (one year ago)

eight months pass...

I wonder why "Istedgade" was left off the album. Maybe to get people to buy the Sun & Ice EP.

brimstead, Sunday, 29 June 2025 19:19 (ten months ago)

Oh it’s here.

Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 July 2025 16:39 (ten months ago)

ten months pass...

This new mini-lp Now You Exist is really, really, nice. It's soft and light.

https://thefield.bandcamp.com/album/now-you-exist

brimstead, Sunday, 17 May 2026 02:39 (one week ago)

this is cool, i like this!

big boodith judith (m bison), Sunday, 17 May 2026 03:10 (one week ago)

v nice

nxd, Sunday, 17 May 2026 10:56 (one week ago)

Yeah - I was surprised, nice u-turn from his last two albums!

octobeard, Sunday, 17 May 2026 20:35 (one week ago)

it gets a little downtempo and occasionally fits into some of the 90s triphop revival thing peeking out of sidewalk cracks recently

brimstead, Sunday, 17 May 2026 22:53 (one week ago)

I really like this and yes I can hear the 90s trip-hop revival moments but I wouldn't say it's a huge departure?

boxedjoy, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 09:52 (five days ago)

Haven't kept up with him but I liked this interview:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/18/i-had-been-silent-for-a-very-long-time-how-a-chance-meeting-at-a-burger-van-revived-techno-genius-the-field

stick your cheffing job (ledge), Tuesday, 19 May 2026 12:34 (five days ago)

^good piece

I'm only on the second track, but it sounds more like Gas with beats than trip-hop, but maybe that changes later

rob, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 14:29 (five days ago)

I'm halfway through and trying to decide how I feel about the polyrhythmic drums. On the one hand yeah, seems very much in my wheelhouse and it's a much bolder choice than a 4/4 kick. On the other hand it feels a bit arbitrary, pitting a snare that loops for an odd (or even) number of beats against a kick pattern that loops for a different odd number of beats.

On the third hand, in 'Hey Baby' when the snare switches to a backbeat a few minutes from the end, that's a great moment. And all the non-drum stuff is typically lovely.

In conclusion, this is his prog album, fr.

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, 19 May 2026 14:55 (five days ago)

no not a huge departure, the mix just sounds smoother and less edgy to me than a lot of his previous stuff I’ve heard (in a good way).

brimstead, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 20:32 (five days ago)

Enjoyed this, especially "Hey Baby" and "Another Day."

Indexed, Tuesday, 19 May 2026 20:46 (five days ago)

Record is definitely a grower. Took me three listens, but I absolutely love it

Paul Ponzi, Friday, 22 May 2026 19:55 (two days ago)


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