Booka Shade - The Sun & The Neon Light (May 2008)

RA article includes special youtube message from walter and arno??

well, they've been keeping themselves pretty quiet. here's hoping...

amazingly cheesy track titles & artwork!

track titles are ace. esp: 'solo city' and also 'dusty boots' and maybe 'charlotte' cos as everybody knows any house or techno song with a girl's name as a title is the business.

denver sf and vancouver in april. they're playing all around me, basically. i'm thinking i'll go to SF to see them.

Lol at the portmanteau puns: "psychameleon", "comacabana"...

these guys are probably due a proper crossover hit this time around hey?

will.i.am samples dont count?

ugh, those names are approaching felix da housecat levels of badness

Anybody else here the "Planetary" single yet?

The club mix is fine, though every time I've listend to it I've gotten kinda disappointed when there's no huge eruption after the breakdown midway through. The b-side, "City Tales (Neon Dub)," is great, though.

I'm trying to work out what this album reminds me of. Maybe what Orbital's Snivilisation would sound like if it hadn't been so wilfully eclectic (i.e. everything sounds a bit like "Sad But True"). Hardly any straight house or disco grooves. Some of it is ridiculously dense. It's a shame they haven't included (the marvellous) "Numbers". Instead the big pop number is "Control Me", which is certainly big-sounding but also very 2004. Martini Bros did that better on their first album.

Control Me is fucking brilliant. Very Depeche Mode.

Isn't there a straight house version of the whole album coming out on vinyl as well?

promos out or sth?

Control Me is interesting but put a bigger beat on this stuff for crying out loud

everyone knows that the quality of house and techno tracks is inversely proportional to how good their names are

put a bigger beat on this stuff for crying out loud

Posts like this made me sad.

it would be horrible if we all had the same expectations

i like 'control me' a bit more now that i'm treating it as i do the kelley polar stuff

this sounds rather downtempo, in a kind of torpid, sludgy way, not a 'tears on the dancefloor' way. too many lousy vocals. title track is weird overblown proggy music box plinky thing.

karma car sounds better now than when i first encountered it as a single, though, for some reason.

So I'm not the only one disappointed with this then?

i think i hate this record. it sounds like too much cocaine.

What does "sounds like cocaine" mean?

I like this a heckuva lot. If it sounds torpid and sludgy, maybe you just haven't stayed up late enough. It's slower and less maracas.jpg than Movements for sure, but I'm perfectly ok with "let it happen" instead of "move that butt."

i am loving this! what it lacks in dancefloor appeal it easily makes up for in prettiness.

and also my disc has "numbers" on it but lacks "redemption"... are there different versions or is this a leak vs. retail difference?

i love 'outskirts' and 'control me', the rest is kind of wishy-washy. i don't mind the fact that it's downtempo, but it just hasn't grabbed me...

the bonus mix cd doesn't really add anything either

Ugh it's bland bland bland, other than Dusty Boots, Charlotte and Control Me.

I'm perfectly satisfied chopping this down to a "Charlotte" a side and "Control Me" b side.

"Charlotte" makes me nostalgic for Snivilisation/Insides-era Orbital. I can't stop listening to it.

free mp3:

http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Booka_Shade/track/Mandarine_Girl_Reworked

quite liking this on first proper listen. the vocal tracks are how i would've preferred Cut Copy's latest one to sound (not because they're darker). getting some Orbital vibes elsewhere too.

Still not feeling it :(

'Sweet Lies' would be awesome if by Hot Chip (v good indication of where they're lacking) OR maybe even J Boys (tho it's not really spacious or magnified enough for them)

I like this album. Not as good as I would've hoped, but not disappointing, either. Sad that the bad Pitchfork review will make them that much poorer in album sales now that everybody bought their Cut Copy for the year.

this needs more attention, liking it more and more. 'charlotte' is so great.

i never said i was true, charlotte, charlotte...

makes me want to rave on a beach

yes. why am i still not on holiday? fuck this

anyway yes i love this album, the proportion of OMG GREAT tracks to merely good ones is basically the same as on movements

Really loving this album at the moment.

This sounds real nice. Will purchase when I get some cash.

charlotte is kinda nice

i picked up the 2 cd set cheap last week on a whim.
now i feel i should add this album to this thread, and possibly even this one.
while RA critics didn't like it due to it having no club bangers, i really love the sound of this
- but then i have not yet picked up their previous releases.

"duke" from this album is some spellbinding fake-luomo-ism