anticipate The Field - Yesterday and Today

or have its lustrous synth waves and kick-boom grooves echoed in your headscape already?

i will anticipate

has there been a single yet?

i too will anticipate

i dont remember too much of the first album except that i liked it and i liked this one song "silence" a lot. i'm sure there were better songs tho.

shit man anticipatin over here 4 real

I am anticipating this - The Field strike me as the sort of act who could go from 'quite good' to 'absolutely amazing' between the first and second albums.

New track up on Pitchfork
http://pitchfork.com/news/35152-premiere-the-field-the-more-that-i-do-mp3stream/

Strange vibe, harsher than before. Not an immediate hit with me but will still anticipatin' the album.

Oooh @ steel drums in the fade!

me talk pretty one day

reminds me a lot of that "silent" song i mentioned before

fuck with this

quite nice seeing as its just an album track, hes maintained his original sound. im always a bit cringey when guys like this abandon tyhe laptops and i managed to miss his live act at 2 festivals last year so its a pleasant surprise. bit like DFA went all trancey boom boys down beefa

like it. my thing w/ the field is that i don't think he ever really did anything as good and blissed out as 'kappsta' from pop ambient 2007. his album was decent enough tho and this track is alright

as someone who was a trance geek for a year or two in high school i'm actually digging this tune a lot now. i thought his tracks often ran out of ideas in after the first couple of minutes - i never saw a reason why a lot of them were upwards of 6 or 7 minutes - but the length works a lot better here

thats what nade me think of DFA, theres lots of nice little embellishments to a lovely loop

loving the single and the remixes by Thomas Feldman and Foals.
so curios about the new album!

*Fehlmann

the single is great in a way that makes me thing this will be really really great

The album has leaked

ty

Like the sound of this new track. Anyone know if it is with a band, or whether a real drum kit was used (as when I saw him live). It sounds a lot more full and rich than before. Samples the Cocteau Twins, right?

Admittedly, I'm still confused at how long, repetive, very trancey, and uptempo 4/4 music (which for me was a very slow grower - I seem to remember thinking Over the Ice was the worst track I'd ever heard when I first heard it) became so beloved by the pitchfork crowd (and became one of the most overhyped electronic albums of the last however many years).

I'm still confused at how long, repetive, very trancey, and uptempo 4/4 music became so beloved by the pitchfork crowd

lots of young people working at computers all day like long repetitive very trancey uptempo 4/4 music i think?

John Stanier from Helmet/Battles plays the drums on it as far as i know

oh shit

i am actually more excited than i already was

Correction: It seems Stanier only plays on the title track.

On first impression the Korgis cover would be better without the vocals

omg this is fucking awesome.

The obviously John Stanier live-drums on title track don't come in until the outro when he plays along with a nice little bass line. Sweet.

Seems to be worrying more about sound design. Drums are less simplistic, sounds very fieldy but without it just being him doing his old trick again, samples are less obvious, tracks are more dense, less minimalistic, while still being plenty minimalistic. More prettified, little twinkling melodies and stuff.

It's got a "sunnier" feel to it i reckon

Xpost: that sounds very promising, especially since the boring drums and weak sound design were one thing I didn't care for with FHWGS.

this is amazing on first listen, it's going to be perfect for summer nights in 2009.

i was not feelin' the track pfork put up, but i am anticipating this anyway

Also anticipating muchly. He absolutely killed it live in Dublin a couple of months ago. Pure bliss.

lots of young people working at computers all day like long repetitive very trancey uptempo 4/4 music i think?

*raises hand*

yeah, this jsut got sent to me. not bad on first listen, though i will never love this guy as much as some do-- a little too poppy for my tastes. but yeah, this is gonna be great on summer nights.

I've now revised my opinion and believe The Field to be a One and A Half Trick Pony.

that said, i also think that everyone who loves this should love the Meanderthals album a lot more.

cosign that Meanderthals love. I'm listening to it more than the Lindstrom/Prins Thomas album.

i was not feelin' the track pfork put up, but i am anticipating this anyway

Was starting to think I was the only one. I guess it might grow on me still, but this doesn't seem to have any of the magic of the best stuff on his debut. Eager to hear the rest of the album.

I'm still confused at how long, repetive, very trancey, and uptempo 4/4 music became so beloved by the pitchfork crowd

lots of young people working at computers all day like long repetitive very trancey uptempo 4/4 music i think?

― I'm not some HOOS for someone's lust to snack on! (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, May 6, 2009 1:15 AM (17 hours ago)

This somewhat avoids looking at why this particular album got snatched out of nowhere to be embraced so wholeheartedly by an audience it wasn't originally targeted at. Certain things like the reputation of Kompakt I think have a lot of purchase outside of dance or minimal or techno or whatever circles, but then Kompakt put out a lot of records and my last listen to the last Ambient/Pop left the impression that a lot of it sounded kinda similar. I think a big punctum within this album, and something that got a lot of attention were two moments, the part in Sun and Ice where the software breaks down, and the bit in the title track where the CD kinda unskips and the Flamingoes sample is just let play. I think these two moments worked as really good points of entries to an indie audience because they're striking enough to draw attention to themselves firstly, and then as flashes that illuminate the sort of inner logic of the album in a way that parallels a typically indie aesthetic (ie, that of remaking the present from a remodelled past)

At the same time its not exactly and indie dance record, if fits very neatly into a particular aesthetic, but there's just enough rupture that indie listeners who mightn't exactly be immersed in the formal landscape of dance music can hook onto to start to unravel the language of it, like all genres there's a level of codification so that sometimes things that are playful or innovative might not be accessible to someone who doesn't really listen to a lot of the stuff, I'm not saying that's what this is, whether its good or bad isn't something I'm really thinking about with FHWGS atm, what I'm thinking about is what exactly is crossoverable about it in partic. Anyone else have any ideas because this is something in general I am thinking is interesting lately, not just how it applies to this album, but I do think this album is an unusually striking example of the kind of thing I'm thinking about.

tl;dr

I am a corny indie fuck and my point of entry was the Fleetwood Mac sample.

yeah, but I kinda think without that bit where it all breaks down, the samples in this are really hard to parse, the title track is kindof a codebreaker for this album imo, and also, that's kindof an indie way of enjoying so that those little bits where the vocals bubble up to the surface are so tantalising, but in a different kindof suspense/release to what I normally expect from MNML, is that fair to say?

cosign that Meanderthals love. I'm listening to it more than the Lindstrom/Prins Thomas album.

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, May 6, 2009 3:23 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

cosign this, the meanderthals album is so so nice!

i'll give this a listen but i'm def baffled at why the field, of all the possible kompakt (or even...general german techno) artists releasing albums that year, got picked up by the crossover crowd. FHWGS didn't impress me at all - actually towards the lower end of the mass of ok-ish techno albums w/ nothing particularly memorable or special about them that come out all the time.

^^haha, this helps prove my point a little I think

fucking loving "sequence"

that's kindof an indie way of enjoying so that those little bits where the vocals bubble up to the surface are so tantalising, but in a different kindof suspense/release to what I normally expect from MNML, is that fair to say?

There's a part about 2:30 into "Everyday" that's a great example of this too, I think. Where the sample kinda rewinds and a new little choppy hook comes in, that's always been the most memorable part of the album for me.

hadn't read IKR's posts before i posted (an xpost) but that might explain it - you've also pinpointed a few of the things that i find most annoying about it. the big dealbreaker for me was that the overall sound was so thin and unvaried and also BASSLESS - it really grated after a while.

really pisses me off to think that some really classy albums w/what i'd think was crossover potential from that FHWGS year, like mia's bittersüss, got totally overlooked while this stormed over to difft audiences.

*classy techno albums

The crossover appeal of The Field is overstated I think (really, does it exist outside a few people on the internet and a good review in Pitchfork?) It's hardly Justice or Simian level crossover we're talking here.

But its appeal to non-techno people of a certain stripe should be totally obvious. In addition to the familiar samples, The Field has a vaguely shoegazery sensibility and an obvious and upfront commitment to prettiness and melody without having to make the listener work too hard for it*. Comparing The Field to other techno (when by and large he doesn't have the slightest intention of making people dance) is missing the point - he fits better with the likes of Ulrich Schnauss and other similarly drippy electronica.

*I think he's different from Burial in this regard in that Burial's crossover appeal seems to be more accident than design.

Also Burial is much less accessible, with the possible exception of Archangel which also happens to be his best track.

Yeah, I'm totally not digging this because it's dance music or techno; it's shoegazey electronic krautrock to me.

The crossover appeal of The Field is overstated I think (really, does it exist outside a few people on the internet and a good review in Pitchfork?)

i'm certain i argued this on another thread back when lex was freaking out over the 'crossover' of the last record, but i can't find it. would it have sold more than, say, 10k copies worldwide? hardly a crossover. i don't really recall, say, 'days of mars' by delia + gavin being called a crossover despite also getting rave reviews, being on a trendy label and (arguably) sharing similar tranced-out aesthetic.

I have yet to mention The Field to anyone irl who has ever heard of him btw

When I played FHWGS to friends last year their reaction was mostly 'booorrrring' so no crossover there.

So I now have a nice CD copy of this. Lovely lovely lovely. The last 3 minutes of Sequenced is my favourite music released this year. So gorgeous. It's that double-tap on the hi-hat, I think. Wow. I wish it went on forever.

People who like/love this should check out Sinner DC's Crystallized album. Never heard of them before but on first hearing I'm quite liking this. 4/4, wonderfully blissed out shoegazy feel, some nice unexpected instrumental touches (eg. brass) in places. Vocals may be a bit too "indie" for some but in the end they didn't really bother me. Think M83+Schnauss.

@Nick: those last three minutes remind me a bit of the more pastoral pieces of Cluster (ie. Sowiesoso-era) - are you familiar with them?

Think M83+Schnauss

Shit! Straight on to my things-to-get list ... ho, Willem, you've done this before, though I can't remember what with. Cheers, man.

I've had some Cluster on my wishlist for AGES, including Sowiesoso...

Wow Willem, that Crystallized album is fucking awesome! Spot on wiht referencing M83 and Schnauss. There's krautrock as well, and 'Anyway' sounds like Superpitcher dreaming. Brilliant, thanks for the recommendation!

this album sucks, and i liked the last one.

Talking The Field here Caek, of that Crystallized one? I can't for whatever reason seem to get into the new The Field one as well. Maybe it's the 'Everybody's gotta learn sometimes' cover. It's so early on as well, and basically is a major let-down for me. I can't seem to get past it, it completely destroys the flow of the album for me.

of=or

the field. i've tried three or four times to get through this album, and every time i just end up thinking i would rather be listening to the first one. maybe it's just that's comfortably familiar, like watching terminator 2, but i think there's something more. i feel like he's trying to do more this time and ends up diluting the effect. this is just an impression from not a lot of time spent with the album tho.

It starts off a bit slow but picks around the mid-part - if anything, I think it's just oddly sequenced - i.e. not putting the best song first, but letting it slowly build up to it.

I think it might be a grower, where the first album was much more of an immediate rush with me.

(I'm not feeling that cover, either. It seems a bit... obvious. One of the delights of the first album was hearing this lovely, warm, fuzzy music - and then hearing the run-outs at the end, where you realise what the sample was, that it was all built around. Doing a straight cover didn't really work for me.)

But that big single, when it finally comes, is SO amazing that it makes up for everything.

And speaking back in time to The Lex (and you never did tell me what else to listen to on Kompakt) - you have to realise that people listen to different things in music, and respond to different things in music. The Field *don't* sound like an OOM-tish OOM-tish bangers thing, they sound fuzzed out and delicate, with driving krautrock bass - it has the aesthetic of dronerock, but created with electronics. What you hate about it is what other people are responding to.

All over this after becoming increasingly enthused by discussion above. I like FHWGS well enough (and more than that if the mood is upon me), and on initial listens this is hitting the spot too. Much more varied, which is good as the first one was a bit linear (partly the point, I know) so the opening up of his sonic palette works really well for me. Current faves are the opener and closers.

Only duff track is Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime, which I cannot honestly see myself ever listening to again; maybe if he'd chosen a song that has not been *totally* played out and sampled to death already I could see the point, but not with this.

I've had some Cluster on my wishlist for AGES, including Sowiesoso...

Yes. You definitely need this album. I can pass along if you'd like, just send an email.

sickmou✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ please!

sickmouthy at gmail dot com

I liked the last field album but hearing this is like sowieso makes me want to get it right now.

this is not like sowieso.

last 3 minutes of Sequenced does a bit, but that's 3 minutes of one track.

Haha, yes, not like sowieso.

I like the new one, but I'm with caek in my preference for the debut.

I have not heard this, but based on the first one it would have to be majorly majorly different to sound like cluster

Only the last two minutes or so sound a thing like Cluster, and even then, not even that much.

It gets better on repeated listens. I'm trying to not even skip the cover. But I do still think it would have been a much better album without it. There's a lot of prettiness in there waiting to be discovered, when it reveals itself to you.

Though, actually, come to think of it, I had the same experience with Over The Ice - I really didn't get it the first time I heard it (though that might have been the awful video.) But the more I heard it, the more I was all... mmmm, like this.

The More That I Do was a really immediate hit, but I think the rest of the album needs time to sink in.

I didn't even know it was a cover till I read so on here; it doesn't bother me in the slightest. In fact I like the big dramatic pop drum every so often.

haven't heard the album yet but the other night, my local station played the cover and the original right after and the field's version did sound pretty lifeless in comparison.

The vocal is the most off-putting thing, everything inbetween is seriously dreamy.

also, yr local radio station must be way cool.

okay i just listened to the korgis cover and i really loved, if this is the weakest bit of this album I am sold (loved the last one btw)

xpost the show i was listening to sure is - here are their playlists/podcasts.

am i rong that the title track samples kate bush's "the sensual world"?

Just starting my second listen to the album ... I can blow hot and cold on The Field but I genuinely think the Korgis cover might be my favourite thing on here. It's a song I love anyway and I think this is a clever, gorgeous way to do it.

This has really failed to grab me like the first one did. The little steel drum flourishes that appear at the end of tracks 1 and 5 are intriguing, I wish they'd been used to fuller effect.

ledge OTM.

Also: Does anyone find "The More That I Do" slightly annoying? I *love* the source material (Cocteau Twins), but that's precisely why I *don't* like the song. It just sounds like a skipping CT song to me, and I'd much rather just put on Treasure.

Last track on this = best music I've heard all year.

^^ i totally agree.. this is the only song from the album that i keep coming back to again and again

Really, Nick? I'll have to revisit it.

The new Orb album sounds a bunch like The Field. So much so that i'm almost embarrassed for The Orb.

Last track on this = best music I've heard all year.

Oh bother, why'd you skip the third one? It's even better!

better than the first album

more adventurous, more blissful, better production

Cosign.

This is a wonderful album.

I love the captured Liz Frazer too

Techno Gaze. cough

Shit. I'm two years back in the slipstream

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/02/15/the-field-yesterday-and-today-2009/

i still like FHWGS more, but Y&T definitely does not get enough credit. "Sequenced" in particular. It's probably my favorite Field track. along with "Leave It" and "Everday"

Is there really no discussion of this guy post 2013 or did I just fail at searching?

the ilx hype did seem to drop off pretty dramatically at some point, not sure why. I think I revived a thread not too long ago, not sure which one, but the response was mostly crickets. But I still love pretty much every album this dude's released.