| |
Review:
|
|
Gel-sol is an electronic artist from Washington
D.C. (which he describes as "a wasteland for electronic music"),
and this is his first release. The great thing is: it's free.
If you want to hear it, all it takes is time. Go to his
website and download away.
There are 9 tracks (8 album tracks and a "bonus" track), as
well as downloadable artwork. You can grab the whole thing and
create your own CD, or you just can grab what songs you like
and burn them in whatever order you like. It's really up to
you.
As such, the question then becomes, why should you download
this stuff? Well, let me ask you this: do you like The Orb?
How about Lemon Jelly? Do you like medium-tempoed electronica
with deep bass riffage, many layers of sound, and silly samples?
If you answered "yes" to any of those, then Gel-sol is worth
a listen. He wears his Orb influence a little large, especially
on Assemblage Point and Few and Far Between, but
there is enough interesting music to keep the album from becoming
boring. And by that i mean, yes it sounds kinda Orbish, but
it is well done. Gel-sol has a good ear for melody, and his
songs are well constructed out of drones, keys, and silly samples.
The samples can be really silly, and much like certain facets
of The Orb catalog, he descends into a type of humor best appreciated
by teenage boys and/or stoners. Especially at the begining of
Numby Numb. I suppose that is a minor point really, but
then again i do know people who are really annoyed by this type
of stuff, so be forewarned.
Standout tracks include Ach Werden Ijler and Montauk,
both of which feature nice keyboard washes, a rambling sample,
and a groovey beat that would have felt right at home on Orbus
Terrarvm. I am also very fond of Few and Far Between,
which is a tune of wandering drones and strange noises.
Another interesting track is the bonus track, which is called
Sooper Shammy. This is an audio collage of sounds taken
from all sorts of infomercials. I find that it gets kind of
annoying after a while (something i find true of all music in
the "abstract audio collage" genre), but if you are a big Negativland
fan then you should download this.
On the whole, this is a very worthwhile debut from Gel-sol.
The only complaint i have is that it is somewhat derivative.
That is to say, i own (and enjoy) several albums that are somewhat
similar to this in sonic temperament. As such, i am bound to
enjoy this. People who are not amused by The Orb will not enjoy
this. However, Gel-sol does what he does quite well, even if
he is not breaking any boundaries right now.
But this is a debut. And it is quite obvious that the artist
grew up listening to The Orb and similar electronic acts. His
first album shows that he is on par with their ability to craft
fun, wandering tunes, but i look forward to seeing what Gel-sol
will do once he finds his own voice, and begins to experiment
and really break out on his own. It is apparent that he has
the talent, and i wonder where it will take him.
So, for a free album, this is well worth a download.
|
|
