Imagine if Amon Tobin was going for a ’70s Parliament-Funkadelic sound, with les
author: Exclaim (Canada)
Australian Anthony Pell takes music, samples and live performances from a wide variety of styles and puts them together to make some funky grooves. Imagine if Amon Tobin was going for a ’70s Parliament-Funkadelic sound, with less of a drum & bass influence. “Entertainment Complex” and “Suit Up” are speedy, complicated tracks that are good examples of Apell’s funk sounds, using organs, horns and drums to great effect. There are also more psychedelic tracks, like “Digirap” and “Wrinkle” with their phased and twisted guitars and “Tim and Tony” with live bass and guitar complementing electronic drums. Tracks like “Tomorrow” and “Unorthodox” have subtle, processed vocals and are very cinematic. Altogether the album has a better than average amount of variety. There is a lot to recommend here, especially for fans of Amon Tobin and other more adventurous electronic musicians who go for big, full sounds mixing live instrumentation and electronics.
Read more...
Electronically charged jazz...creating the best experience one can have listenin
author: neufutur.com
Electronically charged jazz, Anthony Pell (Apell to eir's fans) provides listeners with a rich instrumental backdrop, creating the best experience one can have listening to music. This is not necessarily the music that gets the body moving, but is rather like an illicit drug, opening one's mind to a myriad of new sensations. While instrumental CDs are notorious for becoming monotonous and extremely repetitive after the first few tracks, Apell busts through four tracks with the greatest of ease, and is incidentally the perfect soundtrack replacement for the acid jazz of the Weather Channel (really, I'm not being derogatory - just the smooth, inoffensive tones of Apell are bizarrely fitting). The more middle eastern flow of "Summer", gradually spinning out of control through the inclusion of hip-hop styled drums, is a welcome change of pace from the rest of the disc, and keeps eir's listeners on their toes.
It is very seldom that completely computer-arranged drums sound decent on a disc; Apell has made the drum tracks on "Beaver Street & Beyond" so intentionally fake, so otherworldly and with such a fervor that one can't help but be enthralled by the arrangements. "Unorthodox" is literally one of the most solidly named tracks in recent history - thrust on by a backwards-masked track, the only thing orthodox about this track are the smooth, incredibly-arranged drum and synth tracks. Throughout the entirety of the disc, vocals do come into play but Apell has a much more insidious use for them - very rarely will an individual find a vocal track that Apell isn't actively using as a make-shift instrument.
Where something like Fluke can be the drugs of electronic music, Apell actually can program and arrange with the best of them and yet make a cohesive album that does not repeat itself. While I could completely see putting this album on before studying or sleeping, there really is not much to grab the interest of someone that has been inculcated to the bells and whistles of popular music. Apell may be trying for commercial success, but where Apell will make eir's killing will be at the jazz places and minor concert halls the world over, where individuals will hook into ey's music and be more actively supporting eir. Apell is a mixture of all the things that are strong in electronic, jazz, and tribal music - where more electronic artists seem to just be incorporating dance or rock into their track, methinks it wouldn't hurt to listen to "Beaver Street & Beyond" a few times.
Top Tracks: Summer, Lust
Read more...
Wild and completely unbridled electronica.
author: www.inthemix.com.au
From somewhere in the north-west fringe of Melbourne City emanates the wild and completely unbridled electronica of Apell. While bridled horses run rings around the racecourse nearby, Apell wanders freely through post-rock psychedelia, guitar-tinged electronica, noise, and anything else that catches his fancy.
His second album Beaver Street & Beyond opens excellently with the trippy Entertainment Complex, featuring electrolysed organ, trumpets, and saxophone. The opening could be something Danny Elfman would have written for a band; the weirdness factor is right at home with Beetlejuice.
A couple of notches down the track list is the intoxicating post-rocker Tim & Tony. Slowly unfurling in a chorus of electric and acoustic guitar, I can only imagine it as the theme to a film about two guys with the titular names. Summer then relaxes the mood and evokes a lazy, hot summer's day. Apell is at his best in these tracks, reminding me of Mogwai and their brilliant 1997 album Young Team.
With Exciting Soul Cock Of The Stirring North, it is safe to say that Apell has invented the latest sub-genre of syncopated Scottish flamenco. With the most rockin' beat, it ends the album on a high note before the low-fi epilogue of Crying Over A Cut Onion.
Not all of the other tracks meld so well in the context of an album. Featuring some experimentally (read 'intentionally') messy production, tracks such as Tomorrow, Wrinkle, and Spokes Remix are fine by themselves, but seem to pull in their own directions.
If you start your journey at Beaver Street, there is no telling where Apell might take you.
Read more...
Another top quality Australian electronic release.
author: Warren Wheeler - The Sound Monitor
Despite living in a relatively remote area of the world, Australia has always excelled when it comes to electronic music. Be it the numerous Clan Analogue collectives, or the commercial beats of Paul Mac and Infusion, Australian electronics holds a quality considered on par, if not above, the world leaders.
Melbourne-based bedroom producer Anthony Pell proved this very point on his debut release in 2001. Gathering praise from his home audience and across the world from such notable on-liners ChainDLK and Apell's debut was a solid concoction of electronica, jazz and rock. On his second album, Apell punctuates those reviews with more solid sequences and introspective movements.
Drawing equally from Massive Attack, King Crimson, Moby and Bill Laswell, Beaver Street & Beyond runs the gamut of genres in the space of 13 compositions. Opening with a jazzy 'Entertainment Complex' Apell would sit rather nicely next to a number of Clan artists, whereas 'Digirap' adopts the rock with a strong dub undercurrent.
However, it's on the subtler moments ('Tim & Tony' and 'Summer') where Apell excels. Soothing synthetics combine with Latin-inspired acoustic guitar and darkened brass to create a nice epic feel a' la Radiohead.
Never the one to rest on the one influence, Apell continues to draw from a range of genres including seventies prog rock, eighties dub nineties hip-hop, and new millennium electronica. Additionally, sparse vocals are employed for effect, including the samples of monk-like chanting and choirs, however the majority of the long-player is vocal free.
Another top quality Australian electronic release that quite deservedly should acquire plenty of notice from the national airplay bigwigs.
Read more...