Finding the Rhythm

There is no question that digital downloading (legal and otherwise) has refocused and recomposed the music industry in a lot of ways—most of which are still very much being figured out as we speak. But one thing that others have written about is the loss of importance of the “long play” album. Music has become very track-centric (single-centric), and with the iPod and its ilk, we’re all living in the “shuffle” generation. Maybe that’s a good thing, in that only the best tracks are rewarded with success, and the all-too-common occurrence of an album with one or two strong tracks and the balance being total junk is no longer embraced by default. I’d like to think it’s causing artists and labels to “up” their game a bit (or if it’s not, it should).

Of course, that sort of glosses-over the fact that dance music has always been single-centric. Since the modern dance music scene emerged in the 80s, it’s been about 12″ maxi-singles, EPs and compilations, and that continues through to today (even if the distribution medium is changing to digital).

That doesn’t keep me from thinking back a good 20 years or so to what probably was the height of what I’d refer to as “epic albums.” I’m sure we can all think of examples, but these are the albums that aren’t merely a collection of individual songs, but a work in-whole that is crafted carefully to tell a story end-to-end, or to have some sort of musical continuity, in many cases with the songs flowing into one another a la dance music compilations (even though the examples I’m thinking of are not dance).

The two that come to my mind are Franky Goes to Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome, the singular source of every hit from the group, and the classic Pink Floyd album The Wall, which for many people has no equal. Both of these albums represent the very best (in my opinion) of vinyl albums specifically, but “epic albums” in general. They were recorded, engineered and the tracks were arranged to work perfectly in the vinyl medium. I have neither of these on CD (only vinyl), so I have no idea how well they did (or didn’t) translate to CD. But I do have very fond memories of dropping the needle at the beginning of a side, and simply listening, end-to-end, until it was time to flip it over, never wanting once to skip a track. When was the last time this happened to you? (Yeah, it had been awhile for me too.)

I suppose that’s why I found it so incredibly refreshing when I finally bought a copy of the first long-form album from UK-based trance team Above & Beyond. This trio of chronically underfed guys, Jonathan “Jono” Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki, crank-out some pretty unbelievable original tracks and remixes, and as house-focused as I am personally, it’s hard to resist their music (especially the more “clubby” mixes).

Tri-State is the name of the album I’m talking about, and I strongly recommend it. Anyone who’s attended any of my sets will immediately recognize several of the tracks, but this blog posting isn’t about the tracks… It’s about the fact that Grant, McGuinness and Siljamäki have artfully chosen the order of the tracks, and blended them together in such a way as to evoke emotion and provide an immersive listening experience of the type I’ve not really seen (well, heard) in two decades.

Yes, you can listen to the tracks if you have your iPod on shuffle, but you’re really missing out if you don’t listen to the whole thing, in the prescribed order, using a gapless playback device (like newer iPods). Just think of the album as one, great big, long, single track, and you’ll be treated to a good 45 minutes or so of eargasmic electronica—some female vocal, some male vocal, some non-vocal—that creatively weaves in and out of housey grooves to ethereal trance to sounds that, frankly, border on new age.

Pardon my gushing, but it’s a phenomenal piece of work, and I hope it’s not the last release of its type for Above & Beyond (who are better known, perhaps, for their Anjunabeats compilation releases, which are also serviceable trance releases, but definitely a different animal than this album).

I’d suggest the physical CD product (which you can get on Amazon.com, etc.) so you can ensure you get the tracks as they were intended to be heard (including the flow into one another), but it’s also available digitally from a number of the usual suspects. (See my site for links.)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Crank-up the volume… Wes.

[DISCLOSURE: Clicking the Beatport or iTunes banners on my web site generates a small commission to me if you make a purchase, but I have no other vested interest in this review.]