abasio Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Artist: Unoccupied Title: Everyday Life Label: Aleph Zero Records Released: November 2008 Tracklist 1 Everyday Life (4:30) 2 Basic Conversation (4:15) 3 Always On The Move (4:33) 4 Time Off (5:00) 5 Stay Outside (5:02) 6 One Happy Thought (3:57) 7 Have It All (5:12) 8 She (3:28) 9 Painting Of A Forest (2:25) 10 Personal Interview (4:09) 11 Cash (5:39) Unoccupied are a duo from Israel, Eitan Reiter maybe better known as one half of Psytrance act Loud and Nadav Katz. Everyday Life is their view of our everyday lives. Before I write this review I'd like to say two things. First I am a long time fan of Aleph Zero having really enjoyed everything they have released to date. Aleph Zero definitely seems to have a quality filter so you always know when you pick up their latest release no matter the style the music will be a great example of it. The second thing I'd like to say is that I am really not a fan of vocals in electronic music. I feel that they are a dominating and often distracting layer that can make it more difficult to appreciate the real music that lies beneath. So what did I think of an Aleph Zero album with a lot of vocals? Well the music is great, the whole album has a nice urban feel to with a lot of nice melodies both electronic and played on the guitar as well as some decent ambient glitch. The vocals are okay. On the whole they don't distract too much from the underlying rhythms and themes of the albums and often actually have some meaning, social commentary on Everyday Life. The first two tracks are good examples of this with the lyrics in the cold & moody title track Everyday Life tells us of a recluse who doesn't join in the social events that his friends do. In the next track the retro feeling synth pop track Basic Conversation seems to tell of someone coming to terms with the simplest of social skills. That said though I think I would like this album more if most of the vocals had been left out. A really nice melody in the track Stay Outside is covered by a repeating vocal that sounds somewhat rude to me and it is only when the vocals leaves that I usually notice the melody. Likewise my favourite tracks or parts of tracks are usually vocal free. My favourite track here is She with it's cold moody feeling and indecipherable lyrics, it's quite minimal but packs in a lot of atmosphere. The only track I don't like is Personal Interview because the Monologue that dominates the first half while interesting on the first couple of listens becomes tired and irritating on repeated listens. The rest of the tracks are all good, they have nice urban textures, melodies ranging from warm to melancholic and a lot of nice percussion. It's not amazing but different enough from a lot of conventional chillout that it has me coming back to listen to it quite a lot. Recommendation: If you are looking for something a little different than what has flooded the scene in recent years, if you don't mind vocals and you enjoy nice urban textures then you should check this out. It's not the greatest album Aleph Zero has released but it's a nice example of how the guys at Aleph Zero are not afraid to try new things and explore new directions with their music. Track By Track Analysis 1. Everyday Life The opening track is a moody track with the vocals by Eitan Reiter describing a recluse who stays at home as the others do more social activities like dancing or watching movies. It’s a very simple track starting very well with a big bass synth & a simple melodic line. The vocals sound slightly distorted as does the guitar that finishes the track. This track is verging on pop territory & I’ll admit that when I first heard it I didn’t really like it but when listening more closely there is some good music here, he little melodic blips are great. I’d probably prefer it without the vocals but then again I am not a lover of vocals. 2. Basic Conversation Vocals right through a vocoder sound like a 1970’s sci-fi robot like the style of Daft Punk’s. Not sure of the vocals here, I’d guess they represent another socially maladjusted individual that cannot grasp the fundamentals of basic conversation much like a robot might struggle with the concept. Behind the vocals is some great music, it’s a little on the pop side but the melody that comes in before the soft guitar melody is really beautiful. Think 80’s synth pop with some lush downbeat elements to strengthen it. 3. Always On The Move This track sounds a lot like the last track in the beginning but without the vocals. Being vocal free allows us to focus more on the actual music and all though it uses guitars, the sound of which I rarely like, they are played well and blended in well with some fat bass, interestingly eclectic melodies and ambient glitch. The way the guitars are played sounds like they are the in your face glitch with the more subtle stuff only there for the more focused listener. As the track progresses it gets an identity of its own sound more and more different than Basic Conversation. 4. Time Off Time of is a more relaxed and beautiful track. Right from the start the melodies are warmer than the preceding 3 tracks giving more of a summer feel. The guitars are understated and the vocals are short and don’t dominate the track in any way at times they don’t even sound like vocals but just a scratchy instrument. In the Middle there is a strange melodic sound that in my head sounds like a whale calling out, this sound comes in more prominently at the end sounding very much like sonar communication. 5. Stay Outside More vocals through a vocoder make this sound very much like some 80’s synth pop. The bassline though is tight & sets a platform for the melodies to shine. The more subtle of the two melodies is worthy as being mentioned as art, I love it and wish it was a larger part of the track. The vocals for me in this track are a little too dominant and I feel a little sad that such potential is not reached. From the inside of the booklet we can see that the repeated lyrics are “Everybody is checking everybody out” but to me it sounds like “Everybody is jerking and I don't care” and it detracts from the music for me. I’d very much like to hear an instrumental version of this track 6. One Happy Thought We have here another vocal free track and this shows again that the music is really good. Here we have a bassline that plays a melody, some warm melodic lines and scratchy ambient sounds. The melodic lines seem to have some kind of Doppler Effect and shift as if they are passing you adding an urban feel to the track as it kind of sounds to me like a siren of a police car. A very nice warm urban track. 7. Have It All This track sounds more like soft or ambient rock. When the beats come in they are big but light and slow. The guitars have a very slow melancholic rock feel to them & the whispered vocals add an element of human sadness. The synth line at the start of the track is not really indicative of all this but manages to go nicely from soft ambient to soft rock in just a few minutes. I quite like the vocals here, simple and repetitive but moody and fitting well with the track. 8. She Very long drawn out distorted vocals would be indecipherable if it wasn’t for the lyrics written in the booklet, then they seem to make an eerie kind of sense. A great track here, so dark moody & bizarre, there is not much going on in the track, just the vocals a strange oscillating sound that could be wind blowing something just outside the window and a minimal bassline. I think though that this tracks minimalism is its charm and this has become my favourite track on the album 9. Painting Of A Forest Soft guitars and a melody played on some kind of flute make for a strange atmosphere. For me, guitar and flute do not compliment each other musically but the contrast can bring out some weird abstract image, in this case I can imagine a city park large enough to hide the urban feel slightly so we can imagine we are in the forest but with the roar of humanity in the distance. 10. Personal Interview This track has a monologue of a guy talking about his life, almost like a diary describing applying for and getting a job. It is I think cheesy in the extreme, a shame because the music underneath is good and you can appreciate it when he stops talking. The melody is optimistic and the acoustic beats are relaxing giving a nice chillout vibe but the monologue for me is too long that after a few listens I want to fast forward to vocal free second half of the track. 11. Cash We end with Cash, a conclusion to Unoccupied’s look at everyday life. The music does feel like it is wrapping things up. The beats are slow and sporadic and the atmosphere is like empty air but this is filled halfway through by samples of people talking, some sound like news stories, others sound like the stock market rabble. With this element of money and the morose feeling of the guitar and a strange oscillating sound I am left with an impression of money troubles leading someone to end it all. At the end all the sounds slowly ebb away until on the oscillating synth is left & I can actually picture a man standing in his suit on a ledge outside a very tall building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insejn Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Artist: Unoccupied Title: Everyday Life Label: Aleph Zero Records Released: November 2008 Tracklist 1 Everyday Life (4:30) 2 Basic Conversation (4:15) 3 Always On The Move (4:33) 4 Time Off (5:00) 5 Stay Outside (5:02) 6 One Happy Thought (3:57) 7 Have It All (5:12) 8 She (3:28) 9 Painting Of A Forest (2:25) 10 Personal Interview (4:09) 11 Cash (5:39) Unoccupied are a duo from Israel, Eitan Reiter maybe better known as one half of Psytrance act Loud and Nadav Katz. Everyday Life is their view of our everyday lives. Is that genious on this?! I have to check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abasio Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 You might expect something quite different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insejn Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 You might expect something quite different Well, Basic Conversation rocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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