Best Ever Albums

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

mickilennial — Wed, 8 Jun 2016 15:46:41 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 06/08/2016 19:46

A really solid piece that I felt more at home with when the more ambient movements were in play that reminded me of all of the reasons why I liked Orbital’s music, though that comparison might be obtuse considering I am not as well read in electronic music as some others. My favorite tracks were “The Voices of Time”, “Artificial Infinite”, and “Genesis 92: The Awakening”. Given that this is from someone who has only spent one listen on the record so far I’m not sure how much weight it has but these tracks were the most interesting and least monotonous for me – I’ll be spending more time with this album, but for the present these are my thoughts. Great choice.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 17:01:11 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/14/2016 21:01

Skinny wrote:

Yes and yes. I felt this was much more focused and purposeful, not to mention the fact that it displayed a much more refined, nuanced approach to sound design.

The answer I hoped for, thank you sir. It will garner my attention imminently.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Skinny — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 16:51:25 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 04/14/2016 20:51

Allabaster wrote:

I am familiar with her debut, Chrysalis, and though I enjoyed it at times, I found it to be rather inconsistent overall. Has anyone heard both and if so, did they find Singulacra to be much better?

Yes and yes. I felt this was much more focused and purposeful, not to mention the fact that it displayed a much more refined, nuanced approach to sound design.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 16:42:43 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/14/2016 20:42

I am familiar with her debut, Chrysalis, and though I enjoyed it at times, I found it to be rather inconsistent overall. Has anyone heard both and if so, did they find Singulacra to be much better?

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

RockyRaccoon — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 12:32:25 GMT

Author: RockyRaccoon

Posted: 04/13/2016 16:32

So yea, I loved it.

From my music diary

Quote:

It's easy for ambient/drone-focused music to be either too slow or too heavy (heavy meaning thick and difficult to process). But then sometimes, it can be beautiful, and Singulacra is the latter. While the album starts off a bit submerged, once the pads and vocals come in along with the sub bass, you start to feel this haze settle in and envelop you. The album is like constantly being in that state between falling asleep and being awake, like you're constantly dozing off and everything around you is becoming dreamlike, until a quick hi-hat hits you like a hypnic jerk and brings you back before you doze off again. It's melancholic but doesn't wallow in it. Rather there is a blend of the bleak with the upbeat, tracks like "Artificial Infinite" act as a small break through the haze. I think the beauty of this album is in the feeling, tracks like "Glimpses of Death" and "Order of Elements" just pour out emotions. It's a beautiful album that will hypnotize you and completely surround you.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

newuser — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 11:41:50 GMT

Author: newuser

Posted: 04/13/2016 15:41

it's very good. props to op.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Grzywa — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 06:42:28 GMT

Author: Grzywa

Posted: 04/13/2016 10:42

Skinny wrote:

preferably in a haze of hash smoke

I wouldn't recommend smoking until the second track comes in. The opener is creepy as hell with the rapid start-stop loops (in a similar way as the last one, actually); I thought it would set a background for gloomy claustrophobic horror soundtrack.

However, it got much more spatial starting with The Voices Of Time; this is when your joint could actually be lighted up, I guess.

My highlight so far was Genesis 92: The Awakening, possibly the most Burial-like to my ear. Still listening.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

RockyRaccoon — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 16:11:01 GMT

Author: RockyRaccoon

Posted: 04/12/2016 20:11

Really really liked this. I gave it a fairly quick listen but had other things I had to do so I'll give it a more detailed review/listen tomorrow, but at first glance, I really enjoyed it.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Skinny — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 11:09:21 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 04/12/2016 15:09

Tap wrote:

Huh, so this wasn't in the database? I just added it. This is really great! It reminds me a little bit of Lee Gamble's work, degraded ghostly echoes of rave in an ambient sort of context. She doesn't go as hard on the degradation, but it seems to be coming from a similar sort of space. Though her aesthetic is way different and pushes me toward a different sort of feeling, more of an ambient 'blissin on the gorgeousness' sort of thing, especially with that bass, I love that bass. I'll think of more later but yeah, thanks for the additional prompting to listen to this, this one is a keeper.

Yeah, glad you liked it. Can definitely see the parallels to Gamble's work, can't believe I didn't think of that myself. That said, I much prefer this to any Gamble release I've heard, but yeah they do definitely share a pretty similar aesthetic, even if this is less aggressive.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Tap — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 21:22:55 GMT

Author: Tap

Posted: 04/11/2016 01:22

Huh, so this wasn't in the database? I just added it. This is really great! It reminds me a little bit of Lee Gamble's work, degraded ghostly echoes of rave in an ambient sort of context. She doesn't go as hard on the degradation, but it seems to be coming from a similar sort of space. Though her aesthetic is way different and pushes me toward a different sort of feeling, more of an ambient 'blissin on the gorgeousness' sort of thing, especially with that bass, I love that bass. I'll think of more later but yeah, thanks for the additional prompting to listen to this, this one is a keeper.

Re: ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Muslim-Bigfoot — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 17:28:54 GMT

Author: Muslim-Bigfoot

Posted: 04/10/2016 21:28

Great description; really piqued my interest esp. with the comparison to Shape Worship's debut.

ALC16 #10: Singulacra by Sophia Loizou

Skinny — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 16:39:05 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 04/10/2016 20:39

I understand I'm posting this about two and a half hours too soon, but I can't guarantee I'll get the time to actually post it tomorrow. Better early than late, I suppose.

OK, my pick is an album I mentioned in my listening log a while back, and it's an album I find myself returning to quite a bit and finding more and more that I appreciate. Gonna basically copy what I said in that other thread about it, albeit with a couple of minor edits (things that have occurred to me across repeated listens).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Sophia Loizou - Singulacra

My 2016 chart is in desperate need of an update, and this one will be landing very near the top of the the pile. I guess this album shares a kinship with other recent releases such as Four Tet's Beautiful Rewind, the past few Burial EPs, and Shape Worship's A City Remembrancer (and, to a lesser extent, Millie & Andrea's Drop the Vowels, and even some of the stuff Dean Blunt has done over the past few years) in that it uses tropes from early-'90s British hardcore and pirate radio, yet utilises them and puts them together in ways that deliberately obfuscate their origins, in the process creating a yearning and romanticised version of the music it pays tribute to. This is an album that merges a very foggy, grey, melancholy, distinctly British atmosphere with a much more mischievous bent, full of flickering, lighthearted nods to early jungle. Rolling sub-bass and fragments of breakbeats snake in and out of a dense, almost sleepy layer of reverb and static, recalling Burial if deconstructed even further, and managing to conjure that same sense of human longing that Bevan's music so often does. Whilst this is heavy, gloomy stuff, Loizou makes sure the listener never strays too far from the party, and there's significant joy to be had in waiting to see how a particularly hazy, gargling drone is going to be transformed into a brash (if always tasteful) piece of rave nostalgia, be it through sweeping, overwhelmingly gorgeous strings, or through bitcrushed pads skittering away and forming into familiar, welcome drum'n'bass patterns. Her bass-heavy, oceanic drone isn't necessarily anything new, and neither is her desire to connect with the music of UK dancefloors gone by, but the way in which she melds the two feels unique and genuinely exciting, whilst also feeling very current in its abstracting of more straightforward strands of dance music. It's hypnotic, and at its very best it brings to mind the fragmented memories of half-hearing music drift through asbestos-riddled ceilings into balcony smoking areas. It's not necessarily my favourite album of the year (although it isn't far off), but it is a record that I feel could definitely appeal to a fairly broad cross-section of users here, and one that I feel hasn't received the acknowledgement it deserves, either here or more generally across the internet.

Label: Kathexis (which was, to my surprise, also home to previous ALC pick Douve by Ehnahre)

For fans of: Burial, Four Tet, Shackleton, Millie & Andrea, Goldie, Massive Attack, kode9

Best listened to: at night, alone, glowstick and whistle in hand, preferably in a haze of hash smoke

Stream it: over yonder

Enjoy, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, positive or otherwise.