ALC16 #1: Animals by Not Waving

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  • #1
  • Posted: 02/08/2016 07:33
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Animals by Not Waving
Label: Diagonal Records
Release Date: February 5th, 2016

My selection for the first entry in the 2016 Album Listening Club comes to us from Italian born, UK based artist Alessio Natalizia.

I'm curious to hear what you guys think of it, because while this is a sort of minimal synth dance album, I think this has a wider appeal than whatever small niche that is, by virtue of it's synthesis of acid and post-punk. Now I don't want to mislead you here and say that the post-punk elements are totally at the forefront here. Though the fourth track does have singing and sounds sort of like something Liars could eventually end up at. The album starts pretty innocently, but on the second track the combination of sounds starts to get a little clear with the combination of squelching synth and guitar, and we're off to the races.

I don't think this is a perfect album by any means, or even my favorite of the year so far. The full dive into acid on I Know I Know I Know can feel a bit too consistent and might be a bit of a hurdle, and the ambient breather strikes me as a bit overlong. And the last track (before the two digital bonus ones) is a bit of an odd curveball in the sort of mood that the melody goes for on top of the sample of Oliver Sacks talking about creationism. But I have still found this a highly listenable album, I got it on Friday and I'm already up to 5 listens. I think this is a really fresh sound that a lot of people could find appealing.

But... that's where you come in! Am I wrong to think this has appeal beyond it's niche? Did you like it/do you see yourself as being inclined to like an album of electronic dance music? Is this sound actually regressive in it's application of style? Let's have at it. I'll go a bit deeper on my thoughts here as we go, but I'd be curious to hear from you all before I start getting into that.

The album can be streamed on Spotify, and you can check the single 24 right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1wCN1oM4zY
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RockyRaccoon
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  • #2
  • Posted: 02/08/2016 16:06
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I liked it. It was pretty accessible for what it was, and had this really great ominous, dark feel to it, while simultaneously being fairly upbeat. Personally, I liked the last track, I thought Oliver Sacks' little monologue worked pretty well and kind of felt like a punctuation mark at the end of the album, I thought that track kind of felt like a vital organ of the body of this album.

Good stuff Tap! Thanks!
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Satie





  • #3
  • Posted: 02/08/2016 18:31
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Having a really hard time parsing my feelings on this one. It's surely eclectic, and everything here is definitely competent, which is impressive given the stylistic variation from ambient to more straight-ahead dance music to that post-punk track you mentioned to the more progressive electronic lush epic synth bits that bookend the record with "Head Body" and the closer. There's a clear industrial rock/post-punk flavor to it, and I like that stuff well enough. It scratches all the right itches. But I still feel sort of unconvinced by it. The middle part drags quite a bit, and I think you could toss a handful of tracks from the center and have a pretty impressive mini-LP or EP or something. I also think I'd be much more taken with a full album of one of these styles than one trying to incorporate all of them, 'cause it comes off as more of a demo reel in this case. I also find myself comparing each track or group of tracks as the case may be to better artists in those genres or who have done such combinations themselves (Liars and "Tomorrow We Will Kill You" being the most obvious one) because there's no over-arching themes or motifs. Overall, definitely can see myself picking this up again and definitely liked it for what it was, but feel like it could have been so much more with a bit of focus and/or a bit of trimming. "I Know I Know I Know" and "Work Talk" are certifiable bangers.
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mickilennial
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  • #4
  • Posted: 02/08/2016 19:36
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I seem to have gone back and forth with this one this morning. While there are songs I really like (“Believe”, “I Know I Know I Know”, “Face Attack”) there is a lot that doesn’t leave me with as strong of an impression. I feel the minimal synth-type tracks are less of my bag than the more direct ‘dancier’ type ones. I’m not sure how to dissect my thoughts beyond that, though. I’ll be sure to relisten based on the three tracks I like a lot though.
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benpaco
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  • #5
  • Posted: 02/08/2016 20:14
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Not a bad album as a whole, and it definitely seems to get weirder as it progresses. "Presenza Immobile" was the only track I was really taken aback by that much, just because it has such a feeling of total discomfort, but I like the almost horror club music of "Work Talk" and "24". I think the album as a whole might've worked better for me if it picked a style and stuck with it, those squealy moments on those last two tracks I mentioned give this something unique to work with but others really fall flat. I think especially "Believe" is just so incredibly generic and "They Cannot Be Replaced" is so incredibly unnecessary, I don't know if I can see myself revisiting an album with that weak a start and end compared to the middle.
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  • #6
  • Posted: 02/09/2016 06:34
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Thanks for checking this out guys, guess I underestimated you all in being down for the heavy acid of I Know I Know I Know. I feel you guys who mentioned that a smaller more focused release could've been preferable, but I think I like this better with the diffused focus, even if I'm not enthusiastic about some of the turns. I don't know maybe it's acid in particular, but when I'm just getting laid into with it unrelentingly I get numb to it really quick, and I need the breathers to be ready for the heavier stuff.

One thing I'd be curious about is what you guys think of this being tagged as Progressive Electronic on RYM? I don't really think that fits. I don't know if I'd say it's exactly regressive, maybe neutralgressive. But the relative simplicity in timbres and mechanical rigidity of this music feels counter to a lot of what's going on in the boundary pushing electronic music coming out these days. But I think that's what gives this music it's vitality, like I feel like the sound Powell is trying to build on Diagonal Records is electronic music with a punk sort of spirit, and I think this music has it and works as a healthy contrast to the more boundary pushing stuff. Tho the closer is so not punk (though I'm on board with it now), maybe I'm just talking nonsense. I think there is something to this though, and that it really isn't progressive electronic.

So did you guys listen to the bonus tracks? It's kind of weird because they just come on after the real ending for me, I think I should try to incorporate them into the tracklist? I thought they were both pretty solid and could probably work better somewhere inside.
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undefined





  • #7
  • Posted: 02/09/2016 06:46
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y'all are nuts with the lukewarm reactions here this is some of the best shit I've heard all year
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Satie





  • #8
  • Posted: 02/09/2016 06:53
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Tap wrote:
One thing I'd be curious about is what you guys think of this being tagged as Progressive Electronic on RYM? I don't really think that fits. I don't know if I'd say it's exactly regressive, maybe neutralgressive. But the relative simplicity in timbres and mechanical rigidity of this music feels counter to a lot of what's going on in the boundary pushing electronic music coming out these days. But I think that's what gives this music it's vitality, like I feel like the sound Powell is trying to build on Diagonal Records is electronic music with a punk sort of spirit, and I think this music has it and works as a healthy contrast to the more boundary pushing stuff. Tho the closer is so not punk (though I'm on board with it now), maybe I'm just talking nonsense. I think there is something to this though, and that it really isn't progressive electronic.


Progressive Electronic on RYM doesn't mean progressive electronic music - it refers specifically to the synthesizer-heavy, looser-form electronic music of more open-ended Kraftwerk stuff like Autobahn, Klaus Schulze, etc. I think it's an imperfect label for this release, but I think this does have sort of a grand take on electronic music in that way, the free-floating synth lines are definitely there, and with the RYM genre-tagging system allowing for secondaries to clarify a bit, I think it's probably the widest term for the release as a whole that should then be supplemented with post-punk (or dance punk? do they use that for Liars?) and acid house along with the minimal synth secondary they have now.

I also know what you mean about wanting the breathers, and that's why I hesitate to really prescribe a more focused and honed release. I know that the couple of acid house tracks here could be the A side to an acid house EP that I would listen to once and completely forget about, or they could be stand-outs in a really eclectic album. It's hard to fault Not Waving for presenting the material this way, especially since they're so competent in all these fields. I think the thing for me is that I definitely feel fatigued by the end and don't know where to cut. I hardly see the role of the audience/critic to be to piece together a superior work from the materials the artist has presented, but I think it's interesting to put it generally for now before I get a chance to listen to this again that this album brings out that tendency in me and apparently others. What about it screams out in need of some adjustment? I'm thinking maybe with anticipation of the turns to come, the album might lay itself out more as signposting the directions it's going in, so I'm hopeful for that.
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  • #9
  • Posted: 02/09/2016 07:28
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Satie wrote:
[...]I think it's interesting to put it generally for now before I get a chance to listen to this again that this album brings out that tendency in me and apparently others. What about it screams out in need of some adjustment? I'm thinking maybe with anticipation of the turns to come, the album might lay itself out more as signposting the directions it's going in, so I'm hopeful for that.


I'm not sure, but that's definitely something I'm thinking about. Because I am super into this album and would be throwing it on day after day even without this thread, but all the while I have thought about tinkering and I really normally don't. I think my main issue might boil down to the 2nd half, the shorter length, like Gutsy is over so quick and then it feels like we jump into something way different with Face Attack that I don't end up feeling the impact of Gutsy, which seems especially crucial coming out of the ambient middle. I don't know, it's something I'll be thinking about for sure. I am gonna try my next listen with the bonus tracks in the mix there to try and change how that section works for me. But even with all my nitpicking here I'm still feeling really strongly for this album.
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Satie





  • #10
  • Posted: 02/09/2016 07:32
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Yeah, I barely noticed "Gutsy" on my first play-through. I think that the stark transitions the album makes are interesting, but sometimes the transitions are actually being blunted by a certain amount of kinda dead space like that track, and it makes me feel like you could get the same impact without making me sit through a 50 minute album.
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