Hutch Demouilpied - Otherness
Some albums seem split in two. While this one may come with a remixes disc, the divide doesn’t appear here.
No the fault-lines in the album run through every song, and every “remix”.
The remixes are less than dribbling distance away from the originals and are barely worth investigating beyond the few moments of interest in “Otherworldly” by William Fields, or “Le Voyage” by Making The Noise where the song threatens to suggest a glimmer of electronica or even, whisper this, a beat.
The deep rift which cuts through this album is on the lines between pretentious ambient in the style of (the ludicrously easy to apply) P-Stretch and gorgeous blasts of trumpet.
The architecture of the album is one of rubble - as such it’s barely impressive beyond the first glance of it’s expanse. The noises often feel artificially “found” and manipulated.
“Ambient” music is that by its nature, it’s background noise. It doesn’t invite you to engage with it. It’s there to be ignored. In the soundtrack context this gives us nothing of a narrative, and nothing of conflict - but the trumpet does.
The trumpet on short sweet vingettes such as “Dophinium” have powerful slow burn to them which almost redeems the album. It’s as if the artist didn’t care about the ambient elements, but decided to use them to provide some kind of background canvas for their expert use of the horn. But why include something to be ignored?
IGNORE ME, WHAT COULD I POSSIBLY KNOW. LISTEN AND BUY HERE
Review material supplied by Headphone Commute
