Swayzak – Dirty Dancing 6.4

I think this album solidifies my credentials as someone who hung out with too much Eurotrash. Yet, despite its humble origins of wanting to be trashy dance music, it actually works on another, darker level. This is music to listen to before you do your dirty deeds. Hell, it is virtually the soundtrack of bad behavior. 

                “Make Up Your Mind” doesn’t give you an idea of the album at all. It is a misleading opening track; a better introduction would’ve been “Buffalo Seven”. No worries, none of these songs will make you think. That’s not their intention. Rather, they want to capture what happens when someone’s in a bit of a foul mood and has had one too many to drink.

                Yeah, the lyrics are definitely the low point of the album. Avoid absorbing their general cheesiness. The construction of each track is the real draw, how the layers are so well done, so smooth. Pace is the trick, the timing is right. Songs like “Celcius” avoid the awful lyrics. 

                “I dance alone” is the highlight. Here, you get decent enough lyrics (they don’t make you shudder) and the buildup is excellent. A groove forms and the beat is such Eurotrash yet oddly likable.

                By no means is this essential. It isn’t ambitious at all. As a guilty pleasure, you could do far worse. Just please try your best to tune out those dreadful lyrics.

Anders Ilar – Cellular Memories EP 6.1

If I had any advice to give about this EP, it would be the following: skip the first two tracks. Those reek of lame hand-claps and stale pacing. Retro is a big sound right now, but they aren’t retro, they just sound amateurish. Ping sounds on the second track confirm it isn’t used in a particularly novel way.

Skip immediately to “Ulterior Motives” which is very creative. Taking some heavy stabs and re-configuring them is extremely creative. After it has been rearranged, the customary beats come in. Sure, some of those feel a bit overused, but that’s alright. Arrangement-wise, it works perfectly and that’s why it is the highlight of the album.

The end “Ocean Sonata” doesn’t work as well. Essentially, it goes on too long, in some epic song form, but the quality of the tune doesn’t lend itself well. In other words, it gets boring eventually. But it is still better than the first two tracks.

Anders has an idea of what he is doing. But it seems like if he did better editing of his material, perhaps working on avoiding a lot of techno cliques, it would be infinitely better. “Ulterior Motives” and, to a lesser extent “Ocean Sonata” work specifically because of this.