Trentemoller - The Last Resort

[dubman]

it's not really that minimal, which i sort of a frustrating thing about trentemoller i suppose that his remixes are all supposed to be more bangin than his own output, which are these lush but super-slick (for better or worse) multi-layered productions that lay low and skirt the line between craft and being uninspired (a couple of them honestly sound like he's been talking to dirty vegas. i mean MY GODD). he's wearing the minmal mask but he clogs up the songs like an average 'downtempo' group.

booka shade fall in this too, but not as hard and they dont seem to have the pretensions of doing anything more than moderately bringing the funk. their beats sound pretty good, too.

i like minimal at the end of the day but it's such a treacherous alley that i'm thinking about stopping it as the disappointment ratio has gone way high these days... especially with the min2MAX compilation, and how all of these TERRIBLE tracks (like Wink's new one... yes, you heard me, WINK) are being hailed as tremendous when it's some of the stupidest shit i've ever heard.

i'll just crawl in the corner with my matthew dear albums i suppose. they still do it for me after all this time.

[m.g.]

I'm supposed to receive it between 11th - 13th October... can't wait!!!

[BrotherLovesDub]

"i'll just crawl in the corner with my matthew dear albums i suppose. they still do it for me after all this time."

so you need a hammer and a huge sign to pound the point home? to me the trentemoller isn't some gigantic "minimal" masterpiece, but rather a gorgeous downtempo album, much like Blake C's album out on Konvex Konkav years ago, but i'd bet my bottom dollar you don't have that as a reference point.

either way, the Last Resort is a beautiful album. it's not making any statements, it's not saying "look at me i'm hip and now" it's just nice music. thats all, nothing more, nothing less.

[Jason Roth]

Trentemoller is playing October 26th at Cielo in NYC, in case anyone was wondering.

[kid cue]

there's nothing wrong with "just nice music", but that's the kind of music that immediately lends itself to critique. if it's "just" a well-executed genre album then the obvious question is whether that genre's qualities are really worth talking about, or whether the "just nice" record brings to light the genre's inherent (?) limitations. obviously you won't care in the first place if you're a fan of that style, but for others, "just nice" is kind of meaningless, makes assumptions about taste that others aren't necessarily making. i mean, the Crime Mob album was full of "just nice" crunk music, but i don't see dirty.org feeling any of its just niceness.

on the other hand, it's either crossover stuff like Matthew Dear, or whatever the equivalent of a "gigantic masterpiece"-style artist is in minimal (that's kind of the problem i keep hearing, that new "minimal" isn't actually minimal or very maximal, it's just moderate) that could probably push the form and raise expectations beyond this notion of just being good enough ... whatever that means.

[BrotherLovesDub]

the "whatever that means" part of your statement means to me that you don't find the gooey rewarding center of minimal techno that many do. in fact, i'd say you've chosen a fairly good example in matthew dear as the opposing figurehead. i'm going put this into simple american terms. matthew dear makes good tracks but he's all Details magazine. Trentemoller makes good tracks too, but he's Wallpaper magazine. one man can look at a white chair and think, wow, what a plain and boring white chair, i understand it's functionality, but it's quite boring. another man can look at the chair in awe of the craftsmanship and thought taken to create a simple, yet effective chair that is neither oppulent, nor spare. it's quite simply a plain white chair. effortless and satisfied in it's form and function.

[Jason Roth]

Wallpaper sucks, bro. Read Frame.

www.framemag.com

[Drix]

I think Trente is one of the few people who has actually manged to make a album in this genre, whatever genre is, work as an album. The main flaw on many of todays albums are the lack of flow, and Trente did this very well imo. To include the singles as a 2nd cd is another thing i love about the release as he clearly stated that some is for listening, some is for dancing. And he didn't fuck up by sticking it together one one disk and ruin the mood of the album.

Trente mekes me feel good

[kid cue]

Originally Posted by BrotherLovesDub

the "whatever that means" part of your statement means to me that you don't find the gooey rewarding center of minimal techno that many do. in fact, i'd say you've chosen a fairly good example in matthew dear as the opposing figurehead. i'm going put this into simple american terms. matthew dear makes good tracks but he's all Details magazine. Trentemoller makes good tracks too, but he's Wallpaper magazine. one man can look at a white chair and think, wow, what a plain and boring white chair, i understand it's functionality, but it's quite boring. another man can look at the chair in awe of the craftsmanship and thought taken to create a simple, yet effective chair that is neither oppulent, nor spare. it's quite simply a plain white chair. effortless and satisfied in it's form and function.

that's a pretty nice analogy (the chair, not the magazines, because i've never opened either one). i do like minimal techno though, and i'm down with its form + function, but i feel like it functions at different levels too. i like techno when its functionality is sort of awesome and you can't poke any holes in it because it's so machine-relentless. or when it starts to reach outside that functionality without losing it, like that Booka Shade thing. or Red Planet or whatever. but i've been listening to this Trentemoller record and i get the sense that it's very self-referential tech-house, like it uses the standard form and just does a very good job with it, the kind of job that only techno heads are going to care about (meanwhile, any dumbass can appreciate a perfect chair). the lushness, for example, sounds like a very narrowly-defined kind of lushness. and in a way i almost feel like it's just there for its function in the structure of the track, rather than for actually being lush. i guess balance for the sake of balance isn't really enough for me, i want other ideas too. i dunno, maybe i should dl the singles.

that Matthew Dear album, ironically, doesn't do anything for me at all anymore. it sounds kind of gimmicky, so i guess it swings too far the other way.

[dubnobasswithme]

Originally Posted by Drix

To include the singles as a 2nd cd is another thing i love about the release as he clearly stated that some is for listening, some is for dancing. And he didn't fuck up by sticking it together one one disk and ruin the mood of the album.

i was trying to find the words to say the same thing, but i liked the way you phrased this compared to what i was coming up with.

i agree 100%