V Music Reviews #1: The Field
As a writing exercise, and a way to filter through all the music I try to listen to, I am periodically going to review some music here. It won’t review every album I check out, but instead it will be by career. Often times I like to try to listen to the career of an artist, esp. if I am interested in their new album but have not heard their earlier stuff (or even if I do know the earlier stuff, I like the refresher of hearing them all together). In those instances when I do that, I will share my thoughts.
First up, The Field. The Field is an electronic music artist from Sweden, who has released two albums, From Here We Go Sublime (2007) and Yesterday And Today (2009). He’s also remixed a bunch of songs for people, the only one I know is a killer remix of Thom Yorke’s “Cymbal Rush.”
There are a number of reasons that I particularly enjoy The Field. First, The Field may get easily tossed into a genre I don’t particularly enjoy–electronic techno instrumentals. However, this ignores that he is both quite ambient (a style I do like) and has his own personal style (which also helps immensely). His ambient techno is very warm and inviting, in most cases. His style is to take tiny miniscule, unrecognizable samples of songs and manipulate them into a slow moving beat. The songs have a lot of life thanks to the samples, which is great–sometimes ambient things lack this.
Next I feel like the music, somehow, embodies Sweden, not that I’ve ever been there or anything. It’s almost entirely wordless, which can often make an album feel cold. However, there’s a warmth to the coldness, if that makes any sense. Kind of like how I imagine Sweden in the winter.
It is hard to differentiate between The Field’s two records–they both are firmly in his exact same style. I figure I prefer the first, From Here We Go Sublime mainly because there are more tracks at a (relatively) shorter length. Half of Yesterday And Today is made up tracks over 10-minutes long. Also Sublime has the beautiful “Over The Ice,” which is amazing–it uses Kate Bush’s “Under The Ice” as a base (not that one can tell that at all by listening). Yesterday And Today feels slightly livelier (the rhythms are a bit more involved), and maybe when I’m feeling more patient, I’d like it more than the first one. The Field definitely rewards patience, that’s the biggest thing he picks up from ambient music. Regardless, quality-wise and style-wise, both albums are very similar.
Overall, The Field’s style of repeating his throbbing glacier waves is surprisingly inviting, and I was wrong to think I would tire of it by the end of two albums worth. This is warm, pretty music which belies it’s electronic origins.
Here are some videos:
“Over The Ice” (from Here We Go Sublime):
“I Have The Moon, You Have The Internet” (from Yesterday And Today):
Thom Yorke - “Cymbal Rush (The Field Late Night Essen Und Trinken remix)”