Re-assessed!
Moderat – Bad Kingdom
In a bout of insomnia the other night, I put on Moderat’s II, the 2013 collaborative followup from Berliners Modeselektor and Apparat.
When it came out, I was a little tepid on II compared to the eponymous debut. At the time, II didn’t seem to me to have any big standout tracks; it’s a bit subtle.
Now, after a proper headphones listen in the dead of darkest night, I am convinced II‘s a GREAT record.
The periodically-beat-skipping monster that is “Milk” takes some time to get shaking, but patience is amply rewarded; its final three minutes of face-melting beauty hit with all the force of avenging atomic angels.
Moderat – Milk
I’ve somehow even retroactively gotten re-obsessed with the first record – in going back to it, I’m finding more details there, and some bits of the album that I originally thought messy, are instead stunning in the ideas and sounds they are juxtaposing. And my favorite Moderat track (and album) keeps changing – always a good sign.
I mean, the deep-diving “Seamonkey” is just stupidly awesome:
Moderat – Seamonkey
I never cared much for Burial’s collaborations with the Spaceape. But if this sort of brilliantly dark dancehall sound is what they were going for, I can’t blame ’em for trying:
Moderat – Slow Match (feat. Paul St. Hilaire)
I’ve often found Modeselektor on their own a little goofy, and Apparat somewhat wispy and insubstantial (though his collaborations are always good – see also Orchestra of Bubbles, his album with Ellen Allien). But Moderat is a case where a collaboration is so much more than the sum of the parts.
Modeselektor seemingly bring the muscle, and Apparat brings the textures and class (he’s a pretty soulful singer too), and they meet in a middle ground that’s both catchy, and future-sounding.
Tracks like “Bad Kingdom” (up top) or “Rusty Nails” make you think they could go the Depeche Mode dark melodic pop route, if they really wanted to:
Moderat – Rusty Nails
I know not everyone here is down with the mashup, and the original Moderat track is terrific on its own; but I dig this Lykke Li mashup quite a bit (and to anyone offended by the accompanying cheesecake photo – well, hey, cheesecake happens).
Moderat – Moderat feat. Lykke Li – A New Error (Laz Arus Bootleg Mix)
They even look like they can more than hold their own in a live setting, something that’s not always easy for electronic artists (love the bobbing umbrellas in front of the stage):
Moderat – Live at Electronic Beats Festival in Podgorica 2014
Moderat – Live in Prague 2014
What records did you originally sleep on, only to be later blown away upon a revisit?
I think some records are only really appreciated by people over a certain age, 25 or 30. Sort of like single malts.
When I was 20 I was a big Stones fan, I loved Beggar’s Banquet and Sticky Fingers and Let it Bleed. I owned Exile but couldn’t really get into it. It seemed muddled, weary, ragged. When you’re 20, it can be tough to see that those things are actually virtues. Somewhere around 25 I saw the light. For the last 20 years now, Exile is the one I play the most, by far.Report
Maybe I should revisit Exile now that I’m older. When I was younger, it just seemed way too same-y, when compared to other the albums you name (I still play Sticky Fingers quite a lot. If I were a rich man I’d get that super-deluxe reissue they put out of it not too long ago, but alas I will have to content myself with Spotify and my old LP.)Report
On another note (see what I did there?):
This struck me a pretty good list. Or maybe from an internet POV it’s an awful one, since it’s not an easy one to nitpick with, since it mostly avoids the pitfall of focusing unduly on one genre (though perhaps metal and hard rock are a bit underrepresented) and at 200 entries, hits a pretty wide swath.
This list is a lot less completist, but still fun.
This one’s for Chris.
This one is NOT for Chris: The Quietus looks back at The Cure’s The Head On The Door thirty years later; the TL; DR is that it’s as perfect a pop album as any released in the 1980’s.Report
Something weird going on with your first three links.
And this whole post is for me (I’m a Moderat fan and a Lykke Li fan).Report
I was just noticing and fixing that. They work now. (I notice you didn’t even bother to check the fourth;-)Report
Actually, I did, though I didn’t read it. You must have fixed it by the time I got to it. Also, it burned a hole in my computer.Report
I’ve kind of gone from being a casual Moderat fan, to obsessed-enough that I am revisiting both Apparat and Modeselektor individually to see if I was previously unduly harsh on them – I listened to the last couple Apparat records last night, and I have a Modeselektor disc coming in the mail.Report
Tell me you’ve seen the wonderful “Amen Break” quasi-documentary on YouTube, so I won’t have to spend the next twenty minutes watching it again by myself instead of working.
ETA: Well, too late.Report
Yup, I think Jaybird and/or I have linked to it from here before.Report
Once it was in “Straight Out of Compton,” its ubiquity became inevitable. More than once I’ve heard people say that the opening beat is the best in hip hop, and it’s a pretty straightforward sampling.
(Also, I’ve had Eazy’s verse memorized since about 1990.)Report
OK, finally watched the Hay video. He turns it into a Hay song, which makes me kinda wish he’d turned it into a Men at Work song.Report
Lot of people in the comments talking about what a good live show he puts on. Guess if he ever comes back through here I need to try to get to that.Report
Looks like he’s in Austin in January.
http://www.colinhay.com/tour/Report
Bought “Sergeant Pepper” when if first came out — probably mostly because everyone else was buying it (I was more Stones/Kinks/Moby Grape). Listened to it. Didn’t think much of it. Got a kick out of the album art.
It must have been twenty years later (ironically enough) that someone played “A Day In the Life” and I went nuts: “Wow! What is that? How did I miss that?”
Embarrassing moments followed. I totally missed it the first time around — and can’t imagine how I did.Report
My Beatles epiphany is still in my future. 😉Report
Moby Grape? That brings back memories.
So does Sgt. Pepper. I remember that I was parking my car near the White Plains federal courthouse when the DJ announced that Sgt. Pepper had been released 25 years ago that day. I did some quick mental math and realized that 25 years before Sgt. Pepper was, say, Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller, both of which I had happened to have listened to more recently than the Beatles. That was the day I realized that I would never be cool again — if I ever was.Report
@glyph At your suggestion I revisited Neon Neon’s Stainless Style. Good advice, sir.Report
That is a ridiculously fun album.Report
Tom Waits. I was so put off by his voice the first time I heard him that I didn’t really hear his music. Listened again as an adult and I feel him, now.Report
Man, I had a roommate that would not stop listening to Tom Waits (and of course, wanted to BE Tom Waits…hat and all).
It kind of put me off Tom Waits for a long while. Did you like that album of Waits covers ScarJo did? I actually thought it was decent, but I guess I’m in the minority.Report
i can’t listen to tom waits. he sounds like he’s making fun of black singers. i know this is my cross to bear but i’m ok with that.
i’ve given ii a re-listen at glyph’s insistence. some of it i like quite a bit, some of it is uh very german guys in tracksuits (aka modselektor) but most of it is quite solid.
the opening track of the first moderat album is perpetually banging, however.
eta: apperat is hit or miss but the devil’s walk is largely perfect and very sad. goodbye is excellent.Report
I was wondering if you liked these guys or not. “Seamonkey” almost sounds to me like old Autechre crossed with (appropriately) Scuba’s Triangulation.Report
i would agree with that. where they lose me are on tracks like sick with it or that horrible horrible busdriver track. jesus that guy sucks. i may not like any of the spaceape kode9/burial stuff, but i wouldn’t stay he was awful at what he did, just that it was above my ability to understand…Report
actually, i’ll double down. anytime i’m listening to anything not explicitly rap, and especially anything from a european producer, i do find myself going “ok i like this, i hope there’s no rapping”.
because it is never, ever good. never.Report
See also: DJ Shadow. On his own, instrumental? Awesome. Backing a rapper? Not so great (why has he never collaborated with someone actually good in that arena?)
“Sick with It” is OK, though. And I really, really like “Slow Match”, that guttural monotone voice is a really neat contrast with the ghostly, billowing chords behind it.
(Side note to all electronic/hip-hop track namers: The appropriate tracknaming nomenclature should be “Song Name, Featuring Guest Star” by “Primary Artist”, and NOT “Song Name” by “Primary Artist, Featuring Guest Star”, which screws up my ability to easily locate your track on my iPod. Also, don’t label your album a “compilation” just because it has a lot of guest stars for the same reason. Please and thank you.)Report
strong pronouncement: dj shadow produced one timeless, legendary album and then a whole bunch of increasingly less timeless, legendary stuff.
slow match is pretty good because the mood matches the vocals.Report