POP is the 4th album by electronic music project GAS released in March of 2000- after slowly building a reputation with his first few records, POP is released- so how good is it?
So GAS is a project I've been quietly aware of for a while- after initially being exposed to the project from the excellently crafted Deep Cuts mini-documentary , the project found it's way onto my ever growing "oh yeah, I've been meaning to check that out" list- and I've now finally gotten round to it. So what's it like?
I think, firstly, it's important to contextualise this album- the 90's and early 2000s was an extremely exciting time for electronic music. Boards of Canada had released their hallmark Music has the right to children in '98, Aphex twin had been blazing a path with his Selected ambient works as well as a whole host of other branches of electronic music, so at the turn of the century, after making records beforehand, Wolfgang Voigt (the mastermind behind gas) releases POP- a 65 minute ethereal yet wholly worldly record.
I'll probably deviate from my normal song by song structure for this review- not only because I don't think it'd the record justice, but also because the tracks are all untitled- and not purely because I don't want to keep saying "and now we're on untitled 6, etc", but more because this record feels like it's meant to be considered as a whole rather than individual tracks- the divisions being more musical formalities. Also because this record feels like a living, breathing thing- from the bright, dense greenery of the record's cover to the intermittent reverse cymbal samples that evoke the intakes of breath, as well as the layered nature recording and flowing water. The repetitiveness of parts of the record make it extremely easy to get absolutely lost in the album, as if the listener is wandering lost in the forest pictured on the album cover.
The individual tracks on the album all largely sound quite similar- featuring the aforementioned nature recordings, and similar sorts of soundscapes. The tracks all focus around normally quite a simple melodic riff or motif or manipulated sample, which adds to the repetitiveness I mentioned earlier. The record doesn't have any percussion until about 20 minutes in, and even then it's this muted kick drum beat, almost like a heart beat, tying the track together. That 4th track is nearly 10 minutes long and it's not boring for a second.
The second half of the record opens on this quietly uplifting piece- the music has an incredible fluidity to it, layers swim around in the mix, it evokes the feeling over bathing in a warm stream in the sun with how the electronics form themselves, the track just feels so easy to get lost in. The record's final track is 14 minutes and has by far the most solid beat to it- even if it is just a kick and hi hat oscillating back and forth, it creates enough of a rhythm where you'll start bobbing your head up and down without even realising. The track has a certain darkness to it too- it almost feels like dusk, in a way, as if the sun is slowly setting over the horizon and the beat represents some kind of urgency. Again, despite being over 14 minutes in length, the track is steadfastly not dull! From the opener to the final moment, this record displays a defiant commitment to an aesthetic and an idea, and executes it brilliantly. A record well worth checking out for ambient music fans.
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