Tristeza – Mixed Signals
I’m a huge fan of sleep. There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing better. Nothing better than a 19 hour slumber, which usually results in an unholy dreamlike haze (in which some people call “headaches”, but I digress) that I’ve somehow over the course of my existence, associated it as a “good thing“.
However, in those 19 hours, much of it cultivates in the heaven known as REM sleep and then there’s the small portion in the beginning of sleep in which you feel drowsy, still conscious and fully aware that the next three-quarters plus day will be devoted in achieving REM sleep.
But what’s in between? The time in which you can be considered unconscious but not yet in REM is utterly useless. It doesn’t make you feel good nor does it make you anticipate for the “feeling good” portion to occur. And that’s what Tristeza’s remix album titled (somewhat uncleverly) Mixed Signals can be associated with. Shitty sleep music. No REM and no anticipation of it.
Track 3’s “I am a Cheetah” starts off well enough in a fuzzy haze then breaking off into a tidy swirling melody of xylophone-soft synth keyboards & bells, but it goes horribly awry when you suddenly realize that it could pass for a soundtrack in a 16-bit adventure video game fit for the Super Nintendo. The only distinguishing feature is its dirty and highly syncopated fuzzy beats, which comes from nowhere… seemingly (not always a bad thing, please refer to Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James, for further elaboration). Now I said “comes from nowhere”, which is not parallel to unpredictable, it’s anything but. It’s predictable because of its unpredictability, as you know the song has gone on far too long (the track runs at around 6 minutes) without something to happen. So you wait for it and ultimately you get it, which becomes disappointing. Then again, if nothing did happen, it just becomes vacant… it’s a lose-lose situation.
Much of the album revolves around Tristeza’s inability to provide something that could be considered a payoff, be it a culmination of melody, a unique melody that strays from garden variety-like Arpeggios, beats that take you for a wild ride, or even something that you can ignore. The high production values make the album sound too clean, too empty of life, and too much simple mindless repetition. I only wish I could class this as Electronic Fuckery, but I can’t. To its credit, it has created a whole new sub-genre (in my head, of course) which I can only call Fuckery, which no one appreciates.
But there is a bit of a bonus in the album where Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins appears on “Are we People” that features some highly understated pentatonic-based guitar (!) work. Alas, no Elizabeth Fraser here, but it is something.
I guess what I can liken this to is the hidden track in Radiohead’s Kid A at the end of Motion Picture Soundtrack which left most people scratching their heads and going, “Okay then… that was unnecessary.” Mixed Signals is a full 51 minutes long with Radiohead’s hidden track already clocking in at 1 minute. But hey, for some people sleep is sleep, it’s linear… or you can try to delude yourself so.
- Tristeza – Mixed Signals
- by Terence Leung
- Published on February 1st, 2002
- Artist:
- Tristeza
- Album:
- Mixed Signals
- Label:
- Tigerstyle
- When:
- February 2002
More from Terence Leung:
-
The Breast Police
Cleavage is evil and makes you look like a corner store hooker with an overly hospitable party zone..
-
Tristeza – Mixed Signals
I’m a huge fan of sleep. There’s nothing like it. There’s nothing better. Nothing better than a 19 hour slumber, which usually results in an unholy dreamlike haze (in which some people call “headaches”, but I digress) that I’ve somehow over the course of my existence, associated it as a “good thing“.
However, in those 19 … -
Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
With the alternative-tortured soul-rock music market in the UK well covered by Mercury Cold Prize pets Travis, Beth Orton, Starsailor, Elbow, David Gray, Turin Brakes and company; certain conventions can be placed on what Jack Black’s character Barry from High Fidelity called “Old Sad Bastard Music.”
There are rules that are very stringent and deviants will … -
Interview: Public Enemy’s Chuck D
..In an online interview arranged by their new label Koch International two weeks ago along with a panel of journalists, we chatted with Chuck D about Public Enemy’s new album Revolverlution, hip-hop’s future, record labels and Michael Jackson.
-
Remy Zero – The Golden Hum
Maybe it will take ‘The Golden Hum’ to shake off Remy Zero’s unofficial title of “Hey! It’s that band whose lead singer was married to Alyssa Milano!” but unfortunately it probably won’t. But hey, Ozzy Osborne is still known as “That british guy who bites the heads of bats on stage” so as far as …
-
Beth Orton – Daybreaker
Goosebumps. That is what the album opens with: big, gigantic, and spiky Goosebumps. Headlines should read: Huzzah! Melody not yet dead! Long Live The Orton of Beth! And they will, well… at least here they will.
The 51-minute Daybreaker launches with the haunting Paris Train, which fits the smoldering backdrop with a rickety train percussion track …
Other recent features:
-
Sónar 2010 – Barcelona, Spain
The festival attracts a lot of outsiders, but the Mediterranean, Spanish and more specifically Catalan nature of the people makes the festival what it is. Catalan people are passionate and this passion is infectious. The atmosphere is electric in Barcelona as a city and heightened by music and intoxicants at Sónar.
-
Summer Party Naval Styles at Seven RestoLounge
Oysters, like wine are affected by terroir and these Miyagi’s flavor profiles ranged with one showing a cleaner, almost tropical profile and the other being more salty, marine driven. As I was devouring the seemingly endless plates put in front of us, I sipped on a glass of fine sauvignon blanc.
-
R4NT Radio March 2010
R4NT Radio March 2010 um wow it’s been far too long since the last edition edition, featuring: Hector Hernandez, The Infesticons, Blockhead, Gramatik, Emika, Thunderheist, Parov Stelar, Eddy Meets Yannah, Anti-Pop Consortium, The Slew, Lighterthief, Andreya Triana, Parasyte Woman, Mathon, Venetian Snares, and Funki Porcini.
-
O Restaurant & Lounge revisited
Calgary has a diverse set of urban communities, most of which have the ubiquitous strip mall watering hole. In the South West community of Marda Loop, a reinvention of this paradigm has been established.
-
Predictions 2010.. and beyond!
So 2010 eh? Almost but not quite (no year zero they say) another decade? It seems like just yesterday that the world was waiting for Y2K. R4NT started publishing in March 2001, so we’re not quite 10 years old yet, but in internet years we are already a senior citizen.
-
Invictus
No matter what, the reality of Nelson Mandela is something that deserves screen time. Should this film even remotely intrigue the masses to take interest in this figure, the world would likely benefit greatly from it.