Ernula x Culian - here's something for none of us

(05 Jul 2011)

Here's something I was not expecting... Cheap beginning joke aside, I really wasn't expecting much from this album. Well, I had no idea what to expect, really. I have virtually no experience in electronic music beyond some Won James Won, some Aphex Twin and a bit of Pendulum. What I was least expecting, though, was to enjoy the album. In other words, I was expecting to listen to some absolute crap. Bizarre crap, but crap nevertheless. After listening to it a few times, I have a new esteem for the musicians on RYM.

The album starts out with an imperfect, uncertain, yet also determined sounding voice sample. Soon, we are also introduced to a simple drum beat that eventually begins to fit the sample, which successfully introduces the listener to the sound that the album will be offering, and this sound and the way it interacts with the music is what makes the album truly interesting. For most of its length, here's something for none of us, with its minimalistic and unrefined instrumentation provides a feeling like the music is creating itself rather than a creator of the music existing. If this album had good production values or a "full" sound, the songs just wouldn't work. As it is, though, it really sets the right atmosphere for the songs.

Still I feel this could have been much better. The album seems to be divided in two main parts: the first four songs, and the last three. Then, they are connected by "glitchout", which ends up not really connecting the halves, but making the album fall apart a little. The first four songs are like a creation of music out of chaos and void, eventually reaching a point of self destruction, leaving rest of the album with a desolate atmosphere. Therefore, "glitchout", to me, seems a little out of place, and really damages the flow of the album.

Otherwise, the strange idea of creation evoked by "ナナナ塊魂リミックス" and "ability of the selfish", the idea of destruction on "kuchi ya seieki karera no me ni wa watashi wa seikō no mesu inu" and "here's a 10 second song sampling some shitty anime you've probably never seen", and the way "beach" evokes an atmosphere of absolute desolation, abandonment and isolation, only emphasized by the contrasting "hypnotic" and the accentuating "limbo", make it an album definitely worth listening, maybe not for its musical ideas, but for the atmosphere the music implements. This will definitely be in my iPod for some time.

Standout tracks:

ナナナ塊魂リミックス
ability of the selfish
beach